For having five children, we have had very few visits to emergency rooms. Dominic had to go twice in the same week for running into the doorframes at our house. Amira had to go after nearly choking to death when she was 16 months.

Tonight we had our first urgent care visit requiring stitches. No emergency room trip, it was early enough in the evening, but stitches and a head injury. Of course, it was our emergency girl. Amira slipped on a couch pillow that was on the floor and landed head first on the flat part of our coffee table and split her right forehead open. I heard the thump, and expected someone ran his shins into the table, but saw her bleeding face instead.

It is near her hairline, but of course is on her face, and of course on our daughter, not our sons. I had her lie down on the couch and put a cold compress on her and the bleeding stopped amazingly fast, actually there wasn't that much blood considering it was on her head. It was fairly deep, and open, though, so we knew there would be stitches. I called Rich at work and told him to come home, he got here and asked if I wanted him to stay with the other children or go with her, and I said he should go with her.

She was a trooper about it, and Rich said he had to try to keep her from falling off the table, since she kept wiggling around, and he didn't want her to have a matching set of scars. He said he also let the doctors know that he'd like as neat and small a scar as possible. We both have some sloppy scars from doctors who were in a big hurry about stitching us up. She has a headache, and a big bruise forming on her arm where she must have hit the edge of the table. It's too bad that isn't all she hit, it would have spared her little face.

Since I was busy at home trying to be calm and explaining to Amira what was going to happen to her, and I didn't think it would be a good time to pull out the camera, I don't have a picture of the gaping hole on her head. Rich, however, while waiting for the lidocaine liquid to set in took pictures of it that he's going to put on the computer for me. We also have some pictures of her with her stitches in. I'm trying to decide if it's worth risking her slipping and falling in ballet tomorrow. She never has before, but now, with stitches in would be when she did.

Labels: Family, Prayer Requests