Stitchin' Him Up

Friday night was (shockingly) another adventurous night for us.  Quinn had a friend over for a sleep-over, so we headed over to Fiery Faces to check out all the pumpkins, and then we drove around to check out all the spooky houses in town.

Everything was going swimmingly when we got the boys upstairs to put their jammies on.  Quinn was getting a bit silly so I took him into our bathroom to have a chat.   Here's where everything went horribly wrong.  He slipped on some water on the floor and fell head first into the step of our bath.  He immediately started screaming and blood was pouring out of his head.

Oh yeah - I probably should have put a disclaimer at the beginning of this post:  this post is graphic and gross in nature.  Viewer discretion is advised.

We quickly realized that he split his head open right at the hair line.  We tried to put some steri-strips on to close the wound but they wouldn't stick because of his hair.

Sooo..... of to Emerg we went.

Here's Quinn sitting in the waiting room:

Here was the wound itself:

As an FYI - I typically don't photograph my kids injuries.  I mean really - they're gross enough in the moment, so who actually wants to immortalize it?  Well, apparently Quinn did because he really, really, wanted to see the cut.  EWWWWW!!!

After a little waiting the Dr took a look at him and said: "Yep, we're going to have to stitch that up."


Now let me tell you a little something about Quinn as a patient:  to put it bluntly...... he's not good.  He doesn't like going to the Dr, Dentist, or anywhere else where people poke and prod him.    So you can imagine his reaction to the thought of getting stitches. 


I said to the Dr. "He's not going to cooperate" to which he responded: "Don't worry, we have our ways."  (that would have been the perfect point for him to off-load an evil laugh, but he didn't.)


After holding some numbing gel on the wound for 20 minutes (which was oohhh so much fun) the real fun began.


They found the largest nurse around and she put Quinn in a 'blanket burrito' to hold him still.  She then proceeded to lie on him, while a paramedic held his legs. 


The doctor started to stitch and Quinn started thrashing and screaming.  The Dr. looked at me and said: "I don't think the gel worked so I'm going to have to freeze it."  He then grabbed a needle and froze the area... all while Quinn continued to scream.


Let me explain a little bit about me.  I'm not a particularly squeamish person, but I do NOT like blood, gore, gashes etc.  I like watching my child writhe in agony and scream even less.  Needless to say, while the stitching was going on, I was standing next to Quinn bawling my eyes out.


Three stitches later and the Dr was done.  Quinn immediately jumped into my arms and buried his head in my shoulder.  But after a minute or two he was good to go, and was quite proud of the fact that he was the first child in our family to get stitches.  (the stitches have to be good for something right?)


Luckily the stitches are dis-solvable so we don't have to worry about pulling them out - which would be another adventure in and of itself.


So there you have it.... the first child to get stitches.  Make sure to mark it down in the record books!