Stitches

11 years with kids and we finally experienced our first set of stitches. We would have bet that it would be Zack who was the one to get all the injuries, but not this time...it was Brylee. And before she is even 2 years old. Am I worried? Slightly. Maybe I am just less paranoid now with 5 kids. I take full responsibility for not seeing it coming. So what happened? Short version...she got cut with a knife. Long version...keep reading.

I was rinsing dishes and loading the dishwasher. Brylee, being as helpful as she is...pushed over a stool to the sink and climbed up for the assist. Nothing harmful was going on at the time. She was being content just filling up a container with water and dumping it out repeatedly. After a slight slip of the stool, I decided the situation was no longer safe, and got her down. Something a good parent would do. Of course this enraged her, and she got right back up. I only had a couple more things to do, so I just allowed it. Bad parent. The stool slipped again. I barely caught her before she hit her head on the edge of the sink. I got her down a second time, and this time she was even more enraged. She was screaming and crying uncontrollably. I just thought she was really ticked with me, so I ignored it. I put the last thing in the dishwasher which just happened to be a large serrated bread knife.
Then I heard Katelin say, "Mom, what happened? Brylee is bleeding!"
I looked back at her and saw blood dripping from her hand.
"Did she cut it when she slipped?", I wondered.
I scooped her up and rinsed it off. Then I saw the source of the blood...a deep cut on her thumb. At that moment I realized...I was holding that huge serrated knife when she slipped. I must have cut her when I tried to catch her! It kept bleeding more and more. Even after I put a band-aid on it. It looked pretty deep so I called Ryan to tell him what happened and to hurry home in case I had to take her in to get it checked out. Unfortunately, he was being held up at work and couldnt leave yet. I decided at that point, that it wasnt that bad, but Ryan insisted I get it checked out after hearing me describe it. It was almost closing time for the pediatrician, and I didnt want to pay a hefty ER fee, just in case it was nothing. Bad parent again. So I went back and forth on whether to take her in. I finally decided to leave it to the pediatrician to decide. I called and talked to the nurse. Our doctor was gone for the day, but she got me in with another one in an hour.
By that time, Ryan would be close to home, so I left the girls in charge of themselves. Zack insisted on coming with me. Sarcastic, yea! After the inspection from the doctor, she decided it would need stitches, mostly because of the location. It was right over a joint, and she didnt feel it would heal when Brylee was constantly moving it. So she referred us over to the insta-care. Better than an ER fee. Its good to know they do stitches there, for future reference.
After explaining for at least the 4th time, how my 1 year old got cut with a knife without trying to sound like they needed to send the child protective services to my house, she was prepped for stitches. She was really very happy up to this point. I had to lay her down on the table and hold her down while the doctor injected her thumb with the numbing agent. I was doing pretty well, considering it was my fault she was injured and my baby was screaming in fear and pain...that is, until the nurse started tearing up! Thats right, the nurse! She just kept saying, "I cant believe he's making us do this" (referring to the doctor). Hello!? Who else is supposed to do it? And then she would go on about how cute she was, and poor baby! Doesnt help when Im trying to keep it together!
So another long wait after the injection and the nurse returned. She cleaned the cut with like a gallon of water. Just squirted it right into the cut. Brylee was still screaming, and the nurse commented on how she really shouldnt be feeling this. Brylee kept saying "owie!" so I wondered if it was really numb yet, or she was just saying that because she didnt know what else to say about it at the moment.

Heres how it looked after the cleaning. Not so bad right? It really was deep, but check out the location.

Another long wait and trying to keep the cut clean, and the doctor came back in. Time to hold her down again. Sorry baby. The second he inserted the needle she screamed bloody murder. I told him "Thats not numb!" He was surprised that it wasnt numb after the shot but after messing with it a little more, he was convinced. In came another shot. I think that one did the trick. 3 stitches and 3 feet of gauze later, she was finally done. Her happiness continued and she was back to her normal self, running around the pharmacy like crazy for the next 20 minutes. Total hospital time: 2 hours, 15 minutes. Not bad, for the hospital, but it felt like 5. So thats the long story. I tried to get a picture of her hand all wrapped up, but she was being silly and didnt want a picture taken.

Heres the best ones I got.

They had to wrap it so much so she wouldnt be able to move it. She actually got used to it really quickly and didnt try to mess with it too much. But she looked like she broke her whole hand! No hiding that parent neglect.

11 days later and the stitches came out. Hopefully it wont leave a scar. I think that 11 days may have turned her left handed though. Im hoping for ambidextrous! That would mean something really cool came out of it!

All better!