Nice and Clean

"Nice" and "clean" are normally two words that I love to hear.

But not when they are said by multiple medical providers at an urgent care and E.R. about a cut on my daughter's leg!  Eek!  

(Well, except that a "nice and clean" cut is way better than a jagged, yuck cut!)

Lily Kay (who is our current kitchen-trash-taker-outer) was letting Abigail "help" her by holding the big, full trash bag.  

"Look how strong Abigail is!"  

As I turned around from the stove to admire my strong 3-year old, Abigail dropped the bag...and landed on top of it.

She immediately cried out, as she rolled off the bag to sit on the kitchen floor.  

When I saw the cut right through her jammie bottoms, I knew we were in trouble.  

I pulled the pant leg up to get a look.  Yuck.  It wasn't even bleeding yet, and all you could see was white.  The nurse later told me it is called fascia, the tissue under the skin.  Noah and LK jumped back and made gasping noises.   I immediately grabbed the two sides of the cut together and kept it squeezed shut.  

As A and I continued to sit in the middle of the kitchen floor, I had one child bring a phone over and I spoke over the speaker with Jas to formulate a plan.  

I took A to a nearby urgent care.  When we decided A needed a Tetanus Immunoglobulin shot and they didn't have it there, they sent us on to an E.R.  

This is what A looked like in the waiting room of the Urgent Care

My very professional bandage job.  Duct tape really CAN do anything!

At the E.R. they put a numbing gel on the cut, and we then had to wait 30 minutes for that to take effect.  

Noah had (so sweetly!) packed a little bag for A to bring with us full of snacks, A's baby doll, etc.  So while we waited, Abigail had a grand time playing with her baby:

When I said I wanted a picture of her and her baby, this is how she held her. Crazy girl!  You can see enough of her crinkly eye to know that she thought she was so funny!

I grabbed a pink bow to stick in A's hair as we left the house.  Priorities.

If my three-year old waiting for stitches wants some of those gloves available in a box on the wall, I get her some gloves.

Abigail was such a trooper through this whole episode.  This was literally an hours long ordeal.  From the time she cut herself, until she and I arrived back home was 5 hours.  She ended up with three stitches.

She fussed some when the doctor put the stitches in, but didn't really cry.

Three "bows" as the doctor called them.

And after the stitches, when the nurse gave her the Tetanus Immunoglobulin shot in her thigh above the stitches (a painful IM shot), A didn't even flinch or make a peep.  The nurse and I just stared at each other in (happy) surprise!

When we arrived back home, the other children had "Feel better soon" cards ready and waiting for A - so kind!  Abigail never missed a beat once we got home.  I asked her the next day if her leg hurt...and she just said, "no!"  She really needs some training on how to milk incidents like this a little better than that.

Abigail has had fun recounting the cut and stitches story to us and to others.  Her and Gabriel's pretend play now includes trips to the E.R. - a word/place neither one of them knew before!