brave boy

Well, it should no longer be a shock to anyone who reads my blog when you see pictures of Maddox in an emergency room having to be stitched or x-rayed or bandaged in one way or another. He truly has no fear and all of his scars and bruises prove it! This week Seth and Gray were over playing with my boys and Seth, Maddox and Ash were outside in the backyard. They were running and playing tag and making up games. Suddenly, I heard Maddox screaming. I have to admit that I didn't jump right up and run outside. I have gotten pretty good about distinguishing Maddox's different screams and wails and this one sounded more like an "I need attention" scream then the real deal but when Seth and Ash came running in and said Maddox was hurt I ran out onto the deck. Maddox was sitting out next to the swing set, holding his wrist and crying. I asked him if he could walk to the house and he did. As he got closer to me I finally saw that he was bleeding. Now, last time Maddox had to get stitches it was on his face and THAT wound bled ALOT!! This cut, however, barely had any blood coming from it at all! At first, I didn't think it was that serious. But when I was finally able to get a good look at it I knew we needed to go to the doctor. I hollered for Brandon and we began the scurry about the house to get everyone's shoes on and out the door. Thankfully, Jill was there and offered to take Ashtyn to their house so that he didn't have to tag along. First, we took Maddox to the Urgent Care. We knew his cut was deep but we didn't think it was so deep that we had to wait all night at the ER. Unfortunately, the Urgent Care was very busy and we ended up waiting about an hour anyway before we saw the doctor. When the doctor finally took a look at Maddox's wrist he gave us the news we didn't want to hear...Maddox needed to go to the Emergency Room after all. The Urgent Care doctor thought that the wound was deep enough that they would need to do a couple of layers of stitches and that's not something they cannot do at the Urgent Care. So, we loaded back into the car and headed for the hospital...almost 30 minutes away. Of course, the ER was busy too and so we checked in and began our wait all over again. We had to wait quite awhile but it honestly wasn't as long as I thought it might be. First, we saw a nurse who put some numbing cream on Maddox's cut and then we had to wait for the doctor. SO...MUCH...WAITING...!!! When the doctor came in she looked at Maddox's wound and told us that the cut truly was deep enough to get quite a few stitches but she thought that because of Maddox's emotional state (Oh! Did I forget to mention that Maddox had literally been screaming and sobbing since we left the house, was totally inconsolable and by this point had lost his voice...!?) she thought that we could get away with gluing his wound back together and letting it heal over the next week or two. She told us that gluing a cut this deep would obviously leave a pretty vicious scar but since it's on his wrist, not really a noticeable location and because as she told Maddox "it would be a manly scar" she thought gluing was our best and easiest option. Whew! We were all relieved and thankful! From that point, all the doctor had to do was clean out Maddox's cut and then apply the tape and glue! Unfortunately, that sounded easier then it really was. As the doctor began cleaning out Maddox's cut with water solution and lightly scrubbing it with a square of gauze, she realized that some of the spots she thought were dirt were actually wood splinters embedded deep in his cut! You see, Maddox injured himself by running INTO the backyard swing set. Yep! You heard me right! Maddox said he was chasing Seth and wasn't looking where he was going and smacked right into the swing set. I'm just glad his arm was up or else this might have all been happening to his face! Yikes! So, apparently because of the hit to the wooden swing set Maddox had gotten splinters in his cut. Ouch! Thankfully Maddox's cut was still numb and so the doctor was able to use tweezers and get all of Maddox's splinters out without Maddox even shedding one tear! Whoa! I was so proud of him! He was so SO brave! He would flinch every now and then but never cried! I, on the other hand, thought I was going to pass out. I've never had that happen to me before and I've cleaned up alot of owies over the years, but there was something about watching the doctor put tweezers deep into Maddox's arm and pull out splinters that made me feel very queezy! I almost couldn't handle it! I started sweating, felt very hot and my stomach hurt! I looked at Brandon and told him I couldn't breathe. The doctor actually said "You OK mom?" Ha! I told her I was but made sure to turn my head for the rest of the "cleaning" process. Ick. After the doctor finished cleaning Maddox's wound she dried it, taped it and applied the medical glue to the entire cut area! She said she did "double duty" since it was going on an active boy! Ha! Good call! My sister later told me that with Maddox we should have asked for glue, stitches AND a hard cast! Ha! I think she is probably right! Being the brilliant doctor that she is, the ER doctor also gave us a soft velcro brace for Maddox to wear on his injured arm. She said it wasn't because he had hurt a bone but instead to protect his liquid stitches from popping open when he's at school or playing outside. If that would happen we would have to go back and that would be horrible. So far, Maddox has been VERY cautious and is taking very good care of his healing wound. I do think, however, that he's milking his injury a bit. The other day he asked me to open his snack and I said "You can do it!" and he said "What? I''m injured!" Mmmhmm...way to work it! Before this happened, Brandon and I were just discussing if this would be the summer of the broken bone. We haven't had one of those yet and especially Maddox is so active that we can only assume it's coming sooner then later. After this injury, though, I hope that we can put off a broken bone for another summer...