First Stitches

We finally had our first injury emergency visit for the boys.  Not bad considering that Tyler is 4.5 and William is almost 2.5 and how active they are.  I was right on which kid would be the first to get stitches or a broken bone, William.  Thankfully it is only stitches!!

After physical therapy today we went to the yarn shop, Apple Valley Yarn Company, to get some yarn and pick up my block of the month pattern.  The boys were there normal selves, looking at everything and running around a little bit.  While we were checking out they were up in the open area by the door, we don’t know for sure what happened but think that William tripped (not an uncommon occurrence) and fell face first onto the rug.  He split his lower lip open pretty good and deep.  I am amazed that it didn’t go all the way through.  Russ went to see what happened since he immediately started screaming, not normal with a fall for him.  He immediately brought William to me and all I saw was a mouth full of blood.  I asked where the bathroom was and started trying to calm him and clean him up.  I could see how deep it was.

Then came the decision as to where to go to have him looked at.  From my ER experience I was pretty sure that he would need stitches, though the yarn shop owner didn’t think so.  I figured it was worth the co-pay to be sure that it didn’t need stitches.  My first thought was to take him to the ER, but then I realized that it was really more an urgent care stitches, than ER stitches.  But which urgent care/ Med Express – Bay City or State Street?  I decided that State Street was closer to where we were, so that is where we headed even though I wasn’t exactly sure where it was or how to get there at that moment.  Don’t laugh at me those who are familiar with the area, I am not.  I know roads, but not always road names or how they fit together.  Thanks Lydia for confirming where I thought it was.

We didn’t have to wait long at Med Express.  As we walked in the nurse had one of the doctors look at his lip and ask his opinion on sutures – definitely.  William did really well with the sutures the first time, yes, the first time.  He even seemed to fall asleep as she finished.  He ended up with 5.  Tyler was very good as well and curious about the whole thing.

On the way home, he was not too aggressively playing with the sutures with his fingers and teeth.  Somehow he managed to pull out one of the stitches and untie a second one.  Of course they were the most visible ones and could leave the most cosmetic damage if not sutured.  So we turned around and headed back to Med Express.  I called to make sure that we needed to go back, since we were already in Freeland (again).  Yes, since it was gaping a little bit and the most visible area of injury.

He didn’t do as well the second time.  He wanted to lay down on the table himself instead of having me hold him.  Too bad I didn’t figure out what he was trying to communicate until we were all done, it would have made it much easier the second time.  He kept patting the paper.  The doctor ended up putting 3 more sutures in with longer tails since William was fighting and screaming so bad.  Tyler wanted to come over and hold his head and try to help comfort him.  I didn’t like how the nurse held his head still either, I am sure that just scared him more.  You could see the terror in his eyes that time.

After we were all done, he sat on the table for a while and calmed down.  He is eating and drinking well, even ate chicken nuggets and french fries (yes, fries with a cut lip).  We are to keep him with a straw for a day or two to help with comfort and healing.  Now to get him and Tyler to take naps (that is whole nother blog post).