Abby's Stitches

Fred and Mom and the kids came over to stay while they had school off for ‘Blue’s Week” On Monday while they were here Melinda and I went down with Poppy to Saratoga Springs to get a load of stuff. While we were gone we got a call that Abby and fallen and cut her head. Turns out that Fred was working in the bathroom, replacing the faucet, so there was a whole bunch of stuff in the hallway. Abby was trying to walk down the hall, tripped, and hit her left eye on the cold air return. She got a nice cut right along her eyebrow line. They tried to keep her calm until we got back. Roxy was doing a good job of trying to sing to her. It was sweet. When we got done and got back home she had fallen asleep downstairs on the couch while watching a movie. It was scary to see her laying there, asleep with blood running down the side of her face. We decided to take her in to get stitches. We didn’t want her to get scar on her face. She ended up needing five stitches. She will probably end up with a scar, but thankfully, it will mostly be covered by her eyebrow.

The saddest part of the story is while she was at the Dr.’s Office. She was content to sit on the table while they took her temperature and she really liked the pulse monitor they put on her finger. I think she was nervous, or just not fully potty trained yet, but she ended up peeing on the bed while she was waiting. She really fought getting the stitches. They ended up having to wrap her up in a blanket to hold her still, and then have a couple people hold her head still. The saddest part is when she turned to Melinda and said, “Mommy help me!”. When the Dr. started the stitches she turned to her and said, “Doctor, don’t touch my eye!”. (By the way, I made Mommy take you to the Doctor). When everything was done, she got a sucker and immediately started feeling better.

Five days later we had to go back to get the stitches out. Abby was fine at first, but once we sat her on the bed she started to get nervous – “Hold my hand, Daddy”, she said. She wasn’t so excited about the pulse monitor this time, and when they took her temperature, she started to cry. When it came down to getting the stitches out I held her arms and laid my shoulder across her body. Melinda and a nurse held her head while the other nurse took the stitches out. She said to me, “Daddy, I’m stuck”. She cried while they took the stitches out, but once again at the end, a sucker made her feel better. As I carried her over to the sucker jar, through her tears she said, “Alex wants a sucker”.

She has been Alex’s interpreter lately, and she really does a pretty good job of it too.