First set of stitches

With five kids, church on Sunday is usually an adventure. This last Sunday was even crazier than normal.

I had taken Claire to the bathroom, and while trying to exit the stall carrying her on my hip, she let out a little yelp and then started crying about her foot. I thought I had just pinned it against the wall while trying to open the stall door, so I was confused why there was now a two-inch-long gash that was bleeding badly. I grabbed a bunch of toilet paper and started applying pressure. Then I tried to get Manina’s attention and get poor Claire to the hospital.

Manina drove while I held Claire and applied pressure to the wound. Poor Claire was hysterical. Manina drove home first for a quick stop for the insurance card and also the camera so she could take pictures to post on our blog (sad, I know).

Then we were off to the hospital where Claire received her first stitches (she’ll probably have many more). The doctors and nurses earned their money with Claire. She really gave them a run for their money. Even though they had her in a “papoose” (think of a full-body straitjacket), it still took three people to keep her still enough so the doctor could stitch her up. The piercing screams and wails not only shattered nearby eardrums, but made it so they had to close the doors of the little bay we were in so the other ER patients weren’t too freaked out. Plus, the doctor was having a hard time concentrating because my wife was so blatantly flirting with him the entire time. When he was done he held out a handful of suckers so Claire could pick her favorite one and she grabbed all five. He just smiled and said “Yes, you probably deserve all of those.”

We finished right in time to pick up the oldest three kids from church (it was nice to have a built-in babysitter during the crisis). I went in to investigate just how she had cut her foot. Apparently when I was carrying her out of the stall her foot had been pinched against the wall and the top of the toilet paper dispenser. The top of the dispenser is made out of metal and wasn’t screwed down all the way so it had a little lip on the corner that was razor sharp. The doctor said it had actually removed flesh, not just sliced it. Not pretty. Not nice. At all.

However after the stitches and all the trauma, Claire is back to her usual bubbly self. Here she is showing off her wrap.

Now all we have to do is make sure she keeps it clean for two weeks so it doesn’t get infected. Yeah, right!