What’s another thing, right??
Brady went to work this morning. Which is what I was originally going to post about. It felt weird and new and like I wasn’t quite ready to have someone else take care of him?? I don’t know. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it felt a little funny.
Once he was out the door, the day started to settle. The girls went to aunties. Rowan and Solly went downstairs to play. Dekker was reading upstairs. I was feeding a couple of babies. The house was quite quiet. Until it wasn’t. I heard wild screaming verrrrry faintly, and Dekker and I looked at each other and we tried to listen to where it was coming from. We decided it was from outside. Not from us.
Except it totally was us.
The middle boys flew into the living room. Solly was bleeding really good and proper (he’s really cleaned up here already) and Rowan was wild eyed behind him, carting a box of bandaids.
As the story goes, they were digging for treasure in the backyard, perhaps a little too close to one another, and Sol took a spade to the forehead. I gave him a good, safe opportunity to say whether or not it was an accident, and he confirmed with certainty that it was not on purpose. So at least we had that!
I immediately took some pictures and texted them out to some nurse friends of mine to see what to do. We’ve NEVER had stitches before over here, and I had no desire to drag him into the city for a bandaid. But it became pretty clear that we were looking at needing some extra care.
I paced the house and made some phone calls. Meanwhile, Rowan sat on the floor in the middle of the living room beside Solly. He had wipes out, and he was cleaning the blood from Solly’s hands. He had a book beside them, and he read Sol stories and was so close and kind and soft to his brother 💜 It was really nice to see him not be defensive, and to see Sol being so forgiving and receptive to the help.
Cher arrived with bells on, and I basically high fived her on the way out! Solly moved his booster seat up to sit in the row closest to me, I gave him a piece of gum, and as we drove, I let him know he might end up with stitches. He had a cry, and processed a bit while we drove, and then I let him choose the music. With Family Force Five blasting, we drove to JPCH.
His gash and my eyebrow match lol!
We waited in emerg, but it wasn’t too busy. He wasn’t in tons of pain anymore.
Close up gore 🚨
Once he was checked in and waiting for a room, they lathered him up with lidocaine ointment to freeze the area up.
We made it to a room and he was assessed by multiple nurses. Everyone who looked closely at him said they weren’t sure if he would need stitches, and that glue miiiiight be sufficient. It was hard to say. He ate a popsicle to pass the time.
Finally, a physician came in and decided quite quickly that stitches would be ideal. She said with where it was, and the fact that it was as long as it was, and gaping as wide as it was, that sutures would be best. Sol cried. He was afraid. And then he was promised a second popsicle, while they did the stitches. That was the straw that STRENGTHENED the camels back! He was ready!
To clarify this picture up here ☝️ he is only bleeding in the one spot. The bit underneath his eye is blood that ran with the freezing ointment. No wound there!
He really wanted me to take pictures, which was adorable, and also not the doctors favorite idea, which we totally understood! So we have a prepping picture…
… and then after!!! Popsicle still going, stitches all in place!
A close up of the beautifully placed stitches! They look fabulous, and besides some twitches while he held my hand, he was perfectly calm and still through the entire process. Which is NOT how I thought it would go!!
Lucky duck got to follow the whole thing up with a third popsicle!!! Luckier duck, I got one too!!
The yellow ones are the best one. IYKYK.
He held my hand as we walked back to the van afterwards. He mentioned to me that he thought it would be SO bad but that it actually wasn’t so bad at all. This is giant success for Solly, if you know him. God’s hand was covering him – covering us – without question!
In order to make this possible, I had three friends help me and offer opinions and advice. I had my doctor texting with me as well, telling me I could call her from a few floors up, if I needed help. I had my remaining six children spread out amongst three different caregivers. My village is over and above what the average person could ever dream of, and for that – for you beautiful people – I am overwhelmed with gratefulness 💜
Ok. I really really hope this is it for stitches in heads for 2024. Feels like we’ve already had our share this year…