8 stitches

Our poor little Caitlin. Our poor little rough-and-tumble girl. On Saturday we had a fun morning going swimming and getting lunch at a new apartment complex in Provo with the Turnbulls that our friends' company built and then that afternoon we decided to go to City Creek in Salt Lake. We had been there about 15 minutes and there we were in Nordstrom with Paul trying on some suit jackets, Nolan in his car seat and Caitlin doing her usual thing: just running around. She had been running back and forth to the mirror to look at herself and then she came back to me and then took off towards some jackets about 5 feet away from us. She tripped on the carpet and fell face first into the rack. Instead of hopping back up like usual, she stayed down and was crying. I went over to help her up and when I turned her around all I saw was blood. I grabbed my wipes and started cleaning her face off. She had a bad cut right underneath her lip and there was a lot of blood. We couldn't really tell how bad the cut was but it was about 1/2 inch long and looked pretty deep. We left the store and got a cup of ice and then contacted the mall medic. He gave us an ice pack and said that he thought she would need stitches. She wasn't crying hysterically but she was still whimpering and having a hard time calming down and catching her breath. We went to our car and started trying to decide where to take her. Since the bleeding had stopped and she was mostly calm we decided we could probably make it to the instacare by our house in Highland. We distracted her with singing songs and talking on the phone on the way. She didn't want the ice pack on at all but she did eat some of the ice. (P.S. meanwhile, we had gotten a parking ticket on our car when we came back out, and Nolan was NOT happy in his car seat, so needless to say Paul and I were totally stressing) When we got to the instacare we found that it had closed at 5.. it was 6:05. So, we packed up again and went to the instacare in Orem. We still just weren't sure how bad the cut was and thought we just wanted to get it looked at and maybe glued. (Shows how much Paul and I know about cuts) When we to Orem we had to wait a little while and then they looked at it and said she would for sure need stitches but that they didn't have the right sedation equipment there and we would need to take her to the hospital. Back in the car. Drove back to American Fork hospital to the ER. They got us going right away and checked in. We were taken back to our little room and met the doctor. Caitlin was doing great at this point, calmed down but still wary of the situation and sensitive. At this point, Mike and Jenna were able to come and pick up Nolan to watch him while we were with Caitlin (I could only handle attending to one kid while in the ER thank you very much). The doctor was an older man and very nice. He said that they see these kind of things everyday, in fact this would be his third stitches of the day. But he was also very validating and understanding of our concerns and the scariness of the situation. He said that what he thought had happened was that it was a "through and through" meaning that her teeth had cut all the way from the inside through her lip. He wanted to put in an IV and sedate her then stitch her up. So then came the worst part: trying to get the IV in her little veins. Not an easy task because #1 she's little and #2 when the body is in trauma veins clench up and get even smaller and tighter and harder to puncture... and Caitlin was definitely in trauma and not relaxed at all during this part. Paul had to lay with her on the bed and hold her body down while I stood above him and tried to sing songs and talk to her and do anything I could to get her to calm down and stop crying. She didn't stop. She was screaming through all three (yes.. THREE) tries to get the IV in. Once on one arm, once on the other and finally ending by her hand where he got it. Paul was literally giving threatening death looks to the tech on the second try when he almost got it but then lost it and was moving the needle around in her arm. The guy was sweating bullets. Finally they hooked it all up and then wrapped her arm with an ace bandage so she wouldn't touch it. She calmed down a tiny bit when that was done. Then once the doctor and respiratory doctor were there they gave her the sleeping drug (don't even know what it's called) through the IV and she fell asleep. She could still flinch and spasm at first but then after a few minutes was out. The doctor got in there and showed us the inside of her lip where we could see a small puncture and then 2 cuts where her teeth had entered her bottom lip from the inside. So painful!! And to think we weren't even sure if we needed to take her. It rook him about 10 agonizing minutes to sew her up, while we watched and just looked at her little body laying on the big bed. Everyone was saying that she was doing great and that it was coming back together really nicely and that the scarring would be minimal and not noticeable. He did 8 stitches just across the outside and then they started getting her ready to wake back up. While she was still mostly sedated they gave us all the post-care instructions and told us to come back in 5 days to get the stitches out. Then we waited for her to wake up. She was super asleep but then all of a sudden her eyes just popped open and she was awake and sitting up and wanting the bandage of her arms and wanting to wash her hands in the sink and wanting to go and see Nolan. We had to wait for our nurse but when he came he said she seemed good to go and got all her stuff off and we were able to leave. We brought her home and she was happy to see Mike and Jenna and Nolan and we watched "Beast" for a little bit and snuggled and then put her to bed.
Seeing your children in pain is an indescribable heartache. No matter what kind of pain it is, from a cold to the stitches to (heaven forbid) other more serious things it is so hard to see their little bodies going through things and seeing them try to cope. I almost lost it a few times. When they were trying to get the IV in and I was just watching her look to the side and say "no! noooo!" and cry I got totally choked up and got tears in my eyes and had to look away. Paul saw and started singing to her for me. We took turns being strong. While the doctor was stitching her up and I was watching I almost lost it again.
That night after putting her and Nolan to bed, we were both completely exhausted.. emotionally and physically. I have lived for 25 years without ever getting stitches or a trip to the emergency room (knock on wood) and here was my little princess, not even two yet, having to go because of a fluke fall. So sad. I am very grateful that it wasn't something more serious and that she was able to receive good medical attention. I feel like we have been so lucky and protected to not have her get hurt seriously before this and for this to not be worse. Hopefully her recovery and having her stitches will go well and everything will be fine.

 

 **The next morning she was pretty much back to her normal happy self. And then she was especially happy when all the neighbor kids brought over this card they made her after finding out what happened.