A little over a week before school started, my six year old was goofing around with his three year old brother. I'm not exactly sure what they were doing. I was getting food out of the refrigerator for lunch when I heard a thud and crying. My six year old came over with a big gash in his chin. Apparently he hit it on the edge of the coffee table.
Last summer his brother was walking on the couch with a blanket over his head and fell over the edge onto a Thomas the Train spin and fix toy. He split his right eyebrow and needed two stitches. Based on that experience, I could tell my six year old also needed stitches. It looked about as deep as it could go and was split wide open. When a cut doesn't stop bleeding after ten minutes and starts getting clear colored pus coming out of it, it definitely needs stitches.
Urgent care is much cheaper. Usually you just have to pay a co-pay. The wait is always long though, so we went to the emergency room. We waited about a half hour in the waiting room, which wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, we had another hour and a half wait once we got into a room. Luckily, I had brought a snack and my Soap Opera Digest to read. My six year old brought his Nintendo DS to keep busy. In a way, the wait was kind of relaxing since we couldn't do anything except sit and wait. I never sit down for two hours to just read!
Finally, the doctor in his cotton medical scrubs came in to examine my son. The cut was right on the bottom of his chin. The doctor's two options were to use a special glue to close the wound or the old fashioned stitches. If we chose the glue, my son would have to be very careful not to bump his chin, so the wound wouldn't split open again. With him being very active and a three year old brother who's always rough-housing with him, I didn't think the glue would be a good option, so we went with the old fashioned stitches.
First the doctor numbed the area. A nurse wearing scrubs that looked like they were purchased from http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/ held his head. The doctor then put in two stitches. My son was very tough and did a great job holding still while the doctor put in the stitches. Afterwards, my son said he used "the force" to hold still. lol. He's a huge Star Wars fan. After five days, his regular doctor took the stitches out. She said the wound was healing very well.
According to the doctor's from both times we went for stitches, facial stitches for boys are an inevitable rite of passage. They all had scars to show from when they were boys. The boys' father has facial scars. I even have a couple from wiping out on my brother's bike in my parent's gravel driveway. I almost passed out. I had a fat lip for a few days. It was really bad.
My youngest son's scar has healed very well. Two months later my oldest son still has a bit of a reddish scar. Hopefully with time, it will heal and not leave much of a scar.
Last summer his brother was walking on the couch with a blanket over his head and fell over the edge onto a Thomas the Train spin and fix toy. He split his right eyebrow and needed two stitches. Based on that experience, I could tell my six year old also needed stitches. It looked about as deep as it could go and was split wide open. When a cut doesn't stop bleeding after ten minutes and starts getting clear colored pus coming out of it, it definitely needs stitches.
Urgent care is much cheaper. Usually you just have to pay a co-pay. The wait is always long though, so we went to the emergency room. We waited about a half hour in the waiting room, which wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, we had another hour and a half wait once we got into a room. Luckily, I had brought a snack and my Soap Opera Digest to read. My six year old brought his Nintendo DS to keep busy. In a way, the wait was kind of relaxing since we couldn't do anything except sit and wait. I never sit down for two hours to just read!
Finally, the doctor in his cotton medical scrubs came in to examine my son. The cut was right on the bottom of his chin. The doctor's two options were to use a special glue to close the wound or the old fashioned stitches. If we chose the glue, my son would have to be very careful not to bump his chin, so the wound wouldn't split open again. With him being very active and a three year old brother who's always rough-housing with him, I didn't think the glue would be a good option, so we went with the old fashioned stitches.
First the doctor numbed the area. A nurse wearing scrubs that looked like they were purchased from http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/ held his head. The doctor then put in two stitches. My son was very tough and did a great job holding still while the doctor put in the stitches. Afterwards, my son said he used "the force" to hold still. lol. He's a huge Star Wars fan. After five days, his regular doctor took the stitches out. She said the wound was healing very well.
According to the doctor's from both times we went for stitches, facial stitches for boys are an inevitable rite of passage. They all had scars to show from when they were boys. The boys' father has facial scars. I even have a couple from wiping out on my brother's bike in my parent's gravel driveway. I almost passed out. I had a fat lip for a few days. It was really bad.
My youngest son's scar has healed very well. Two months later my oldest son still has a bit of a reddish scar. Hopefully with time, it will heal and not leave much of a scar.
Comments