First Trip To Urgent Care

Last week we had to make our first trip to an Urgent Care clinic. I really thought I would have had to make the trip prior to now, since our kids are now 6 (and a half) and 2 (and a half). (the “and a half” is added because we are always reminded by our little Moo that she is officially “six-and-a-half” now that we have passed through September. “Because there are 12 months in a year, and I was born in March, which is the 3rd month, and since September is the 9th month, it’s past 6 months, which is half of 12 months, so I’m six-and-a-half now!” Can’t fault her logic. :-)

So, back to the Urgent Care trip. Neither of our offspring are overly graceful. But I would say they are as clumsy as average 6 and 2 year olds are, depending on the activity and the day or the moment or... I just thought I would have had to take Moo before I’d be taking Bean for some sort of injury. See, Moo can be a little dramatic. (just a tad!) She has a tendency to OVEREXAGGERATE little things. Something like catching a toe on a rug that for most people would be a little hop to catch your balance, for R1 will turn into a stumble-scramble-WOOAAHHH-arms flailing-falling-down-on-the-floor-is-everyone-watching-me-now kind of catastrophe. (those of you that know her, know this is very true) I was making dinner in the kitchen and the kids were watching a video in our bedroom. Well, Moo was watching the video, Bean was having fun making the dog go crazy around the room because the dog was chasing the little red dot from the laser pointer that Bean was controlling, while standing on the bed. Bean must have caught a toe (or something) in the bedding, because the next thing I know, the laughter turned into screaming, and Moo comes running into the kitchen, pale-faced, and tells me screams at me to come quick, “THERE’S BLOOD!”. He’d fallen and hit his head on the dresser.

I go into the bedroom and find Bean laying on the bed with half of his face covered in blood. Thankfully whatever it is that moms have that enable them to function rationally in a crisis situation kicked in, and I very calmly picked him up and took him to the kitchen. With one hand I turned on the water and grabbed a wash cloth so I could clean the blood away to see where it was all coming from, and with the other arm got him tilted back and relaxed so we could assess the situation. The poor little guy had a pretty deep, but not all that long gash above his right eye. I think to myself “Stitches…I think he might need stitches.” Then I think “Superglue. If I had some superglue and a couple of butterfly bandages, I might be able to make it stay closed.” Then comes the “I should still take him in…it’s on his face…what if it gets infected…and he probably does need stitches.” So I get J, (who was outside doing yard work) and have him come in to keep an eye on Moo and finish up dinner so I can take Bean to the Urgent Care center for a couple of stitches in his forehead. Bean has now calmed down and is ready to go “bye-bye” happy as can be. Which then makes me go back to the superglue and bandage thought, but second guess myself again.

We get to the Urgent Care where the Dr. takes a look at his forehead and tells me that it’s a judgement call on the stitches. The cut is deep enough for stitches, but only long enough for a couple, so perhaps these little steri-strip doo-dads would do the trick. It would be less traumatic for Bean, and easier to do. So with a little assistance from the nurse and mom the Dr. applies a few of the strips to pull together the cut and keep it closed. We head for home with a patched forehead and a couple of “I was a good patient” stickers to make it all better.

Things were good until we put him to bed that night. Bean likes to sleep on his tummy, which also means he sleeps on his face. At some point between 9pm when we laid him down and 11pm when I went to go check on him, the strips had loosened and he was bleeding again. Now comes the superglue and butterfly bandages! Momma sent daddy to the store at 11:30 to gather a collection of First aid supplies. (the Snoopy bandages in the medicine cabinet just wouldn’t do for this job!) Daddy held him still and Momma pulled the cut closed and slapped a couple of butterfly bandages across it to keep it together. Viola! It stayed shut. No more blood!

This fix lasted for about 3 days…until he fell again, this time on the kitchen floor, causing the cut to pop wide open and start bleeding all over again.

Urgent Care pt. 2 – A second Dr. looks at his head and tells me they stitches can only be done if they are done within the first 8 hrs of the injury. Ah. Ok. So…what do we do with his head? We apply more strips. This time they applied strips all across the cut to make a large patch over the whole thing. She tells me “I kind of overdid it…this way, if he bumps it again, hopefully they will hold.” Gee…thanks! Turns out, this time, they did. We removed the last of Bean’s “strips” last night after a bath.

As I was cleaning up some of the remaining adhesive from around the area and preparing to put some Vitamin E oil on the scar to help minimize scarring in the long term, Bean looks up at me and tells me “Chic’s dig scars.”

Let’s hope they do, buddy, let’s hope they do. Something tells me we’re not done with Urgent Care just yet.