Monday, March 07, 2011

A first

So we had a bit of excitement in the house yesterday afternoon. Jake was telling me how hungry he was and I told him to go in the kitchen and finish his peanut butter sandwich from lunch--he immediately ran from the living room to the kitchen. A second letter I hear a loud scream and then crying. I figured he must have hit his head on the edge of the bar ( he has done this several times) so I thought his head must hurt but I admit I didn't jump right up since he has done this before. However, as all moms know there are cries and then there is the cry--the one that tells you something is really wrong. This was one of those cries. I got up and went to him and immediately saw his hair looked wet in the front--only to discover it was blood, and a lot of it--he had it dripping down his face and all over his hands. I admit--I panicked! I ran to get a towel and was very upset--Shon was just telling me to calm down. Jake was crying mainly because of the blood on his hands--Shon helped him get it off and then I was able to check out his head--he had a pretty good gash on the top--almost and inch long. I couldn't really tell how deep it went because of the hair in the way, but I figured we should definitely take him to the ER or urgent care to get him checked out to be safe. So, Jake and I loaded up in the van and left for urgent care. Thankfully it is only about 5 minutes from our house and they weren't very busy.
We arrived and got checked in and were taken back to see the doctor in about 15 minutes. The nurse cleaned off his head with some normal saline and gauze very gently. Then the doctor came in. He looked at the gash and decided he needed something to help it stay closed so it wouldn't keep bleeding. He came back in the room with all his supplies and Jake turned around on the table and laid down. I held his hands and the doctor gave him about 5 shots of Lidocaine to numb the area--Jake was such a trooper. All he kept saying was ow but he kept still. Once the area was numb, the doctor cleaned it a little more vigorously and I was able to see that it was a deeper gash that I originally thought--so I was very glad I took him. He produced a little miniature staple gun and after 5 staples the wound was closed. He even made sure to get all of his hair out of the way for the staples so we didn't have to cut any of it:-)
The nurse came back in with our instructions for caring for his head and also to put some antibiotic ointment on it. Then we were able to leave. I took Jake to Andy's for some frozen custard and we went home to show the kids his war wound:-)
I was able to gently wash around his staples last night to try to get some of the dried blood out of his hair so that he could go to school today with semi-normal hair:-) The first thing he did this morning was tell every child that came through the door that he got staples in his head:-) It's never dull around here!
I am thankful that this is the first time anyone in the family has needed this type of urgent care--God has been very faithful to take care of us.

1 comment:

Reba said...

You are very fortunate if that is your first trip like that. :) I think Hunter's first was like at 2 1/2 years old. :) Those heads sure do bleed a lot. I am so glad that all is well and that he is able to show off his war wounds. :)