Zach's First Stitches

Zach runs at least 50-200 laps around our coffee table every day, depending on how much we are home. Honestly, it is akin to the center of the universe that his little body orbits each day. He has all kinds of games he plays around it, most of them "chase"-like and harmless enough. I don't know exactly what he was doing yesterday, but it involved a large beach ball and high velocity. Both Corey and I kind of caught a glimpse of him ricocheting off the top/edge of said coffee table and immediately screaming out in pain. I had to lay Zoey down quickly and went and grabbed him and snuggled him up to take a closer look. 

  He had split his chin about 3/4 of an inch straight across. It bled for a couple of minutes, but wasn't too gruesome. I was hopeful that the laceration could be fixed with butterfly bandages and/or glue. I just hate the railroad track appearance that stitches leave, and really wanted to avoid them at all costs. However, Corey's first remark was that it needed stitches. I called my brother, Nick, a 4th year medical student that has done several rotations that allowed him to do stitches, including a recent ER stint, and also consulted our friend that is a 2nd year Oral Surgery resident. They were kind of split on what to do also, though Nick couldn't really see the damage. We headed to Walmart to see if the Steri-strip bandages would work well, which they did not seem to be doing, and opted to head to my office so I could do the stitches. (Our health insurance is less than stellar, and I'm sure a Sunday ER visit would be at least several hundred dollars. That's at least what I would charge, anyways!;)) 

 That little bit of yellowish bubbly stuff inside the cut is adipose (fat) tissue- meaning it needed stitches . Oh yeah, and check out those eyelashes! Those are from Corey.;)

 I was a little nervous about the procedure--mostly about exactly what materials to use and how to best minimize scarring. I've done hundreds if not thousands of stitches in the mouth, but no one is worried about esthetics in there (although I am pretty neurotic about them looking just right!). We really don't receive much if any training in dental school regarding stitching outside the mouth, but it is the same concept and procedure, for the most part. Once we got home, I started researching the internet and YouTube to see if I had done the right thing, and was relieved to read from a surgery textbook that "any gaping wound, even if small, and especially on the face, should receive stitches to minimize scarring."  Also, there was a YouTube video of a child with an identical wound and the ER doc used the exact same procedure I had, which was reassuring (5 interrupted sutures). I did learn that as long as bleeding isn't an issue, it is fine to wait 8-24 hours for stitches, if it is a clean wound. I always thought it was pretty emergent.

 Zach was a champ through the whole thing. After the initial crash, he only cried a little with some of the anesthetic injection. He was a little wiggly for me, and Zoey was trying to climb up my leg during the suturing, but it turned out well. I gave him his own surgical gloves to wear.

 When we remove them, I'll see if I'm happy about the polypropylene suture material I used. I am not familiar with it, but it said "Plastic Surgery" on the label, so I chose it over the more familiar sutures I have used intraorally. Thankfully, the wound is just under the chin, so I am hoping the scar will not be highly visible. It was a pretty quick procedure and I was pretty pleased with the final outcome. We'll see how it heals now. The area really didn't even swell or bruise, so hopefully it won't hurt or scar badly. I'll count myself lucky that these are the first stitches our family has experienced, and hope they might be our last! 

 Pretty tough looking, right?!

 On a lighter note, here is a photo of Zach without tears in his eyes. It's funny that all the previous pictures look so sad, because he honestly wasn't that way the whole time. I even had him laughing that the cut made it look like he had two mouths! We went to The Cheesecake Factory last week for National Cheesecake Day, when all their cheesecake is half price. That way you can try all the cheesecake that you wouldn't normally want to gamble $7-8 on if you don't like it. Zach was downing the cheesecake like a son I could really be proud of!! He was seriously so cute on our cheesecake date.

Zach is such a darling boy, and I am so very, very grateful that this accident wasn't more serious than it was. I feel blessed that I was able to fix it basically for free also, thanks to my generous boss who let me use the office and supplies. I truly feel like God is watching out for us and angels are protecting my family from some of the blows that could be much more damaging. I know life can't always be so thickly padded, but I am grateful for the watchful care I know we receive daily in the form of good health and safety, both physical and spiritual, in a sharp-cornered world.