Fletcher's 4 Staples

If you follow me on instagram, you know that our Saturday night did not go as planned.  Warning: these pictures of Fletcher are a little hard to see.  I've always documented the good and bad of our lives for the last 8 years so I felt like our first (and hopefully last) encounter with staples needed to be documented.

Saturday, August 17, 2019:

We booked our favorite babysitting duo and were looking forward to a date night to go to a faculty dinner with Kevin's coworkers.  I baked cookies, we got dressed up and had everything ready to go for the sitters.  The kids were thrilled to hang out with their favorite ladies and we were thrilled for a date night.  We had been gone for about 15 minutes and I get a frantic phone call from the babysitters.

They said Fletcher hit his head during a game of hide and seek and he was bleeding.  They said he was really upset and we needed to come home.  We turned right around and zoomed as quickly as we could.  We asked if it seemed like he'd need stitches and they just said he was really bleeding.  They told us later that they were going to send us a picture, but it looked too awful to send.

We walked in the door and could hear Fletcher crying.

I wasn't quite prepared for the scene we were going to walk into at home.

One of the babysitters was covered in blood.

Fletcher was covered in blood and his head was bloody.

Since he has such light hair, his whole head was blood soaked and we couldn't tell how bad the cut was.  He had a giant goose egg and a big cut.  He was so upset and didn't want anyone to go near his head.  Kevin took one look at it and said we needed to go to the ER.  I wiped off his face a bit, packed up his favorite things (blanket, puppy, water bottle, shoes, change of clothes and snacks) and we left Olive home with the babysitters.  They were all kind of shell shocked.  We appreciated their quick reaction to call us and were so thankful they could stay home with Olive.  We scrapped our dinner plans and headed straight to the ER.

Fletcher had a million questions and wasn't thrilled to be heading to the hospital.  (What are they going to do to me?  Am I getting a shot?  Do I have to go?  Am I still bleeding?) Remember, this isn't his first ER visit - In the Blink of an Eye.  Kevin dropped us off curbside and I went to get us checked in.  All of our information was current and Fletcher was pretty cooperative.  A sweet receptionist brought him over a puppy pillow which he loved.  He was excited for his puppy to have a friend.  I texted my family and asked them to pray for Fletcher.

We got called back to a room pretty quickly and it wasn't long before there were talks of cleaning him up, numbing shots, tylenol and staples.  My heart sunk because it all sounded awful.  I knew it would hurt.  Thankfully Fletch was pretty sweet and in good spirits.  He was still asking tons of questions and curious about our room.  He took a little nap while we waiting.  We were thankful for the rest after such an emotional hour.  He got some medicine, we talked over the game plan (staples vs stitches) and they had to get him cleaned up. 

They burrito wrapped him and we were tasked with the job of holding him down.  Not something I ever enjoy doing.  Kevin was up by his face and I was holding his legs.  I was glad I was down by his feet because I had a hard time holding back the tears.  He got two shots in the head and then they cleaned the area.  He hated all of it.  He kept yelling - owwwww, you're hurting me!, what are you doing? can I be done? and stop.  This was really hard to hear because I knew it was all true.  We just wanted to get him all fixed up as quick as possible.

They originally said 3 staples would be needed, but it took 4 to get things back together.

His wound did not look good when they were done.  It was lumpy, super swollen and we weren't convinced it was quite right.  The doctor assured us that it was perfectly normal when wounds are so swollen for things to look off.  She assured us the swelling would go down and it would look much better the next day.  We texted the babysitters updates to keep them in the loop.

Fletcher lit up when he realized he was all done.  He was smiling and chatty even though he looked like he'd been through the wringer.  They offered him a popsicle and he was thrilled.  He ate it, explored the room and was acting much like he always does despite having a blood stained shirt and swollen head.  He finished his popsicle and then tried to march right out the door.  We had to remind him that we had to wait for paperwork and then we could go home.  He was so anxious to hurry home and play with the babysitters.  We left the hospital and he requested a stop at Dairy Queen.  We said yes and stopped to get our favorites.

We hurried home.  It was good to be there and everyone was ready to call it a night.  We felt bad for the sitters because they really are wonderful.  We did our best to reassure them, said goodbyes, ate a quick dinner and we all started to get ready for bed.  I got busy on the pile of laundry.

I was nervous and checked on Fletcher all night.  Kevin did, too.  I think we were all a little traumatized by the whole incident.

4 staples!  We were so thankful that the his injury wasn't worse and that it was in a spot that was easily fixed.  He's got to leave them in for several more days and then we'll go and get them removed.  I'm not looking forward to that appointment, but I'll put on my bravest mom face and make it happen.

Sunday, Aug 18th
Fletcher slept in, woke up his usual happy self and was starving.  He had zero complaints of pain or discomfort and continued on like nothing happened.  Kids are so resilient!  We reminded him all day to be careful.

We are planning a low key week at home this week.  Taking it easy and letting his head heal is top priority.   No pools or going under water with the staples.  He's doing just fine!

Thank you for your sweet messages and kind comments when I first mentioned his accident over the weekend.  Parenting is a wild ride!  I'm always reminded that things can go from fun to emergency in the blink of an eye.