Stitches... AGAIN!

Nick & I made a quick visit to the Patient First care center here in Makati this evening. Today was Sammy's birthday & he had asked for a Sunday afternoon nap. Easy enough! So, after lunch, the kids & I got Daddy all tucked into bed, closed his door behind us & went into their bedrooms to play. Actually, I laid down on the bed to finish reading a book, while the kids played in the closets. The closets here are pretty big. You can go in one door, walk to the other end of the closet & exit out the other side. It's a fun game to them. They try to guess which door the person in the closet will exit out. And, honestly, I should have known the potential for disaster this little game held. Three small kids opening & closing four different closet doors at rapid pace. Disaster! And, so it was. While I was reading the last few pages of my book, Nick started crying... hard. I knew immediately he had smashed his finger, but did not expect to see what I saw. He smashed his thumb & he smashed it good! So good that it split open. So, we ran it under some cool water for a while, but the bleeding never stopped. I was able to calm him a bit & hold a piece of ice on his thumb, but could not stop the bleeding. And, I also couldn't decide how serious the gash was. So, I sent Sydney in to wake up Sammy so I could get his opinion. She came back with the announcement that "Daddy is gone". HUH?!? I went to check the bed & sure enough, he was not there. Come to find out, he had locked himself in the bathroom due to a very upset stomach. Which lasted the rest of his birthday. (He is currently spending the last half hour of his birthday snoring!) Since he was out of the picture, I called the front desk of our condo unit & asked if there was a doctor or nurse on call. Luckily, there was a nurse on call who came to help out. She iced his thumb, she blotted blood, she poured on hydrogen peroxide & iodine, she blotted more blood & she tried very hard to determine whether he needed stitches or not. She finally recommended I take him to the clinic nearby. By this time, his thumb was as big as a grape & as purple as one too! The clinic doctor removed the gauze, took one look at the open wound & said he would definitely need stitches. So, for the second time in his short 3 years on earth, Nick received stitches. When the doctor came out of the room after he sutured Nick's thumb, he was laughing. He told me that Nick had fallen asleep during the procedure. I made sure that they only gave him a local anesthetic & they assured me that they did. He was just very relaxed & very tired. Sure enough, I walked into the operating room & there was Nick completely sacked out & snoring on the operating table. What a trooper!


From the moment I could feel him moving around in my belly, I knew he was going to be a wild one! So far, he has not let me down.