So, I’m blogging away yesterday thinking about getting my table ready, and contacting my friend Twana to wish her a happy birthday, and just overall feeling very content with how the morning was going, when reality showed up!

I was in the bathroom trying to be a good FlyLady (makeup, shoes, the whole bit) when I hear the boys downstairs goofing off. Before I knew it I could hear the whaling of pain and dispair.  My 4th son Noah is known to produce such a sound, whether for a severed artery or a paper cut, itmakes litle difference. Any physical injury with that kid produces the same amount of drama, so I am more apt these days to take a deep breath and a watchful waiting approach to his screams and cries because most of the time, it really is nothing.

I heard the kids in the downtown bathroom with Noah continuing to cry, but he was also yelling at Gabe so I figured they were arguing over something.A few minutes later Gabe calmly and quietly tells me, “Mom, Noah hit his head and it’s bleeding a little bit.”

Gulp.

Of course I race down the stairs to see my 13-year-old Sam, holding a wash cloth over Noah’s head applying direct pressure (I was very proud of Sam).  Blood was everywhere, all over the floor and sink and Noah’s shirt.  It looked like someone had slaughtered a small animal in there. However, experienced mom that I am, I KNOW that head and mouth injuries bleed A LOT!! and they usually look a lot worse than they really are.  I helped Sam clear the blood out of Noah’s hair and with a lot of water and patience in separating the matted hair I found a 3/4 inch wound just above his left ear.  It was a clean wound but the edges wouldn’t stay together and I kind of felt he was going to need stitches.

I called Mr. Pete at work and asked him about it. He said, “Put some Bacetracin on it. It’ll be fine.

Keep in mind that Mr. Pete is the 8th of 9 children and his mom was very good at taking care of minor injuries at home. You sort of have to be with a large family or you’ll spend a lot of time sitting in emergency rooms and doctor’s offices.

Still this wound just gave me a funny feeling so I after I hung up with my husband I called the pediatrician. Surprisingly they don’t even do sutures there. They refer any type of injury like that to the emergency room. They did tell me though that from the time of injury you have about 4 hours before it’s too late to put sutures in.

Since we were planning to go to Sam’s composition class that day, I cleaned Noah up as best I could, and put everyone in the truck to go out to Sam’s class. When we got there I had no problem finding quite a few moms to give me their opinion of Noah’s injury.  The concensus was to take Noah to the nearest ER and have a doctor look at his wound.

So off to the nearest emergency room we went, me and 4 of my 6 children. The hospital staff was very kind and it wasn’t a very busy day for them. They do ask a lot of questions, many of them several times. I think they want to rule out cases of abuse. But Noah had his story and he was sticking to it!

Turns out they did think the wound was bad enough for stitches but they gave us staples because then he would be able to shampoo his hair.   I saw a tear when they gave him a shot of anesthetic to numb the scalp, but he was a real trooper with the actual staples.

The nurse said that he was very brave and that the staples would only have to stay in for a week.

Gabe said, “Luckily the week is almost over!”

Gotta love that kid…

So it wasn’t the Candlemass/Groundhog’s Day I had hoped for, but it all worked out.  It usually does!