Stitches!!

Yesterday I had the joy of going through an experience almost all moms of boys go through at some point... stitches. To my amazement it was Aiden that needed stitches, not Connor.

I was getting Connor a snack so we could all head out the door for a Mary Kay thing as soon as Aiden got off the bus. The phone rang and it was the school nurse, Aiden was in her office with a bloody head. From what she could make out, he had missed a step and hit his head on a pole or something. She thought I probably needed to go get him and have a doctor look at it. I dropped everything, loaded Connor up, called the clinic to see if there was someone available to check him out, called to reschedule the Mary Kay appointment, and pulled into school as the last of the buses were loading up.

Aiden was still in the nurse's office, paper towel and an ice pack on his head. Somehow it was a head wound that didn't bleed very much. We determined he could stand on his own two feet, and I got him out of the building and into the van with him whimpering "I don't want to get stitches, mommy don't make me get stitches" I had no idea what they were going to do, so I just told him he needed to take deep breathes so his head didn't start bleeding again.

The nurse took us back right away when we got there, cleaned out the cut, and asked the usual how did this happen, who was there type of questions. Since it happened at recess at school he only had to answer them twice, not 4 or 5 times. The doctor looked at it, determined it was deep enough we had to do something, and let me know that gluing it COULD work, but since it was right on the hair line, it would probably be better to do stitches so it would have a better chance of healing without pulling back open.    

This time there was no whimpering, it was sobbing..."I don't want stitches, no stitches, mommy, don't let them do stitches" Luckily I had backup that time. The doctor and nurse were able to convince him that they would tell him what they were doing, the actual stitches weren't going to hurt, the stitches would work much better than the glue, etc etc. So we got Aiden calmed down and they put on some numbing cream so the anesthetic shots wouldn't hurt so much.

Meanwhile Connor had decided to start investigating the cubpoards, drawers, and garbage cans, so the other nurses and receptionist offered to keep the cute little blonde boy occupied with balls, coloring, and wheelchair rides out in the hallway.

Once Aiden's numbing cream had soaked in a little they started cleaning the cut out again, and I realized I wasn't going to be much help passed out on the floor. They gave me a stool to sit on and I watched Aiden's toes wiggle while they gave him the anesthetic shots (the worst part by far), then put in 'three little stitches', and bandaged him up (with a pretty cool Cars 2 band-aid). All done!

We collected all of Aiden's goodies from the nurses station (he made out pretty well) and retrieved Connor from the wheelchair he had been riding around in and we were free to go. The first thing we did was call daddy to tell him all about it, then we headed home.

Once I got everyone unloaded and inside, Connor headed to his favorite perch... the top of the kitchen table. I took him down, but he climbed right back up. I heard Aiden say "Get down Connor, I don't wanna go back to the doctor!"

Aiden did pretty well the rest of the night. His head started to get a little sore so he got some Motrin, and he needed some help getting his PJ's on over the stitches, but nothing major... and no concussion! After 12 hours of sleep he was still exhausted, so he ate a few pancakes and headed back to bed. By 10 he was bouncing around the house, so I fed him lunch and sent him back to school with a new, bright pink bandage that he was VERY proud of!