As if we didn’t have enough drama in our lives right now, Siah decided to shake things up a little last night.
Jon, Jeremy and Siah were down in the basement playing a video game. Siah was sitting on the arm rest of our futon and he unbalanced himself and fell forward hitting his head on the corner of a wooden toy box.
Mom, the girls, Judah and I were up in the kitchen and heard the thunk. It was that loud. Then we heard Jon yell and then we heard Siah crying and it was “one of those cries.”
I raced downstairs and met Jon at the bottom of the stairs. He handed Siah off to me and there was blood everywhere. I could see that his head was split open in between his eyes. We came up stairs and got a rag to try to stop the blood. It was apparent that he’s need stitches.
We hoped that we could make it to the local clinic that did Jeremy’s stitches as we’ve talked with them about our challenges of dealing with germs and sickness due to Angelica’s suppressed immune system, BUT….it was 7:30pm and they were closed at 8pm and they were already over booked for the day and were not even answering their phone.
And so Jon headed to the ER.
The plan was for Jon to wear a mask into the ER and explain the situation and see how they could work with us to get Siah the care that he needed while attempting to keep us as germ free as possible.
The staff at Langley Hospital were amazing.
They didn’t have any open rooms at the time, but they planned to get a room emptied and clean out and to bring Jon and Siah in and straight back to the closed room as soon as possible. They gave Jon a small mask for Siah to wear in and out and in the waiting time, they stayed in the van to minimize the possibility of picking anything up from other ill people.
They waited in the van and the triage nurse came out to the van to assess Siah and yup….he needed stitches.
It took a few hours, and in the mean time, Siah fell asleep.
When the room was finally ready, Jon carried the sleeping Siah in. He said that they got quite a few looks, as he’d been in and out with his mask on and now they were carrying a limp child in with a mask on….can you imagine that others in the waiting room must have been wondering what was wrong with this child that they had to wear masks????
Jon tried to wake Siah up to explain what was about to happen, but he had tired himself out so badly with his initial screaming when it happened that he was NOT waking up. He was in that drowsy state where you’re not really awake but not really asleep. They finally wrapped him like a burrito to keep him from being able to move his arms and the Dr checked to see that Jon was okay with what was going to happen and once he was sure that Jon wasn’t going to flip out….they started.
They had already put on a fast acting numbing cream and they started injecting the freezing and that’s when Siah woke up for real. So in his mind, probably, he went to sleep and was woken up to some dude poking his head with a needle. AWESOME! Jon said he screamed until he wasn’t breathing. Brutal! The Doctor only put in two stitches because he figured that was about all that Siah could handle and even though he was being quick, it was still pretty traumatic.
He told Jon that the cut was extremely straight and that it should heal amazingly because it was such a precise cut.
They masked up again and came home. Siah settled down pretty quickly once Jon was able to hold him and was almost asleep by the time they reached the van.
They got home before 11pm….not bad considering the waits in ER’s now a days.
He went to bed right away and slept through until 6am when he crawled into bed with us.
This morning he seems to be doing okay and so we are just gonna take it easy today. Geli’s doing pretty good this morning too. We were attempting to adjust her meds schedule around so that we were not having to wake up at 3am to give her a dose, but that meant that she might be a little barfy this morning. She did feel a bit off and dry heaved for about 45 minutes off and on until the meds finally kicked in. Her and Siah are back downstairs in the basement this morning. She is teaching Josiah how to play the original NES Nintendo Super Mario Brother’s game. He’s thrilled and she’s distracted and it’s good.
This is now the 4th of our 5 kids that have gotten stitches in their head…..when she was about 8 years old, Geli wacked her head open on a floor heater and needed 3 stitches. When Xani was about 10, her cousin went all vmapire on her and tried to take a bite out her head while they were jumping on a trampoline and she needed 3 stitches. A few weeks ago, Jeremy got 3 stitches in his chin and now Josiah has had 2 stitches in between his eyes…..GAH!
I’m really hoping and praying that Judah stays safe and protected.
Do you have any cool stories about “that time you got stitches” or your kids……Please share!
All I can say is OH MY WORD!!!!!!!!
My head’s taken an aweful lot of abuse through the years.
Got my first set of stitches on my chin when I was a kid on my birthday. (Running at the pool.)
Next set was on my left temple a year later. (Running into brick wall.)
Then between the eyes. (Slashed with a hockey stick.)
Then on my right temple. (Fell off a chair.)
Another set of stitches on my chin, just to the right of the first set. (Running at the pool, again.)
Was accident free for a few years, until highschool and started skiing. Then:
Four major concussions, each complete with blackout periods immediately after the trauma.
Five minor concussions, where I passed out a few hours after the bump occured.
Dozens of knocks on the head, but nothing more serious then a headache as a result.
And that concludes my head banging experiences.
But I have lots of other cuts and stitches. Biggest one was on my thumb which was cut by a ski edge. That was cool — you could see all the way through to the bone.
Oh ya, then there’s the time I ran a metal door over my bare big toe. I think I had only eight stitches for that one, so not too bad.
Got more stitches on my elbows (both of them) when I fell on some gravel. I can’t remember how old I was.
And that’s it.
But hey, I’ve never broken a bone, so that’s good. 🙂
Oh Henri, you were definitely a “Head Banger” Your poor MoM! But look how well you have turned out 🙂 I think this was exactly what Patti was looking for. Thanks for stepping up.
STITCHES!!! Boy have we had a few! I have lost count how many stitches Ivan has had!
It started off when he was 2 and he was running around the house of a friend and cut the instep of his foot on a broken glazed pipe.
Then when he was 4 I was expecting Kathryn and lay down to rest while the boys played and next I heard a moaning from Karl repeating “Oh No” I ran out to see and Ivan came wandering in with his big toe flopping. He had been on the chopping block and Karl had picked up the big axe and it came down neatly through the joint of his toe. That was 20 stitches to reattach the tendon and the toe. Toe works fine.
Karl got the next 2 at 5yrs when he was at school and a kid hit him in the eye with a hockey stick.
When Ivan was about 8yrs we had visitors and I van was showing his friends how you can walk all the way round the outside of his tree hut, but he fell and landed on some barbed wire which went up his arm and into his armpit – that was quite a few stitches.
Another time it was Kathryn’s birthday, she had some friends to stay over and they wanted to play agame outside in the dark. Ivan found a rock on the lawn and thought it should be removed so he heaved it and unfortunately Stephen ran out in time for the rock to land on his head. More stitches.
Karl had a pet calf and had just finished feeding it and thought he would see if he could walk back along the top of the railing fence in the yard. He was going good until he came to the gate and unfortunately it wasn’t fastened shut and moved when he walked on it. He came down astraddle the gate! Ouch! The local doctor had to postpone a dinner engagement to put those stitches in. Very embarrassing especially when he went back to school! But all is well he has 5 kids!!
Ivan had another lot of stitches in his shin when his bootlace caught on a barbed wire fence as he was climbing over and he ended up hanging there. His mate said later he had never run so fast for help, he thought he was going to die! It wasn’t that bad.
Then he fell over another fence emptying the grass out of the lawn mower and had several stitches in his thigh.
He had his ear split when someone wacked him on the head with a piece of steel.
He had stitches in his knee from being kicked during a soccer game at school.
Since leaving school he has continued to have stitches from injuries, put his thumb in the buzzer, etc.
I don’t remember Kathryn ever having stitches, though she did fall out of a moving 4WD on to gravel once.
And the only broken bone was when Karl fell off the table at 1yr and broke his collarbone.
Sorry maybe with his cousins so accident prone perhaps it comes from Jon’s side of the family??
One time where i was room and boarding in Prince George, I was babysitting the two youngest children 2 and 4 years old. I babysit during the week when both parents are working full time. This little boy 2 years old fell off his little rocking chair and hit hit head against the fireplace. He was bleeding. I had no car. So i took him to bathroom and prayed God help me. My worship pastor ‘s wife was at McDonalds eating lunch, God told her to go see me right away. She quickly put lunch back into bag and came over. I told her David was bleeding and gave her David’s mother work number. Pastor wife called mother. THen Pastor wife drove me and David to doctor office emergency. Then she drove me home. When mother came home i was scared. Mother said Debbie dont feel bad boys are like that , they like to be adventerous. Mother was trying to comfort me. Isnt God good, in a situation like this God’s help was not delayed.
I forgot to mention if i took bus it would have taken me an hour or more to get to dr office or hospital. i had no money for taxi. David had special tape to hold cut together and it had to be kept dry for 3 days minimum. Good thing pastor wife had room for David, Anna and me in her car. Pastor wife showed up at my door five minutes after David hurt himself. Good thing Pastor wife knows how to hear God’s voice in emergency setting.
Here’s my story Patti When we moved to N.Van and lived just down the road from the old Kennedy place on Mtn. Highway Verne was bout two and a half He could run from kitchen through dinning room to hallway back to kitchen and it was a favorite run for him especially if we were trying to catch him. At that time all corners of gyproc rooms had metal strips to protect them from getting chipped. Vern ran bang into one of those corners and split his forehead open . Blood spurting everywhere. Fortunately Grandpa was home and we rushed him to our family Dr. Who took him in right away and I had to hold his head while the Dr. put stiches in. I am sure he must have put some numbing stuff on it first I don’t really remember but Verne was so good for the Dr. that he got a sucker and a brave boy sticker for being such a good brave boy . I think maybe he was stunned by it all ,because I remember being amazed that he was not screaming. The Dr. asked me if I could handle holding his head while he did the stiches.I think I was a little stunned too because I just said “yes”