First Stitches

It’s happened. One of my children had to get stitches. Of my kids, though, I’m glad it was Kahlen. I think she handled it better than I did. Of course, I can see them and she can’t, but I don’t think it would have mattered much if she could have watched the entire process.

So, here’s how it went down…

We were at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for a school field trip. We just finished studying ancient Egypt and they have a mummy exhibit, so we thought that would be perfect. AND we’re starting on Creation next, so we wanted to go see Prehistoric Journey, the dinosaur exhibit too.

Anyway, we were playing outside, getting ready to go home. They have four or so wolf sculptures surrounded by rocks that the kids love to play on. That’s what they’re there for, and it’s usually a good thing to get them super worn out before the drive home. They had been playing outside for about 10 minutes or so, jumping from rock to rock, etc, etc. K was trying to jump from one rock to another while reaching for one of the sculptures. She missed. Fell from the rock, onto her back, and cracked her head. I was soooo glad my mom was there because, honestly, I’m just not up to picking my 42-pound daughter up off the rock and carrying her these days.

We left immediately. We had one ice pack in the car and stopped at McDonalds for ice and the gas station for ibuprofen. Buela sat in the back with her and helped her keep her ice on her head. I wasn’t really thinking we would need to take her in because it was just a bad bonk, right? Well, once we got about halfway home, the swelling was down enough to get a good look, and it was a nice sized, ragged edged gash on her scalp.

I called the doctor’s office and they were able to see us as soon as we could get back to Fort Collins. I can’t believe how well she did. All through the cleaning, exam, numbing, and stitching, she hardly made a peep. She didn’t seem distressed, or shy, or overwhelmed, she just really seemed to think it was no big deal. And, hey, they gave her a cool dinosaur bouncy ball when she was done. The doc said she can come back anytime for stitches because she did better than a lot of their adult patients.

Sorry if this grosses you out, but I had to take a picture so she could see since they are on the back of her head, so now you get to see too. See? Just two little stitches.

~S