Maya's battle wounds

Poor little Maya, she was the first one of the kids to get a black eye, and is now also the first to get stitches. Hopefully none of my kids will break bones, but if any of them do, I'm sure Maya will be the first!

The neighborhood kids were playing outside in the snow, making snow houses. They were using snow shovels to make a big mound of snow. One of the kids swung the shovel to move some snow, she missed and it hit Maya right above her right eye. It sliced through her eyebrow and a little bit above as well.

I took her to urgent care to get her stitches done. They put some gel on the cut to numb the area. We then waited for it to take effect. About 30 mins later the nurse came to see if it has worked. It didn't, Maya could still feel the area. So, she got a series of shots in the cut. That was the beginning of the meltdown. The nurse came back about 5 mins. later to see if the shots had numbed the area. It hadn't. They tried more of the gel stuff, this time, she squeezed a whole bunch right onto the cut. They came back about 20 mins later to see if it was numb. It wasn't. Another series of about 6 shots right into the cut. They came back about 5 mins later to start the sewing.

At this point, Maya is naturally freaked out anytime the doctor or nurse even moves. She is screaming, "NO MORE POKIES, NO MORE POKIES!" We tried to convince her that all the "pokies" were over. I assumed that the area had to have been totally numb by this point. Well, it wasn't. We got her calmed down enough and I told her it wouldn't hurt anymore. She calmed down enough, but was still pretty squirmy. They called in another nurse to help pin her down. The doctor began the stitches and again she started screaming. It obviously wasn't numb. The doctor tries to get the stitches in twice, but she was squirming and screaming to much. They call over more nurse re-enforcements. We now have 4 nurses on top of her and me holding her hands and legs down. They do another series of about 6 shots right into the cut. The doctor tries the stitches again. It doesn't work.

It was obvious that the doctor was annoyed at me and my daughter. He told me that I needed to go to Primary Children's and they could sedate her. That was NOT an option for me. I did not want to drive across town and wait in another waiting room (the wait at Primary's would have been hours long). It would freak her out even more if I told her she was going to go through the whole process again. I told the doctor we would try one more time. I took my coat off, cause I was getting a workout trying to hold Maya still. I sat Maya up gave her a hug and got her to calm down. I then told the nurses to hold her tight, I apologized to Maya, and made her lay down. She screamed each time the doctor put a new stitch in, and again when he was tying the string. We could get her to calm down in between. I was in tears. I felt horrible as a mother that she was screaming out for me, and I was one of the people holding her down during the torture.

She was fine once it was over, until the doctor says, "Alright, we will see you back here in 5-7 days." WHAT?!?!?!? We have to come back to get these things out!?!? What happened to stitches that disintegrate? And I have heard so many amazing things about the glue stitches. Why couldn't we have gotten some of those? Anyways, I will not be going back, I have two friends that are nurses, I'm hoping one of them will take them out for her while she is sleeping or something.

She got an ice cream on her way home and then she got to show off her battle wound to her friends as we decorated our gingerbread houses.