We Needed Stitches - Take Two!

Have you ever had a series of bad luck to the point that you do not want to get out of bed for fear of what else can go wrong? Well, the Darnell family is at that point.

Our string of bad luck started with the Bucs terrible performance on Thursday night, followed by the loss of our truck on Friday so what could happen on Saturday, right?

Saturday started off with heavy internet searching for new replacement vehicles. Mike and I quickly learned the prices of new cars and realized that even a 2008 is 10 years newer than what we were driving. This became our new definition of "new car." After breakfast, I headed outside to play with the boys and Mike got ready to hit the road and visit several car dealerships. As he was leaving, the boys were begging me to push them on the swings. As it was getting warmer, I wanted to change clothes first.

We said good-bye to Daddy and we were going to head back outside to play. I wanted to change clothes so I said to the boys, "I am going to head into the room for a couple minutes, can I trust you guys for a couple minutes? You need to be good so we can go outside and play on the swings." They agreed and I headed into the room.

I heard them laughing but they are usually always laughing. I was in the bedroom for maybe, maybe 3 minutes. All I did was change my clothes and put my hair in a clip. When I walked out, I sensed something was wrong as I opened the door. Oh my....

They had unlocked the water dispenser on the fridge and was using Daddy's water jug to dump water all over the kitchen tile floor. They were soaking wet and the floor was covered in a thin layer of water. They were giggling and splashing about with Wes, the ring leader, manning the water dispenser. He dumped a couple more small cups of water onto the floor before I removed it from his hands. Jared was demonstrating how they were slip sliding across the floor in the water. Come on guys, it was only a couple minutes!!! They were deep in laughter and soaking wet. I needed some time to clean the kitchen and the boys were soaking wet so I sent them outside to play while I cleaned.

I spent the next 20 minutes mopping up the water and drying the kitchen floor. During this time, the boys were playing outside. I was finally done cleaning the kitchen and now it was time to clean up the boys. I opened the back door and let them inside while giving instructions to take off their wet clothes in the bathroom. Wes said, "I can't, I have a boo boo." When I looked at his knee, he had quite the gash and some blood. I did not take the time to figure out what happen but whisked him to the sink to clean him up. I took off his wet clothes and let him use the sprayer to clean off his wound. This revealed a deep cut that I sensed needed stitches as it was separated and on the knee so it would keep separating with each bend.

Daddy had only started his day of car shopping about 30 minutes prior so I did not want to disrupt his day unless it was an emergency. I sent him a message with a picture and asked his opinion. We agreed to keep an eye on it for a little bit but agreed that he may need stitches. Daddy kept on car shopping.

As I did not have a vehicle, I wanted to get some additional opinions, so I took to facebook. I posted the following picture of his cut and asked if everyone thought he needed stitches...

The overwhelming facebook consensus was that stitches were needed for it to heal properly. With that support, I reached back out to Daddy and told him that he should come home after this dealership and I would take Wes for stitches. This is what the cut looked like if I held the skin together...

Yes, stitches were needed. I had cleaned up Wes and put two band aids on his wound. I then asked him how he got his boo boo, assuming he received it while outside. Nope! To my surprise, he said he slipped in the kitchen. Apparently, while they were giggling and playing in the water, he slipped. He received this gash and did not cry or skip a beat, just kept playing! He went outside and still did not complain. It was not until I started to change their clothes that he even mentioned the boo boo. I still can't believe that he received this deep gash without even shedding a tear. Wowza... BOYS!

Now remember, he did not have any clothes on and the other two were instructed to take off their clothes in the bathroom. After seeing Wes get a lot of attention, Andrew and Jared began to complain about their boo boos. So, I now had three naked children all needing 'urgent care' at the sink. I decided to indulge. Here is the line at the triage center... Andrew receiving care (actually applying his own band aid, you know 'I do it!') and Jared in the on deck position waiting for his turn... The greatest draw of the sink was being able to use the spray themselves to clean their wound, demonstrated by Jared in this picture...
It is important to note that the "injuries" decreased in severity with each patient. Here is Andrew's boo boo... (approximately 3-4 days old)
And the least severe injury on Jared, barely noticeable above the big toe...
While Jared had the least severe injury, he had the most severe limp while wearing his band aid, go figure. Once I had nursed all the injuries and cleaned up the triage area, I still had three naked boys. They were quiet and I turned around to find them like this...
They were huddled around their 'big boy phone.' In this picture, you may notice that Andrew's skin is splotchy. He struggles with sensitive skin and eczema. All of the swimming and sunscreen has really done a number on his skin but we have medicine and he is getting better.

I needed to dress the boys and after the days we had been having, I needed some extra strength. I grabbed our Owenge Warrior shirts so we could channel the strength and energy of a really strong Warrior. This also helped me keep our events in perspective. Really, we were dealing with some small things in comparison to some other families. Thank you for that reminder Owenge Warrior! For those of you that do not know, Owen is a triplet that died in May at 6 months old from SIDS. His story really hit home for us and many triplet families as he was completely healthy and part of a BBB triplet group. His color was orange and his family has claimed "Owenge" as his Warrior color. They are starting a movement to 'do good' in his honor as their way to find something positive in this. So, we dawned our Owenge shirts to find strength!

When Daddy arrived home, I woke Wes up from his nap and we headed off to urgent care. He did not want to go see a doctor but once we were in the car, he was a champ. He waited with patience and was in very good spirits...

The nurses agreed that it was a 'really good cut' and stitches were needed. The next step was to apply a jelly and 'magic sticker' so his skin would numb a little bit. He did not cry or complain at all during this phase of the process. Here is his wound under his 'magic sticker'...

My big brave boy, waiting patiently during the 20 minutes we had to wait for the jelly and magic sticker to numb his skin...

During his wait, he played with my phone and the game of choice was Poppit and new game Jared introduced to us on Pogo-stick (as Jared calls it). Jared learned this game at Grandma's and they have it for the phone. Wes played this all the way during his wait and during his stitches. Once the 20 minute wait was over, Wes was cool calm and collected while they pulled the magic sticker off. He then laid back and got ready for his stitches.

He was initially fine and then he felt the actual needle used to really numb the wound. It was at this point that he cried for the first time. He cried during the actual application of the stitches but remained still and did not fight the nurses at all. I was so proud of my big boy!!!

When it was all over, he immediately wanted to see his knee and he laughed when he saw his stitches....

He immediately calmed down and was excited to have a story to tell his brothers. He got his stickers and we were heading on our way! As he played the phone the entire time we were there, the battery died shortly after this picture. After we left the hospital, we headed over to Dairy Queen to split a Chocolate Fudge Brownie Waffle Bowl Sundae, Wes' choice. It was yummy! He kept saying, 'this is just for you and me.' I think he really enjoyed his one on one time.

Once we got home, he told his brothers all about his stitches. At dinner, we talked about how Jared also had stitches when we were at Nana's house. It was at this point that Andrew realized he was the only one of the boys that has not had stitches. Well, he did not want to be left out so he started crying over and over, 'I wanna go to the doctor, I wanna go to the doctor, I wanna go to the doctor.' This crying went on for well over 30 minutes and almost until we could get them in bed. He really wanted to go to the doctor.

He knew that I took a picture of Wes' boo-boo and shared it on fb so I told him I would also share his picture with the "doctor" and see if he needed to be seen. My lovely fb friends quickly concurred that he did not need stitches and just a band aid was needed. So, he accepted this treatment plan but still wanted to go to the doctor.

This is the face of a very upset Andrew after we applied the band aid...

After about 30 minutes of this, I really felt spent and wanted to scream "Calgon, take me away!" However, we made it through this day and the boys were in bed. Daddy and I finally exhaled for the day and settle in to watch a video game... oops, I mean movie; Battle Los Angelos - Daddy's choice :-)

I wanted to write this post quickly so I could share the full story of how Wes received his injury. I hope everyone was able to laugh from the story and I hope I will be able to laugh while reading it very soon.

The moral of the story, you can't turn your back for a second!!

Take care,