Hudson's 1st Stitches

One day a year or so ago, Max commented to me that he was surprised that Hudson hadn't had to get stitches yet. He's an active boy (to say the least) and we knew that there was absolutely no way that he'd escape his growing years without them. Well, that impending day was yesterday...

I was sitting down here in my office/craft room when I heard a thud, then Hudson screaming a horrible scream, and Max calling for me. I ran upstairs and at Max's request made a bee-line for the laundry room where I grabbed a couple of rags. On my way to the two of them, Max said that we'd be needing to leave for InstaCare right away. Boy, was he ever right. Hudson had a beautiful gash to the left side of his forehead, thanks to his running into a corner wall with all of his 5-year-old might (same corner I broke my toe on back in December...bad wall!). I quickly made a round of calls, trying to find someplace to take Claire. Once that was squared away, Max and I took turns keeping pressure on Hudson's head while getting everyone ready to leave. Being a good mom, I made sure to grab our small digital camera on the way out the door. We dropped Claire off at a friend's place and then headed downtown. On the way there, Hudson commented that the builders of our house shouldn't have put that corner so close. Shame on them! Here's a little clip of Hudson during our visit to InstaCare:

In case you can't understand his explanation, he was throwing his favorite stuffed animal (a black lab named Miles after our dog) up in the air and catching him. On his final throw, he made the fatal move, smacking directly into that deadly corner while attempting to reach the dog before it hit the ground.

Prior to my taking the above clip, he "got to" have the wound partially numbed out in the waiting area (gel in a syringe...no needle). He laid across our laps and cried and cried as the nurse did her thing. Once the gel had started working, we were taken back to the triage area where they cleaned him up. We then shielded his eyes so he couldn't see as the doctor further numbed the area with a needle. He cried a bit at first but once the numbing agent settled in, he started to laugh. He found it extremely amusing that he couldn't feel it. And we were all glad he couldn't feel it and much preferred his laughter to crying. The rest of the procedure went beautifully. Hudson was calm and happy, talking to us from beneath his green drape, asking questions and counting stitches. When all was said and done, he had 2 interior stitches and 4 on the outside. Much to Hudson's delight, the exterior stitches are blue...his favorite color. Bonus!

In the collage above, there are two pics of him with his cool red post-gel headband in the waiting area (thumbs up because he's playing with Max's iPhone). Then you have a few shots of pre-suture fun such as measuring the 2 cm gash, getting numbing shots (you can see his smile/laughter), and pic of the Hudson and his un-stitched cut. Lastly, we have the final product...beautiful blue stitches in the forehead of a very proud boy. In case you can't tell, the one shot of him lying down has a thumbs-up for a job well done and a claw since he's now our little Frankenstein.

I did take two other videos while we were there - one of the 1st three exterior sutures being done and one of the final/4th exterior suture going in (it was a last-minute addition). Hudson was happy to pose for pictures during our time there but the video...now THAT was the icing on the cake for him. He just loves watching clips of himself. Now if I can convince him that injuries are not the best way to get me to take video of him.

First set of sutures down...here's hoping we don't have many (or any) more to go!