Oh Abe!

My poor little boy. Wednesday night I was cleaning up the house. I had just gotten to the bottom of the stairs vacuuming and I heard Abe crying. Hearing Abe and Eli cry happens all the time, so I wasn't worried that it was any big deal. I was shocked to see the entire right side of Abe's face and his hand covered in blood.

I freaked out! I immediately called Andy home from work and since he would be 10-15 minutes I called my mom too. They both rushed over as fast as they could. At first I couldn't tell where Abe had cut himself or how bad it was. I asked Abe what happened. He told me he had been spinning and got dizzy and fell into the fireplace bricks. I found the cut. The bleeding stopped pretty fast, but there was a sizable gash on the right side of his forehead just below his hair line.

Naturally, Abe was crying about everything, but once Andy showed up Abe was crying, "Don't look at me!" He seemed more ashamed than anything at that point.

We figured he would need stitches, but we were hesitant. We didn't want to take that route if it could be avoided. We know a doctor from church pretty well (a different doctor than the orthopedic surgeon that helped Andy), so Andy called him up to ask if we should go to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room. I was grateful for his professional opinion, and he said he could stop by to see if it was bad enough for stitches. He came over and informed us that the cut was big enough that Abe needed stitches.

My heart sunk. I didn't want Abe to have to go through something so painful and scary. Our friend was kind enough to offer to do them himself. That made me feel better than some stranger doing it at a hospital, so of course we said yes, we would appreciate that.

We went to his house and he put something on Abe in a band-aid to numb him. When it was good and numb our friend took a sheet and it was like he swaddled Abe's arms down like you would do to a baby. I held Abe's body and Andy held his head still so Abe couldn't move at all. Poor Abe. He was so unhappy. He screamed and shouted. It was terrible to listen to. He kept saying, "Stop! I don't like this! Quick! I want to go!" I was so grateful when it was all over. Abe was too, but he was shaking and even his teeth were chattering from the shock of whole thing.

I am so thankful to our friend and his family for helping us out. He did all the stitches, but his family whisked Eli away to play him and keep him entertained until Abe was fixed up. Plus we made them over an hour late for our church Christmas party. I can't thank them enough and we are trying to figure out how we will ever show just how grateful we are to the whole family. Even their daughter gave Abe and Eli cute little stuffed animals as we were leaving.

I was hoping we could go to the Christmas party, but Abe did not want to go. All he wanted was a milk shake. We picked up some ice cream and Andy made chocolate banana milkshakes and I made some chicken nuggets and mixed home fries for dinner. Comfort food galore! It really seemed to cheer Abe up.

Now I just worry about getting the stitches removed this week and just how bad the scar will be.



Here's Abe at the end of the whole ordeal. (Yes, that is blood on his shirt, and yes, I got it our with "Totally Awesome Spray" from the Dollar Store.)