Simply mad about Chad and his baby sister Annabel!: There once was a tree…

I know I posted a little bit about “the tree incident” in the earlier post but I wanted to go back and recount from accident to stitches – just to have everything written down!

OK – so he is how it went down.

Chad and I were playing on the trampoline. We were ready to get off so we called Craig to come and help us down. Craig got Chad down first (very safely and easily) and then Chad took off running like he normally does. He ran past the tree and then as he was coming back, I guess he wasn’t looking and hit the tree. We didn’t see it (Craig was helping me down off the trampoline) but we heard Chad crying. And, at first really didn’t think anything of it because quite frankly Chad gets hurt about 1,000 times per day. But, I look over and see BLOOD. I yell BLOOD – GO CRAIG. So, he scooped Chad up and took him into the house. Annabel and I finished getting off the trampoline. I went inside and Craig had Chad cleaned up and asked me to calmly take a look at it. Chad was calm at this point as well. I looked and said I think we need to take him in for stitches.

I first called my regular pediatrician and she said they don’t do stitches in their office. So, Craig stayed home with Annabel (I decided that all of us didn’t need to go) and I took Chad to a local ER called St. Michael’s ER who advertises “no wait” and we have been there before. The ER doctor took a look and really didn’t know what to do. I expressed concern over scarring since it was right smack dab in the middle of his cheek. The cut was not “clean.” And, the doctor knew if it did need stitches Chad was going to have to be sedated. So, they cleaned it and sent us on our way with instructions to follow up with a plastic surgeon on Tuesday.

I worked on a committee at the hospital with a local plastic surgeons wife who has a very good reputation in the area. I called her on Monday night (one of the perks of knowing someone personally is you have their cell phone number) and she called the doc that night – he was still in surgery. He said it would be fine to wait until the next day and to make an appointment with his office for the next day. We got in at 11:45am (this was now on Tuesday). He looked at the wound (as much as he could since Chad had now caught on to what was going on and it involved pain and was no longer a willing participant in this whole scenario. ) He said it would for sure need stitches and he worked us into his surgery schedule at 7:00am in the next morning.

So, we got up yesterday (Wednesday) and headed to the surgery center for a 6:00am arrival. They got us into pre-op fairly quickly and explained the procedure and the anesthesia. They said they were first going to give Chad a drink to calm him down. Then, they would put him to sleep with a mask and then insert the IV. So, they gave us the “drink.” Then, when it was time to take him back another anesthesiologist came to our room and Chad was talking, asking him rapid fire questions about who he was and what he was doing and what his equipment was, etc. Then doctor looked at me and said, “I guess they haven’t given him the medicine yet?” Uh yes, doctor, that is Chad WITH the calming medicine. I just had a to laugh.

So, they wheeled him back about 7:20am. At 8:00am the doctor came out and talked to us. Chad did great. He said he got the initial surface of the wound cleaned (lots of dirt and bark) and then opened the wound up and there was even more bark. He said he did about 8 stitches total.

About 8:20am Chad was waking up. Curtis his nurse said that he was doing fine and was talking to him calmly. But, when we got back there he was crying and somewhat inconsolable. They said that is normal for children coming out of anesthesia. So, they gave him some apple juice and moved us to a room with cartoons. He calmed down then and we were able to go home.

We were home by 9:00am. He went in a watched cartoon and ate some crackers and drank some more juice.

By 10:00am – he was asking to go jump on the trampoline.

Here is the before picture of the wound taken at the Plastic Surgeons office: