You have boys Jack, haven't you lived through this yourself :-) OK, I haven't had my coffee yet (so I hope I make sense), but my first introduction to head injuries came on Mother's Day this year when my then 9 year old defiantly discarded his hockey helmet up at school and proceeded to go at it with his buddies. The doorbell rings, it has started pouring rain, and my neighbor is standing there telling us Nick is at his house and he's gotten hit with a hockey stick and there's a lot of blood and he'll need stitches. He did, five stitches blessedly placed right over the eyebrow (hardly noticeable now). He was pretty stoic and no longer plays hockey without a helmet on. We took him to the closest hospital, where the doctor told him in no uncertain terms not to move, and he wasn't too nurturing about it.
Luckily, Ian (who has some experience in this area himself I believe) told me in the future to get a plastic surgeon if possible to do the stitching on any facial injuries. As fate would have it, it was a mere five days later that my then 4 year old came running up from the basement, SCREAMING, covered in blood (and I mean covered). And it was gushing out like a faucet. Again, we had just learned that there's a lot more blood with head injuries or I would have died of a heart attack on the spot. Somehow, his older brother (who was crying as hard as he was by now), whacked him in the face with a junior metal golf club. These were a gift from my husband's cousin, an avid golfer, and I forgot they were down there. Luckily my husband was home, and we jumped in the car and headed this time to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. No way was I going back to the doctor we had just seen with my older son. An extra 20 minutes drive but I knew that was the place to go. Six hours later we left there, we got our Plastic Surgeon, and my son had turned from a sweet 4 year old into a angry, drunken boxer due to the medication they gave him. They had to put him in a papoose or the staff would have been getting stitches as well. They had a room full of people caring for him though, and I can't speak highly enough about how hard they tried to keep him on an even keel. It was not a pleasant experience though, and sorry to say Pete the scar is still really visible. I hope it fades more with time, but that was six months ago and it doesn't look too much better now than it did then. The doctor said though that another half inch and he would have had vision problems, as the gash started right at the edge of his eye. So he somehow managed to make us feel lucky when we left. The cut was so deep (it went down to his bone) that they had to layer the stitches.
So there you have it. You sorry now you asked :-) They do make a product called "Rejuveness" (this is for Pete) which is a silicone strip. I could see where it would really have helped (you can get it on eBay for half the price as the store). But Alex refused to wear it as he said it made him feel itchy. If you can tolerate it you really should get some after you've healed. The Plastic Surgeon was the one who recommended we try this.
We paid $650 for the top of the line door installed from Home Depot (single door). Sometimes it just doesn't pay to do it yourself! |
