"Incidents" aren't few and far between when you have three youngsters.
Today it was Owen's turn for the minor emergency. He fell and hit his head on this wood thing in our garage and landed an inch wide and almost that deep gash on his forehead. Because I could see a deep hole inside the gash, I was in a total panic. Queazy stomach even, and that is not like me. Thank goodness Jason was there because he was the calm and cool one in this situation. I always wondered how you would know if you needed to get stitches or not. Then this happened and let me tell you, you instantly know. Oh yeah, this one is going to have to have stitches. I scooped him up, told all the kids to get in the car, and jumped in the backseat holding Owen. Jason is very calmly getting sippy cups and snacks as he considers we may be in the emergency room for hours. He even thought to grab the phone book so we could try an Urgent Care Center before heading to the ER. That is where we ended up. I can't give you the play-by-play on the rest of the drama because Jason is the one who took him from there. He says it was the worst thing he has ever done. It took three adults to hold him down. He said the volume of his scream and his gasps for air in between each scream were heartbreaking. I am SO glad I did not hear any of that. He says the time Amelia got staples in her head didn't even compare to this.
All that sadness to say, once the stitches were in, he immediately went back to his normal happy self. He hasn't touched his head even once. It is as if nothing ever happened. Now I am just hoping for a scar-less healing.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The Latest Incident
Posted by The Tomlinson Family at 10:09 PM
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3 comments:
Poor Owen!
I'm so glad to hear that after the horror of being held down for sutures, Owen went back to being his normal (read: not traumatized) self. 'Cause I'm often on the other end of that situation and I feel horrible that I'm making the child scream (and it really does take multiple people to hold them still), but they NEED the lacerations to be repaired. So I'm all sweaty and stressed during the whole ordeal b/c it's rather stressful having your patient screaming and scared, but it has to be done. Dermabond works great for superficial/shallow lacerations, but the deep ones have to be sutures (or stapled if it's on the scalp).
Last week I was actually singing to a little girl as I sewed up her forehead. I kept forgetting the words b/c I was also focusing on making the repair look as good as I could, and she kept yelling, "KEEP SINGING! KEEP SINGING! KEEP SINGING!". In hindsight, it was rather comical. During the episode? Not so much.
As for scarring- try not to let the wound scab (it will heal better if it doesn't). Use Bacitracin or Polysporin rather than Neosporin (the neomycin can cause a contact dermatitis in about 10-15% of people). No hydrogen peroxide (causes cell death) or alcohol. Just soap and water to gently wash. Once the sutures are out and it has completely healed, apply strong (at least 40spf) sunscreen daily to prevent discoloration (i.e. turning purple) of the scar.
I don't like Neosporin antibiotic ointment, but they do make a good 'scar solution'; it's supposed to work better than the Mederma.
Hope this helps.
Oh my gosh. I can't believe no one called.
Big surprise there. Our family's usually so good at calling when something big happens. Go figure :)
I hope Owen is continuing to bounce along. I'll call this evening to check on him.
Love,Nana
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