ALERT: If you are squeamish, you have been warned. But if you are a parent, you have
probably see it all.
This is my six year old daughter Maisie. She is the perfect mixture of sassy and sweet with a big dollop of dramic on top. She is a pretty cool kid and very outgoing. I'm actually surprised she got so hurt on something so, let's say boring.
A few days back the kids had off of school for Election Day. It was a petty normal day and she went out tomolY with her friend at their house.
A little while later I hear her screaming and running to our house. Sometimes, like I said earlier, she can be a bit dramatic. But this time, she had every right to be screaming like a crazy person.
I slowly got up from my desk since, again, I did not expect anything. My husband yells, Oh my God, what happened and asks me for a towel quickly. I go to get a towel and come back and there is blood everywhere, on her shirt, face, arms and hands. She is screaming and crying and I am trying to keep cool.
We cleaned around the wound so we could see how bad it was and came to the conclusion, we need to take her to the urgent care, this is bad.
I washed her hands and arms since they were covered in blood and got her a clean paper towel to hold against her chin. I calmly got her in the car and drove to the urgent care facility which is about 5 minutes away.
Found a mask in my car and rushed her in. They were so great and took her back immediately, didn't even ask her name or what happened, just got her to a room.
That is when the real fun began(said in a sarcastic tone). She would not move her hands from her face, she was terrified to let the doctor see the wound making it very difficult to treat. It took about 45 minutes before she settled down enough for the doctor to even look at it.
Once cleaned we got the news we were expecting, she is going to need stitches.
Thankfully the doctor was very aware of the wording to use as we needed to keep Maisie calm to sew up her chin.
I absolutely hate this part of parenting, the lying for their own good. I know if I told her, hey kid, your going to get a needle jammed in your face to numb it so they can poke a sewing needle threw your skin, it would have resulted in screaming and running out the door with no return and a bleeding wound, infection, surgery and massive scarring in the next few days. So lying was necessary and we must do it even though we hate it.
Ok, back to the story. So, with a settled little girl watching Beauty and Beast on the TV in the triage room, the doctor was able to gain Maisies trust with dabbing the wound with gauze. She held my had tight and I told her to close her eyes, then the doctor stuck the numbing solution in the open cut, little by little until she was able to get it all the way in. She did it so perfectly that Maisie thought she was only cleaning with water and gauze until it was fully numbed. Yes, I did get a bit squeamish as my job was to make sure Maisie kept her eyes closed.
Then the stitches began. We continued to lie to the child until she realized after the second stitch that we we "needling" her. She freaked out and tried to get off the table. We reassured her that she has not felt a thing so far and only had one to go, but at this point mama was not doing too great. I was feeling a little hot and then the feeling like the room was closing in on me. I knew this feeling all too well, but I had to keep it together, ONE MORE STITCH.
I asked for a cup of water, like I was going to give it Maisie. I did offer it to her and she said no, so I downed that cup. Didn't work too well, but I kept it together holding her hand and making sure her eyes were closed. With each loop of the stitch, I got hotter and hotter and felt a bit woozy. I was holding on for the last loop to just sit down. The doctor noticed that the color had left my face and asked if I was ok, and my answer was a definite, no, I think I need to sit down. She called for an ice pack and made me sit down.
My poor baby was now worrying about me. I laid down next to her on the table with the ice pack on my forehead as they put the bandage on her chin and gathered the paperwork. They did not let us leave until the color was back and I felt okay to leave.
This was the first time I witnessed one of my kids in this type of situation. We have had small cuts and bruises and Max had a green stick fracture once, which Carlos took Max to the doctor for. This affected
me much more than I expected and knowing I had to keep it together until the end was a challenge. I had to be the strong one and I crumbled.
Part Two: Removal of Stitches
Five days passes and we kept the stitches clean and dry, I didn't even bathe her for the entire time (ok, maybe that was not necessary, but trying to fight with a six year old about trying to keep it dry and then telling her she needs a bath was not worth the time and effort).
I called early in the morning to get an appointment. I was informed that they were on a Skelton crew but could get us in later that day and sit for the text message and make our any open. So we did as we were told. I got that text message, grabbed our shoes and head out the door, only to wait an hour in the waiting room. Ugh. At least they had Alice in Wonderland movie on the tv.
We hard the magic words we had been waiting for, "Maisie". We jumped up and ran to the door. They took her vitals and then off to the triage room again. Thankfully, we knew this room rather well, so she felt comfortable in the familiar location. When the doctor finally entered the room, it was a different doctor. You can see the fear bubble up in Maisie's face. I assured her everything will be fine and this won't take too long and we will be out the door and get our pizza!
Boy as I wrong. The stitches were stuck under the scab, making the removal rather difficult. Again, my job was to keep her calm and not look at the scissors. In order to loosen the stitches and not reopen the wound, she had to dab hydrogen peroxide on Maisie's chin. The doctor was so diligent that I started getting annoyed and anted the rip the damn stitches out myself. The third stitch was the worst, it took forever, I mean like 20 minutes just to get one stitch out. But when it was finally done...
Thankfully there was not potential for passing out this time. They put a band-aid on the cut and then she asked for them to do her blood pressure, a bit of a strange request, but they obliged. We walked into the waiting room and it was like daggers staring back at us. All those sick people had to wait until we were done to get seen. It was a bit like night of the living dead and all I wanted to do was get away from the zombies.
Mama and baby girl had quite an adventure and she is healing very nicely.
I have become one of those people since having kids to become very calm in tense situations. Maybe that is why I can keep my cool in my job when doing events. Never let them see you sweat, or pass out. I know that if I give off nervous or scared energy, they will react to that vibe and things can get bad real fast. Yes, we did have to wait out the initial fear of getting stitches, but she did it.
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