Stitches!

Mark was not happy about me taking this picture. He is very worried about uncovering his stitches.

It eventually had to happen. Mark has been working his way up to stitches for a long time. First glue, then a staple, and today we hit the big time. Four stitches in his elbow. I wish there was some amazing story to tell, but all he did was fall down in the road while getting on the bus.

About 9:20 I received a call from the school. Being a former teacher when I heard them say, "We have Mark in the office and we think you should come look at this cut on his elbow," I knew we were talking about a more serious injury. I have sent lots of students to get a bandaid in the office and for some ice just to make them feel a little better about a scraped knee or elbow. Hardly ever did I need students to call home because of an injury. So I woke Seth up from his nap and dragged him and Dax over to the school.

The office staff had been so nice to Mark and they told me how brave he had been--no tears. I saw the blood on his shirt and slowly pulled off the bandaid. The wound looked pretty open and I told Mark we had better let Dr. Knorr take a look. Then he started to cry. Not because we were going to the doctor, but because he had to miss school.

The wound--I decided not to subject you to the close-up that I took.

So we went to the doctor's office and the nurse looked at it and said, "Yep, stitches." So she put some numbing gel on his elbow and said she would be back in 20 minutes to check on you. So we settled in and watched Toy Story 3. She came back in and tested to see if he could feel--of course he could, so then we were in for 10 more minutes of waiting.

Finally, the doctor came in and looked. She also tested and Mark kept saying he could feel her poking his wound. So she tried to secretly give him a numbing shot, but he saw the needle and started to cry. The whole point of the gel was to avoid the shot, but Mark got both. I got him calmed down and the doc started stitching. Mark asked me a few minutes after she started the stitches when she was going to start. I told him he already had one stitch done. He said he hadn't felt a thing and then relaxed for the rest of the time. I think I could have distracted Mark more easily I hadn't been trying to hold Seth and Mark's hand at the same time. Dax was amazingly good thanks to Toy Story 3.

I never got much more information about how he fell. Just that he fell, someone might have tripped him, and then he got on the bus. His arm started hurting while he was waiting in line at school so he told his teacher, and she took him to the office. I was very proud of Mark. He really was very brave. We have to go back and get the stitches out next Monday. I hope that is easier than today.

Mark waiting for his arm to numb.