Stitches

I was contemplating a few days ago how we have not had any major injuries in a very long time. With 3 boys in the house that's pretty good. Of course, those thoughts are also a guaranteed precursor to some horrible random event that can shatter our lovely euphoric age of bliss.

Eric was taking a bath after supper. In our house we have a running gag that anyone who takes a bath and keeps the door unlocked runs the risk of having a cupful of ice cold water flung at them. Seth, even though he's 2, knows about the gag. He was the one who caught Eric bathing behind an unlocked door.

Seth threw a glass into the tub. Coinciding with the law of physics, naturally it shattered. Startled, Eric spun around, slipped and fell into the jagged edge of the broken glass. He screamed! I ran into the bathroom and saw blood everywhere. I first looked at his face, then noticed the elbow. There was a huge flap of skin dangling off the elbow in 2 places. It was not pretty. Even I knew this was a guaranteed emergency room visit. I grabbed a towel, folded it in half lengthwise and wrapped it around his arm. I dressed him and off we went to emergency.

We sat for half an hour before we were really noticed, then were waved toward the triage desk. When I took the towel off it was sopping with blood. So immediately they had to redress the wound. They put a little freezing on a thick white bandage then wrapped his arm tightly in gauze. That would make him a little more comfortable. We sat back down in the waiting room and started chatting. All they had were health magazines--how BORING is that?! But we chatted and were laughing, doing Garfield impersonations and the like. I told Eric only a Gordon carries on in the emergency room this way. Eric replies, "Then it's a good thing we're Gordons otherwise we'd look pretty weird!"

We were called in before a lot of other people. Putting the freezing in did not go so well. They wanted to open it up to ensure no tendons were grazed, which thankfully were not. I actually had to hold Eric pretty tight to make sure he didn't flinch. Then the stitching began. Of course I didn't want him to look at what they were doing. So I talked about a movie called "Baby's Day Out." We talked about what game we would play on Saturday night (settled on Carcasonne) and decided when we would go swimming again. Finally we were done. 10 stitches!

On the way home we stopped for an ice cream at McDonalds. Eric said, "I really liked hanging out with you tonight, mom. And thank you so much for holding me when they kept putting the needle in my arm." Awwwww! So tonight I was supposed to go to a conference by Dr. Riddlebarger--I was really looking forward to it too. But I'll go to the next one. Tonight God blessed me, through a hospital visit, to share a special moment with my oldest son.