Stitches

Clark got his first stitches while Daddy was away.  Why do these types of things always happen while Dad is away???  Needless to say, I think I did a good job handling it on my own.
We have not been immune to the occasional trip to the ER, or staple in the head, but this was our first case of stitches,
and boy oh boy was it scary.
We were having a nice peaceful afternoon when my girlfriend called and needed help getting to the ER (thankfully she is doing okay too!).  As I was rushing the kids out of the house, to drop them at the babysitters, Clark tripped and landed right on the bookshelf.  He actually hit the bookshelf so hard he cracked the edge!  It was hard for me to see the wound right away, because there was so much blood, and I had to sit there for a few minutes consoling Clark before I could even decide what we needed to do.  I have never seen so much blood in my life... and I grew up with two very active brothers who seemed to bleed all over things on a daily basis.  Since I was already headed to the ER, I just took Clark along.  His cut bled the entire time we were driving in the car, I was starting to get afraid he was gonna pass out, or go into shock, but we were being watched over, and he did really well.
This  picture was taken on my camera phone, about 30 minutes after the accident, while we were waiting in the ER.  Clark was such a brave boy, he cried a lot at first, but as soon as we got to the ER he was calm, and thankfully the wound  stopped bleeding.  We had to have Clark strapped down in a little papoose thingy, to keep him still while he was getting fixed up, he was pretty excited to be wrapped up like a cocoon.  However, once the needles came out, and the pulling and tugging of the stitches started, he was a nightmare, and really I don't blame him one bit.  He was hysterical, I think mostly from being scared, rather from the pain. He kept on spitting on the doctor, and telling him to go away.  About 15 minutes, and 4 stitches, later we were done.  He couldn't get out of the place fast enough, he was practically running to the car.

This was taken the next morning, thankfully most of the swelling he had from the day before had gone down.  He did however pick out two of the stitches, either when the numbing was wearing off, or in his sleep.  Thankfully they were the ones inside his lip, and not as important.  He only a had a little trouble eating, and of course he stopped using his bottom lip to talk... which was actually pretty cute.

A couple days after...

I know it is hard to tell in this picture, but he had the grossest black scab on his lip.  Blech, it was so gross to look at.  After a few hours in the pool though it fell right off, and almost instantly he started looking like normal Clark.  

I actually can't believe how fast it healed, kids can be so resilient.

Ten days after.  All healed, except for one little stubborn white stitch that refused to come out.

(He did however finally get it out later that night.)

 I am so glad he healed fast, and rather painlessly.  I am thankful for my friends that helped out when I had to take him to the ER, and Wayne who gave him a blessing.  And it is vain to say/think that I am thankful his lip healed normally, rather than having some huge scar, or deformity... he is my cute little baby boy after all.  I really am proud of how brave he acted, he is growing up so fast.