And then, tonight at 6:10 Jason called me. It was right in between two of my piano lessons. He said Adam fell off a bike, cut his cheek open and needed to get stitches.
And suddenly all of that silly stuff I was upset about yesterday just didn't matter anymore.
My next piano student arrived 5 minutes later. I met them at the end of the driveway with a bag full of pudding cups, a new shirt, Adam's blankie and an iPad and fairly demanded that they take me to Urgent Care. Not only did Rachael immediately comply, she gathered up Leah and Emma and took them home with her so that Jason and I could both stay with Adam. True friends are the ones that help you out in an emergency, and I couldn't be more thankful for their help.
Once we were set up in the room and Adam's band-aid was replaced with a numbing-agent-filled cotton ball, I was able to get the full story.
Adam's birthday is next week. He wants a bike, and Jason took the kids to Wal-Mart to figure out what size he needs. While he was riding on a too-big bike, he tried to turn around, the bike started wobbling and tipped over. He fell into the corner of a metal display case and cut his cheek about one inch below his eye. The doctor measured the cut- one and three-quarters inch wide. Adam stood up holding his cheek and started screaming. Jason headed out of the store, stopping an employee along his way to get a band-aid. A lady in the fabric department grabbed a scrap of cloth to help clean up the blood and the workers helped Jason get the kids into the car.
When the doctor came in to check out the cut, he told us he could glue it together while Adam was strapped into a papoose. No numbing shots, no stitches, no follow up visit in a few weeks. We just had to convince him that he could be strapped down and hold his head still. So we interrupted his iPad play (today, I thank the Lord for that thing!) to tell him he got to get wrapped up like a mummy! How exciting!
He screamed so hard he has popped blood vessel freckles all over his face. I nearly passed out (you would think that as many times as I've given birth I would be okay with a little blood, but coming out of my baby's face? Not so much.). Jason held the iPad in place so Adam could watch a snippet of Toy Story while they pinched his face back together with some purple squeezers and glue.
It was terrible. And then it was over.
No extended exposure to sunlight (worsens the scarring). No scrubbing with washcloths for 10 days (Adam'll love that!). No immersion in water. (Heavenly Father knew we didn't need those silly old swimming lessons anyway).
And then we were off to get the celebratory ice cream and pick up the sisters. And Adam was back his usual adorable, talkative, high energy self. He struck up a conversation with another little boy at the ice cream shop about which church he goes to, relished in the fact that I sat by him in the back of the car ("Do you want to see my secret passageway, Mommy?") and went to bed laughing out loud as he fed me bombs that exploded inside my tummy. He told me he looked in the mirror and saw his owie, and that it looked, "BAAAAD."
He's tough stuff. He loves to climb, jump, run, roll, and worry his parents. I'm sure this is not the last time we'll have to take him in to be put back together again.
And I am very grateful for the reminder about what is really important, but Lord, the next time could you just send me a text?
5 comments:
Poor little man. So glad that I was able to help!
And my sister had a similar thing happen when she was around his age--we kept a bandaid over the scar whenever she was out in the sun for the next year or so and it faded so much that you can't see it now. (Kind of a pain, but with facial scars, I guess it's worth it!) Anyway, just thought I'd pass that along. I think my mom may have also used Vitamin E oil or something like that...I'll ask her.
I had a really bad cut beneath my eye a couple of years ago from an exploding glass pie pan. It bled everywhere, but the scar's faded so much even I can barely see it these days. Keeping the sun off is key--I wore a hat or a bandaid whenever I was outside for the next six months, and was very careful about sunscreen. Vitamin E also helps a lot. I got the little liquid gel pills, poked them open with a (sterile) pin, squeezed out the gel, and smeared it on the cut.
Hope the little guy heals well!
Oh! What a tough day you had! And you still were so willing to help us when we needed a run to the ER too! I didn't know! You are a good person, Melanie!
I'm so glad Adam is feeling better and I am feeling extremely grateful for modern medicine after yesterday:).
Take care today--no runs to the hospital, please! And feed Adam some of that chocolate ice cream for me too:).
Poor Adam...poor Mama! So glad he's okay!
Ahhh, poor little man! What a trooper, though. I'm so sorry! What a rough, rough day all around. (((hugs)))
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