In Stitches

I spoke to Girl C's mom today (whom I had just met for the first time yesterday when I ran out of Girl E's house to tell her not to be alarmed when she went inside and saw her daughter bleeding profusely); she said that the poor little girl ended up with something like 10 stitches in her eyebrow and another 8 or so in her lip. Luckily the ER was able to summon a plastic surgeon to do it. Having brought all 3 of my own kids to the ER with blood streaming from their heads, I can really sympathize with the terror and worry. (Let's recap: Steph fell backward off the couch at about age 5 or 6 and got 3 stitches in the back of her head, then came Pete's incident at age 5, and then Julie's experience at age 2½—which had the added excitement of Pete's simultaneous ER visit for a nonbleeding problem.)

Julie made her friend a card with pictures of rainbows and flowers and wrote "I hope your face feels better."

Comments

[Margaret]

So, what happened to cause that kind of mayhem? Alison has had three sets of stitches in her face--eyebrow, chin and along her eye. She was always my adventurous one. Now she channels that into gymnastics, which is utterly terrifying.

[Susan]

Must be the name Alison (with that exact spelling). Last year, at age 4, my Alison whacked her face on her sister's bed frame and ended up with five stitches across the bridge of her nose and five in the eyebrow. Be sure to advise the parents of Girl C to buy scar serum/Vitamin E and use it diligently. It works, especially on that youthful skin.

[Elena]

What did Girl E's mom do during this episode? I think I would have accompanied the mom to the ER. She must feel absolutely awful about the whole thing.

[the nag]

It never ends. My younger son(23) broke two fingers at work yesterday and needed 14 stitches. When he came through the door and I saw his bandaged hand my stomach flipped.

[Di]

Believe it or not, I have been RELIEVED when it has been kid A instead of kid B who got hurt at my house because I know kid A's parents can deal with it, are not going to blame me and understand that these things happen.

If you are smart as well as scarily prepared as I tend to be...you will photocopy your insurance card and give each of your kids' friends' parents the copy along with a release to authorize medical treatment in your absence. I actually only usually do that when we are traveling, but it's not too bad of an idea if your child has friends whose parents you trust and who you know would take matters into hand if something happened.