Another trip to Urgent Care...

Dinner is over. Kids are a little tired, fighting just a bit. We tell them to get their pajamas on so we can have family home evening. They both run around the corner. We hear fighting and screams. Hunter comes running back with his hand in his mouth crying and just about gagging himself (he does this every time he cries hard). Hallie follows and admits to pushing him into the chair. We console the gagging boy. When he removes his hand, blood starts rushing out. Fantastic.

It seems to take forever to locate where all the blood is coming from while trying to calm the poor hysterical child. A bruise quickly forms on his cheek and then we see the gash. At first we convince ourselves he's just fine. Then after he completely calms down and we evaluate some more we realize its just bad enough we should probably have him looked at. Off to Urgent Care we went.

We've done this before. Same kid. Same lip. Different cause. We learned after the first time that your average urgent care may or may not do stitches on a child, most don't have the resources to do it. Last time, after making us pay the $50 they informed us they couldn't help and sent us on our way. (of course refusing to refund us our money because a doctor in fact looked at him) This time we went straight to the children's hospital urgent care. The wait was non-existant and within 10 minutes we were in the back room prepping for stitches. He was doing so well. Was. Then the numbing agent was applied with a needle and the hysteria started to set in. The doctor was doing his best on a kid that wouldn't hold still but he was having a hard time getting the needle in the right place. Just seconds after he was finished with that he pulled out the equipment for stitches. Hunter was not having any of it. There was a nurse holding his head. Steve was holding his shoulders, I held both his arms/hands and another nurse sat on his legs. Seriously. And it was a chore. My heart ached. I sat with my head down on the bed holding his hands so I didn't have to see what was going on. The nurse thought I was going to pass out, but I just couldn't stand to see him struggle. The doctor made quick (although it seemed like forever) work and as soon as he was done, the crying stopped. We were all worn out. I can't stand to see my kids in pain and I could see it in his eyes, he hurt.

We were making all sorts of promises to him during the procedure and he was not going to let us forget any of them. He picked out his sticker. He chose a cool toy from the treasure box. And then we topped off the night with a late night treat of frozen yogurt. (with the only topping he could chew...sprinkles!) I have a feeling that cheek is only going to be bigger when he wakes up in the morning!