Bennett+Stitches, Take 1

As this blog is my children’s baby book, it’s only appropriate that this whole story be told here. With Bennett’s blessing, of course.

And that Take 1 is in the title because I’m certain this won’t be my last ER trip for stitches with this one. As it stood until Friday night, he was the only Diehl kid to require an ER visit for anything other than breathing problems, and that time (at age 2), the doctors were able to glue his little wound back together.

Not this time.

In true mom-blogger fashion, let me tell the story. This all went down Friday night. Luke and I were attending the Kids Night Out fundraiser (proceeds benefit the 5th grade end-of-year party) at school…of course, he was there to hang out with friends, and I was there to work the event. Matt was to have the other 2 boys with him for the evening, which included Bennett’s baseball practice.

5:25: Matt’s not home from work yet, but I need to be up at school. I send the boys to the van, and one of them, who shall remain nameless, thought it would be funny to fake drive the van and crank the steering wheel. When I go to start the van, I can’t get the key to turn in the ignition. I knew that I was supposed to turn the wheel while trying to turn the key, but I absolutely could not get it to turn. Guilty child feels VERY bad, is crying and apologizing profusely, and I am cursing under my breath and repeatedly trying to start the van. Finally, literally 8 minutes later, I’m able to get it started. Lesson learned for the child.

5:33: Matt pulls in the garage. B and JH exit the van, and stay home with Matt.

5:35: L and I arrive at school, and enjoy Kids Night Out until…

8:40: Matt calls me, and though he’s speaking calmly, I can hear the panic in his voice. “Bennett’s had a little accident, and he probably needs stitches.” I tell him that I’ll round up Luke, and wait for him to call me and let me know where he wants me to meet him: home or the hospital.

8:45: I’ve gathered my things, I’m searching the school for Luke, and I get a text that simply says, “Yes, stitches.” I find Luke, Matt calls me and tells me to meet him at home, and we head out of school.

8:50: Matt, the bleeding-from-the-head kid and Jack Henry arrive a couple of minutes after we do. Bennett gets out of the car and removes the ice pack/rag combo from his head, and I blurt out, “Yes, that needs stitches. Get in the van, Bennett.” At this, he starts to cry…Matt hadn’t told him yet that he needed to go the ER. I can’t say I blame him, since we both knew that Bennett would panic at this news.

8:55-9:15: Longest drive to Mercy Hospital ever, save the time I was in labor and it was freezing raining outside. Bennett has calmed down, and tells me the story of what happened. His practice is at a local elementary school, and after they finished practicing, the boys raced out of the gym to play a little tag. B looked behind him while he was running, and when he turned back to the front, ran headlong into a metal handrail. His teammates said he cried out and that they saw a lot of blood. Turns out, really, for a head injury especially, it didn’t bleed that much, and I heard from so many parents who were there that Bennett just stayed totally calm. Probably helped that he didn’t look in the mirror at all.

telling the triage nurse his story.

9:35: B is seen by a triage nurse, asked the story of what happened the first of 5 times. It occurs to me at this point that it might be helpful to have each boy’s medical history in my phone; as she asked about his surgical/medical history, I stumbled over what was him and what was L or JH in my memory. And that kinda makes me feel like a bad mom.

9:45: brought to our room in the ER; B is given a new ice pack. Bleeding has slowed to a very slow seep.

10:45: We’ve watched a full hour of Ice Age when I decide to step outside the room and ask when we might be seen, since we’ve literally had no one even step in our room this whole time. Magically, they tell me his case has just been “claimed”, and lo and behold, less than 2 minutes later, the NP appears to assess. He tells us that he definitely needs stitches, both above and below the eye. This is very upsetting news to Bennett :(. I fall back on my training as a Child Life Specialist to talk him through what’s about to happen. *Outside of this wait, care here was exceptional, and I would totally use this children’s ER again.*

10:50: Nurse comes in to apply numbing gel (no shots needed – yeah!). We wait.

11:25: Nurse applies second round of numbing gel. We start watching Elf…distractions are good.

11:40: NP and nurse come in to start the procedure. Bennett has to lay flat on his back and has a towel draped around his injured eye, so he can’t really see the TV anymore, but he can hear it…and we know Elf by heart, so he continues to laugh while they get to work. 2 stitches in the tiny cut below the eye. 2 stitches inside and 7 outside in his eyebrow. NP apologizes for the stitches taking so long, as he said that stitching along the eyebrow is tricky due to trying to keep the hairs on the outside of the wound. Me: no apology needed. He’s doing a fantastic job.

12:25: Discharge notes and we’re out the door, on our way to picking up a late-night cheeseburger and fries for my little champ.

this was sunday morning…definitely the day it looked the worst.

By Saturday morning, Bennett was pretty proud of the whole thing, and though I worried a little that he’d be self-conscious about how he looked, I shouldn’t have. This is a badge of honor. When I asked him if I could blog about this, he said, “Of course!”

—–

Slowing down is not something Bennett does on purpose, ever. Saturday he definitely took it easy, and Sunday, too. By Monday, though, I noticed that he was back to full speed, and that made me nervous with him at school by Tuesday (Monday was a snow day). The tape came off last night, and his stitches look good, so recovery is going well so far!

tuesday night, after the tape came off