Stitches.

I can't believe I forgot to tell this story in my last post.

On Victoria Day we were very busy tidying up the house and getting ready for a bunch of Rob's family to come over for a bbq. Suddenly there was a thud followed by some blood-curdling, ear piercing screams and cries. This actually happens quite often, it's usually Ian, he's, ummm, active. Extremely active. He bounces off the walls, literally. I didn't think too much of this particular thud, he'd been bouncing around the livingroom. Rob was right there and picked him up off the floor. I then hear from Rob, "Oh, no! Heidi, get over here quick." I still wasn't concerned, I figured there was most likely blood, but that happens a lot too. He averages a split lip a month, but not badly enough to need stitches, just bloody. What greeted me was my screaming child with a HOLE IN HIS FOREHEAD! Head met the corner of the brick hearth and it was not a happy meeting. The hole was almost the size of a Loonie and I swear I saw skull bone. Surprisingly it did not bleed much, it just looked like someone had torn a chunk out of his face. We still put pressure on it and decided he should probably see a doctor to get that fixed. It took us about 10-15 minutes to get us and both kids out the door, by then Ian had stopped crying, but I was starting to get a little trembly. It really bothered me that it didn't bleed much. Aren't head wound supposed to bleed a lot? We didn't even need to put anything on it. We first stopped at a local walk-in clinic hoping they could stich him up, that way avoiding a trip across the highway to the ER which we thought might be rather busy on a holiday Monday. Thankfully the clinic said stitches were their specialty and they even put him in front of some people. They said the wait was about 2 hours but we were in and out in 1. Of course Ian renewed the screaming with vigour while the doctor stitched him up. Rob held his head, I tried my best to keep the rest of him still which was pretty hard even though he'd been wrapped up in a sheet, and Jayden wandered all over the clinic, made himself at home and friends with the waiting room. Ian cried and pleaded the whole time, never ceasing "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, MOOOOMMMMMYYYY!" It was pretty rough, and needles make me weak in the knees and want to cry too, so I couldn't even look him in the face. I just tried to be as comforting as possible while mumbling silly things like "Everything's OK sweetie" into his tummy. Obviously things were NOT ok. Five days later he was as good as could be for the removal of the stitches. He laid there quite calmly and let the doctor pull them out, didn't need to be held at all. The scar is still pink and lumpy and hasn't faded much at all. I'm wondering if he's inherited bad scarring from me, I scar terribly. Hopefully if he keeps his bangs a little long his hair will cover most of it.


There wasn't much of a lesson learned unfortunately. He still runs full tilt at the fireplace and we've seen some near misses. When asked if he's afraid of banging the bricks again he says NO. Perhaps there was some permanent damage after all...