Glenn's Cut

On the evening of February 6th, Paul and Glenn were running around after dinner.  I was washing dishes when I heard this super high scream come from the bedroom.  At first I wasn't sure if it was a bad scream or a playful scream.  Two seconds later I saw that it had been a bad scream.

Glenn had tripped over a stuffed animal while running around with Paul.  Normally he is pretty good at catching himself, but it had been flicked into his path and he didn't have time to react.  He went down and hit his eyebrow into the corner of the dresser.  Ouch!  

I was pretty upset at first.  This could have been prevented!  Why did he have to get hurt?!  Why did Paul allow this?  Etc.  But Maren told me to calm down and that my anger wasn't helping anything.  I hadn't been shouting, but I was saying stuff under my breath and was upset that this happened at all.  We called our insurance to find out where we needed to go--we had never had anything happen like this and we were new and didn't know what was closest.  

We got directions to an urgent care place and took Glenn there.  The roads here in Texas can be a little strange to newcomers.  They have a vast frontage road system along their freeways and it can be confusing.  We passed the urgent care center by accident and had to loop around to get to it again.  When we took Glenn in and had the doctor look at it, she said it was pretty deep--that we would probably need a plastic surgeon to look at it and sew it up, especially since it was on his face.  What?!  Poor Glenn!  Poor Paul too.  He had been holding Glenn for awhile now and was wearing a winter coat and with the news of it being more serious than he thought, it was more than he could handle.  I looked at him and noticed that the color was draining from his face, so I quickly took Glenn from him and he passed out onto the chair.  They reclined him and got him cool and okay.  He felt a little foolish, but really, I'm surprised it didn't happen to all of us!  I don't know how I kept my cool--I really don't to well with big cuts and injuries.  Even Maren, who is normally totally fine with this kind of stuff had gotten slightly light-headed when we were at home.  She wasn't with us at the urgent care, so we had to sit there and wait until Paul was feeling good enough to walk--there was no way I could hold Glenn and support Paul back into the car and drive to the hospital.  Thankfully the hospital was just through the parking lot and we got to it within a few minutes.  

We had to wait there for awhile until they could see us.  Glenn had perked up a bit and liked looking at the fish while we waited.  He had gotten a better bandage on his cut than what we had had at home--a paper towel.  

Then we were called back into one of the rooms.  A doctor came in to look at it and ask some questions.  he said he would be back soon.  Then a nurse came in to look at it and ask some questions.  she said she would be back soon.  We waited and waited, then finally the nurse came back, and then the doctor--but it was a different doctor.  He looked at it and said that he could take care of it-no problem.  We were worried that a plastic surgeon would need to do it.  But he said that it wasn't that deep and he could sew it up just fine.  We took some of the down time to call Grandma Esther.  

Then it was time to get it stitched up.  This was the worst part!  They moved the bed away from the wall and wrapped Glenn tightly in a sheet.  I asked if that was necessary and the nurse said that it was.  She said we would be amazed at the strength that these kids have when they are hurt.  So Paul had to hold Glenn down--basically lying across his body to make sure Glenn wouldn't try to mess up with the stitching.  The nurse held his head and a covering over his right eye.  

Glenn got a numbing shot right into the cut and he screamed so loud!  I felt so bad because I couldn't do anything for him.  We just had to wait for that to sink in and for the doctor to get stitching.  

Because I couldn't really do anything, I took some pictures and a video.  I wondered if I was a 'bad mom' for doing so, but I thought that maybe one day he might want to see it.  It was so heartbreaking though hearing him scream and cry and ask his daddy to just take him away from there.  

But soon it was all over and he was done.  I was happy that it was closed, but I was afraid that it would be this big ugly scar on his perfect face and I didn't want that.  Poor little guy!

A couple days later I took some pictures to see how it was healing.  His bruise was turning that yellow-green color, but the swelling had gone down and the wound was closing up.  And Glenn didn't seem too worried about it anymore.

Then on Tuesday the 12th, he got the stitches out.  So I took one last shot with the 4 blue stitches.

And some of the doctor taking them out.  He did so well!  He didn't move or flinch.  

He was sure brave!

And that's how he looked when they were all out.  Still pretty noticeable and I was still afraid that it would look big like that forever.  

But 5 days later it was looking better.  The doctor said it would just take time.  And she also recommended putting some Vitamin E gel on it every day.  Time will see how it heals.