Friday, June 24, 2016

Connor and his stitches

Words can not accurately describe how difficult it was to deal the ordeal of Connor tripping and falling into the corner of our coffee table and puncturing a whole in his mouth.  Actually typing it, still almost brings tears to my eyes.

To think that it happened on the last day of school when there was summer and all of the possibilities of fun in front of us is just so sad.  We had planned to go to the pool and were waiting for Michael to go home.  We were fine with a bit of the delay thinking that the pool didn't open until after 3 p.m. but after we had left a message for Michael to meet us there, we moved towards the door. Jackson was out the door and when I looked back, Connor was on the ground in a heap crying. He explained that he had started walking and fell into the table.

I quickly reacted and asked for Jackson to get a red towel to help hide the massive amount of blood from Connor as best we could.  When I pulled back the towel, there was no way to feel hopeful about what had happened.  There was a hole in Connor's mouth that punctured all the way through.  He was most concerned about stitches and in an effort to be completely transparent with him, I explained to him that it was most likely going to be stitches.

Jackson really struggles with holding back and was telling him how horrible it looked and how much blood there was.  In his defense, he was trying to comfort Connor and was really worried about him. I had Jackson grab things that we were going to need for a trip to the ER.  As we were packing up, Michael walked through the door. We finished loading into the car and were ready for our trip to GBMC.


Upon arrival, there was a slight wait and Connor was trying to bargain over the need for stitches.  It was very clear that stitches were necessary and we didn't want him to think otherwise. EVERY time the mention of stitches (a lot thanks to Jackson) came up, Connor started sobbing uncontrollably again and again.  It totally felt that the clock wasn't moving in the waiting room.  Connor was beside himself.  We couldn't get him to redirect at all.

Luckily, we were called back and someone finally confirmed to Connor that stitches were necessary.  Again, the sobbing. It was SOOOOOOOO sad.  Nobody ever warns you about how hard this parenting thing is and I know with boys, stitches are basically inevitable but you will never be prepared when it is time.






A plan was put into action for Connor to get anesthesia, which we had to agree to and release the hospital in case there was any issue, to settle him down.  Every staff member could tell how anxious he was about the idea of a needle coming in to his face.


He eventually calmed down but that was only after we found the Orioles game.


Jackson and I were asked to leave the room while the anesthesia was administered.  Connor was given the highest dose possible of anesthesia and it initially had the reverse effect on him.  He was even more hyped up about the ordeal than ever before.   And to think how irrational he was about getting the board and tape, the actual needle to administer the anesthesia wasn't going to go well.  It took several of the hospital staff and Michael holding him down.   Before we left, we gave hugs and kisses to Connor, including Jackson.




Jackson and I left the room at the doctor's instructions for Connor to get stitches.  We had to secure some food for him while Connor got his stitches as it was after 8 p.m. and he was hungry.

Once we returned and after more waiting, we found a sleeping Connor.  Finally!!!!


Everything was stitched up and he was in a happy place.  All of the doses of anesthesia finally caught up with him.  It was so nice to see him sleeping. Unfortunately, we had to wake him up and have him answer several questions before we were allowed to be discharged.


A before and after.....

A picture of our Connor sleeping in the bottom bunk. We were so happy to get him back to the house after a LONG afternoon/evening.  The bottom bunk has been reserved by Jackson since the spring.   This was not up for negotiation as we were concerned about Connor negotiating the steps if there were lingering effects of anesthesia.


The next morning, daddy happily obliged and picked Connor up a vanilla milkshake.  While he enjoyed his milkshake, we tackled an adjustment to our summer bucket list based upon Connor's inability to get his wound submerged in water.  First up, canceling swim lessons...






No comments:

Post a Comment