Chinned Again

I just got back from the urgent care with my daughter.   Earlier tonight at bath time I came in to see water splashed on the floor.   They get a bit out from time to time but this was big splashing.   As I told them they had to get out and clean up the water, my daughter made a very large, intentional splash that went everywhere.  

There was madness…on my part.   There was complaints of innocence…on their part.   I got them out and in spite of all manner of reasons they told me they couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to clean up the mess, they got towels and started wiping up the water.   My daughter got back into the now drained tub to help me with the blinds and window area.    As she was getting out she either slipped or tripped and hit her chin.

She was initially upset, but after seeing there was not much blood she calmed down.   I, however, could see the depth of the cut and I knew we had another stitches situation.    My husband came upstairs from working in the basement and helped to get both children dressed in their pajamas.   I brushed my daughter’s wet hair and then we got in the car and headed to the urgent care near us.

As I checked in I told them in a whisper to not say, “stitches” because I didn’t want my daughter to get upset.   At that point there was no blood at all and she was happily playing with her Paw Patrol dogs.   After looking at the cut Dr. Matt checked her jaw and asked if her head was okay.   They gave her some numbing gel on the chin and twenty minutes later her chin was ready.

I had talked to her about laying very still so Dr. Matt could do his work.   He told her he was going to wash her chin and then lace it up like a shoe.   We all very much wanted her to lie still because if she struggled too much they would have to send us to the hospital for sedation for the stitches and it was already past eight o’clock.  He finished in about five minutes, adding three small, dissolvable sutures.

We never once said stitches and I don’t know that she knows that’s what she has, but she lay very still, didn’t cry or even whimper.   She was calm and cooperative.   I was so happy it was a good experience for her.

The Big Boy Update:  On the way to Tae Kwon Do my son told me, “this part of my head is getting hot.”  I looked back and saw he was lifting his shaggy, long hair up from his forehead.   I told him I know you don’t want to get your hair cut, but long hair can be hot.    He asked if I could put it up for him when we arrived.   Jokingly I’ve added a top knot to his hair before and he’s laughed and pulled it out but last week we saw another male student holding his hair back that way.   I put it in at the start of class, took a picture of him and let him laugh at himself and as soon as class was over he told me it was time to take it out.    I told him he looked like a Samurai.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was a terrified, fighting, screaming and crying child for the punch biopsy and tonight, getting stitches, she lay completely still and was very cooperative.    There are ways you can approach things as a parent and with her, we’re still learning what those best ways are.   Tonight was a good experience for her, even if it involved a doctor and stitches.