FrankenBaby

Short story: 6 stitches in the forehead, scar likely.

On Wednesday Grandpa was visiting and Michael was up in the living room, too. There was tickle play, and Zane was running away laughing, and he tripped and fell, whacking his forehead on the projecting corner of a wall by the stairs. He screamed, which didn’t surprise us since it sounded like a loud whack. I held him for a few seconds and then decided I’d better look to make sure he hadn’t hit his eyes or nose. I saw blood! I started to wipe it and there was a big deep vertical gash in his head! Aaaaaaaah! We ran to the bathroom and I wiped some blood but it was bleeding pretty fast. We hopped into my car with Michael driving and me in the back with Zane strapped into his car seat. I wasn’t sure at first if his head was cracked, but after a few minutes it was pretty clear that just his skin was split, but it was very deep and scary looking. After just a few minutes Zane stopped crying and started talking about the trucks he saw. The bleeding stopped actively gushing, too.

We got to the local Ballard Swedish emergency room, and by then he was only whimpering a little. He noticed a horse sculpture and said “horse” and whinnied, which charmed the receptionist. We ended up being there for three hours. He got some topical anesthetic on a pad which had to sit on the wound for a while to work its magic. Eventually when they were ready to stitch, he got another anesthetic up his nose which put him into a loopy stupor. He got wrapped up like a burrito, and then stitched up while I sat by him. He was so loopy he actually smiled at the women working on him. It took about 45 min for the stupor-stuff to wear off enough for us to go home. He was still quite silly for a while.

He gets stitches out Monday morning. Because it is a vertical gash the scar is more likely to be visible. It is about 1.5 inches long and sort of right of center over his eye. They said he could go to daycare, so the next day it was back to normal! We just have to disinfect and bandage and watch for infection.

Phew. We’re just very glad he’s OK and seems to be completely fine about it. Such a trooper! Several people have pointed out to me that he will have a Harry Potter scar, and it will be very distinguished, maybe even sexy. Tonight (Sunday) when I took the bandage off the skin all of a sudden looked really stitched together at the surface. The healing seems to be very even, and I really think that in a few years it could fade to a pretty thin scar. Fingers crossed!

Other stuff happened this week - Tuesday storytime was canceled so Zane and I went to the zoo instead. We spent time in the nice warm tropical house where the toucans were a favorite. We had our first carousel ride, and then picked up a monkey in the gift shop on the way home. Monkey has now become part of Zane's entourage. Zane had a fever Saturday and when he got up he camped out in the big chair for a while with Kitty and Foof on the left and Monkey and Bob on the right. They are all required for bedtime these days.

Later on in the week Zane got a digger (aka an excavator) from Daddy. When will the warmth and sunshine come back so we can dig sand? Meanwhile, I bought some polished rocks for playing with construction equipment in the kitchen. The rocks are easier to clean up than the orzo I was using earlier!