Stitches for Elise

While our babysitter was watching the kids this past Monday, Elise slipped on our kitchen rug and hit the back of her head on a little stool in our kitchen, resulting in a cut. Our babysitter calmed Elise down, stopped the bleeding and put some antibiotic ointment on the cut.

When I got home and looked at it, pulling all the hair back, I immediately thought it might need stitches. However, since we'd learned (from Isaac's stitches experience) that you don't necessarily have to rush to the ER for stitches, depending on the severity of the injury, I put Elise down for nap and called our home-visiting urgent care pediatrician, Dr Sara. She said there are two concerns with lacerations like this - 1)cosmetic issues, meaning a future scar and 2)risk of infection. Since the cut was on Elise's scalp, the scar would not be an issue, but there could still be a risk of infection if the cut wasn't stitched back together. She advised me to let Elise sleep and then see how it looked when she woke up. If it was oozing blood, we would need to seriously consider stitches. Well, I let Elise sleep and hoped the boo-boo wouldn't be bleeding when she woke. But it was. I took a picture on my iPad and sent it to Dr Sara. She took one look and said, "Yes, she needs stitches." I agreed and asked her to come on out. She arrived around 6:30 Monday night with everything she needed to perform the procedure. Here is what Elise's cut looked like when the doctor arrived:


But Elise was in very good spirits...


The first thing we did was to clean the wound with saline water. Well, Dr Sara did it, but I held Elise and the drip tray. :) Then she applied a cotton ball, saturated with numbing cream. I held it in place for about 30 minutes to ensure the area was completely numb before the stitches.


Then came the stitches... Dr Sara had a sterile kit that she got out, we put Veggie Tales on for Elise to watch, and I held her while the doctor put them in. Dr Sara is so awesome - she used two hairclips to keep Elise's hair back - didn't have to trim any of her hair at all!


Elise didn't flinch at all during the procedure, and Dr Sara was very quick, so it went very smoothly. (We also had several close friends and family members praying!) Dr Sara let Elise choose a treat from her goody bag, and Elise chose a lollipop. In fact, she grabbed three. :)

Here are her stitches, and the nicely closed wound:


We were all done by 8PM and Elise was ready for bed at 8:30. She slept all night peacefully, on her side (since she couldn't sleep on her back.) Steven and I slept peacefully too, knowing our baby's boo-boo was all fixed!

The plan is for the stitches to come out on Tuesday. We are so thankful for Dr Sara and how smoothly this all went! It was way better than sitting for hours in an ER like we did with Isaac!

Elise, you are a trooper! We are proud of you for being so brave!