Second Stitches Episode

J+M+J

Today I was happily playing with a couple of stuffed husky dogs, when I heard Alexander start crying and Landon calling for Mom. I rushed to the boys room and saw Landon pressing a tissue to Alex’s head. Landon lifted the tissue long enough for me to see the cut. The blood, sudden fear, Landon’s yelling for Mom, and quickness of the glimpse made the wound seem to take up half of Alex’s forehead. I took immediate action. My first step was the logical, predictable thing for am almost-teen to do when she sees her brother seriously injured and is the oldest person around the room. I screamed at the top of my lungs. What is it about girls and screaming? I didn’t think about screaming. It must be instinctual. It must be imbedded in our minds from the days when-oh, never mind when. Wherever that impulse came from, I screamed. I think that was the loudest, most sincere scream I have ever done in my life. OK, enough about my scream. Next I got Mom. She took one look at the cut, (which I now realized was a whole lot smaller than I first thought), and said that Alex needed stitches. So she took him to acute care. (Something unrelated to this blog post about acute care: when I was little I thought it was called cute care and was only for little kids who were cute.)

When Alex and Mom got home I learned a little about the trip. Apparently Alex had his charms on. He talked a lot and had an interesting conversation with the nurse when she was putting on a disinfectant. He said, “I do not like that stuff because it is cold.” The nurse told him, “Oh, I like this cold stuff because it helps the owie not hurt so much.” Alex protested, “But I do not like it!” “But you need it to help the swelling go down.” “Oh, OK” Alex talked as if he knew what swelling was and if it would help it go down, well, it was necessary. After a while, Alex just got too cute, and the nurse went to get him a little hot wheel car. Alex liked that, so when the doctor came into the room and told Alex he as going to fix his head, Alex declared, “No, her is going to do it.” When the doctor was stitching him up, Alex was being held down, and the nurse was covering his eyes. Alexander did not like that at all. He couldn’t feel anything, but he screamed and screamed and fought. Mom said that was when she found out how strong Alexander was. The doctor said, “I’m almost done.” and Alex screamed, “No, you are done, you are done.” Alexander also screamed during the operation, “I’m going to go pee! I’m going to pee on the floor!” I wonder if he really had to, or was he just saying that to get away.

I put Alex in my bed to play nurse and I told him I would get some candy for him. Then I got him toys and blankets and pillows. I asked, “Alexander, is there anything you want?” Alex responded, “Yes, umm… candy!” Alex enjoyed the multitude of surprises he got tonight, but right now he is misbehaving in his bed. So, off I go to referee.

A+M+D+G

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