Lexi Gets Stitches

So I've got a story to tell, and I wanted to tell it before I forget the details. The scary details!

It all started on a lovely Saturday afternoon in September (the 10th), when we enjoyed a family outing to the Natural History Museum.

Jake came with us, we had a good time and went for free thanks to the Library reading program, and then it was time to go. Jake drove separately, and he went to work the U of U football game, and I was going to take the girls home. Seeing how it was a free afternoon in Salt Lake on a beautiful sunny day, I thought hey, why don't we stop somewhere? I know! How bout the Gilgal Sculpture Garden? Ya know, that hidden mysterious little garden on 5th South and 7th East? My girls had never been there, but I had, and thought it was really cool.

So we drove there, got out, the girls loved the big giant gnarly tree out front and tried to climb it.

Then we entered the peaceful hidden garden, and started meandering around. I saw the girls start to jaunt along the patch around the garden, and thought yay good for them, being one with nature. I was admiring the Joseph Smith Sphinx sculpture, and just about to snapchat it, when I heard a scream from Lexi. I turned and saw her stand up and start rushing over to me with blood gushing from an open wound in her forehead! It started dripping down her shirt, and I was at a complete loss of what to do. I kept saying "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what do I do." I stayed pretty calm though, took her hand (I don't know why I didn't scoop her up and carry her. Probably because of the blood), and shakily started walking to our car. A couple was walking in, and either they didn't notice my screaming bloody child, or they didn't care, because they just smiled and kept walking. (Hello!)

We reached our car, and I grabbed a napkin from the floor and stuck it on her head. Then a wipe. Anything to cover the wound, and told her to hold her hand on it while I got her buckled. I asked her what happened, and through tears she managed to say she fell on a rock. Meanwhile, there's poor Cami who is so delicate and impressionable, just watching this whole nightmare silently. She did great, though, and was a great support. So I got my phone out and dialed Jake, and said "Lexi fell and hit her head. She's bleeding, I think she needs stitches. Where do I take her. I don't know what to do." He very calmly said that he thought I was right by an Instacare. I hung up, looked it up, and sure enough, we were 1 block away.

I drove us over there, dragged my poor wounded Lexi out of her seat and into the Instacare, and had her sit down while I checked in. It took what seemed like forever! The girl was all calm and slow, asking "Have you been here before? What's the child's name? Date of birth? Insurance?" blah blah blah....meanwhile I'm like "MY CHILD IS BLEEDING. Can we not get her some help right now, please??" They finally realized it was kind of urgent, and took us back, and offered to keep Cami occupied with coloring and suckers in the waiting room. Lex and I went back and the nurse had to peel away the napkin and inspect the wound to see if it could be treated there. When she saw it, she said "Oh wow, that is quite the wound. I'll have to ask the doctor here if he can stitch that up." Then a man came in, looked at it, and said "Oh yeah, I can stitch that up no problem." PHEW! Then I asked if I should've taken her to the ER to have a plastic surgeon do it, and he told me they probably would've given me a resident doctor anyways, and that he could do what they do. He'd done hundreds of stitches, and not to worry. So that put my mind at ease. Poor Lex, when she heard stitches, she started quietly crying, and dreading what was to come.

But she was super brave, and the nurse said she needed to clean her up first. She had to clean Lexi's hands and knees, which had been scraped and cut, and then her forehead. (Nope I will not post a picture of her forehead. It was about an inch wide and half inch tall gash though)

The gash was on the right side of her forehead by the hairline, and when she cleaned it out, she pointed out to me a little dark purple dot in the middle of the wound. She said that was a blood vessel, and the fall had JUST missed it. It would have been really bad if that had been hit. So thank goodness for that! They numbed up her forehead, which probably is what hurt the most, and had her lay down on a bed and let the numbness kick in. After she did some pitiful silent crying, she fell asleep while she laid there, and then I started getting nervous, wondering if she had gotten a concussion. Turns out she was just worn out and exhausted. The doctor woke her up and told her he was going to put antiseptic on it, and she was not happy. Not a fun way to wake up from a nap.

Anyways, it took about a half hour when all was said and done, that he worked on her. He did very careful stitches, and she had a paper napkin thing over her face while he did it. I held her hand. She didn't move a muscle or make a peep. When he announced that he was done, she sat up and was ready to go. Cami had had lots of fun with the front desk ladies, playing on their phones and coloring. Everyone there was super nice, and the doctor did a great intricate job with the 9 stitches.

Once we cleaned Lexi up and washed her hair and got the blood stains out of her shirt, her stitches stayed nicely covered with a bandaid for the next 5 days. She got them removed at our pediatrician's office, which was a little scary for her, because she didn't like those scissors so close to her face. And they kept pulling her fine little blonde baby hairs. But afterwards, all she was left with was a nice line scar that will hopefully fade into almost nothing. The day after the accident, I got more information from her and found out that it wasn't a rock that she fell onto. She tripped on a rock in the path, and fell onto the edge of a wooden bench! Ooooooh makes me shiver. Such a crazy, sad experience.

I kept thinking DANG, why did I have to take them to that stupid garden? Why couldn't I have just gone home? BUT, who's to say we would've gone home and she wouldn't have cut her head open in our backyard? You just can't do the why's and what if's. What happened, happened, although I'm super sad that it did and I still have flashbacks and cringe and feel bad every time I see her scar. I wish I could keep my babies from ever getting hurt. I just pray that those are the only stitches we'll see around here! (As I'm publishing this a few months later, we just had a scare yesterday with Cami's finger and the apple slicer, but we're in the clear. NO stitches! Whew).