We made it over 3.5 years, but our serious accident free streak has now come to an end.
Based on how fearless and energetic Owen is, I'm actually surprised we lasted this long.
Last night after Ryan came home from work, the two of them were playing. Owen went to
jump from the ottoman to the couch and throw a pillow at Ryan when the ottoman slipped
out from under him. He fell head first into the wooden base of the couch.
He started crying and Ryan picked him up right away and held him. He didn't think anything
of it until he pulled Owen away and saw the blood rushing down his face. I was in the
kitchen and walked in to see what was going on right at that moment. Ryan ran into the
kitchen and we grabbed a kitchen towel and put it on his forehead.
I am proud to say that we both remained relatively calm.
After a few seconds I took the towel away to see what we were dealing with. It was a huge,
deep gash straight across his forehead about 1.5" long. I knew we needed to go to the ER
to have them take care of it. We quickly grabbed our stuff and ran out the door. I sat in the
back of the car and held the towel on Owen's head. He was actually very calm.
We drove to Loyola since I knew they always had a pediatrician in their ER and it was closer
than driving all the way to Lurie's. We walked into a packed ER. I asked the lady
checking us in if it was going to be awhile and if we were better off going somewhere else.
She assured us it wouldn't be long and that typically they try to get kids in pretty fast.
She was right. They took us back to triage to do the initial assessment on Owen within
minutes. We went back out and waited in the waiting room for maybe 20 minutes more
before they brought Owen back to a room. The pediatric resident came to look at his wound
and the doctor followed shortly after. They let us know the typical protocol these days is to
use glue rather than stitches. It is less traumatic on everyone. As long as they can
approximate the wound together, which they could, gluing was the way to go. I was
relieved. I was dreading the whole process of stitches. Owen made it easy on us all
though. He was such a trooper.
The only time he got upset was when the doctor was gluing the wound shut. He was quiet
the whole time the doctor cleaned it out. Then the doctor had him lay down so he could
glue it. It was actually kind of funny because in a quiet, somewhat silly voice, Owen would
say, "Ow. Ow. That hurts me." I think the calmness in which he said it was what made it
funny. So matter of fact. It was near the end of the gluing when he got a little upset. I don't
know if the glue stung a little or if the doctor pinched it a little too much, but nonetheless,
one or two tears were shed. But he calmed down within seconds and it was all done.
The cut was glued shut and Owen was as good as new. Pretty amazing if you ask me. I'm
a little nervous about the possibility of there being a large scar, but only time will tell. In the
meantime we're so proud of our brave little boy and just as happy with how cooperative Joe
was through the whole ER visit. It made our first visit a breeze.
He has to take it easy for a few days so he doesn't risk reopening the wound,
but I'm sure Owen and Daddy will be back to rough housing in no time.
With a little less couch jumping from now on. ;)
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