to stitch, or not to stitch?

pale mom and sad girl

last night, we had our first "do we take her to the hospital, or not?" situation. right before bed, madeleine was running over to read a book on my bed and tripped right into the corner of our metal bed frame. as i saw her falling, i knew that there would be tears, but i wasn't prepared for the stream of blood when i picked her up. although i often pale at the mere sight of blood, it wasn't until we cleaned up the blood and i saw how deep the wound was that i really felt like passing out. i can do spiders, snakes, and other scary things, but i don't do well with gore.

fortunately, randy was home (can i say how happy i am that he was home?) and he is extremely good with blood, wounds, etc. and went right to work. we decided (with the help of some pictures and texting with my dad) that although the wound was deep, it was small and a clean cut and all it needed was a good cleaning and some steri strips. while i held madeleine and comforted her, randy ran to the store for supplies.

all bandaged up

madeleine was brave through the whole process, although she was obviously shaken by the whole thing. after some doctoring and a little einsteins episode, she went to bed and, thankfully, slept through the night. she did wake up crying this morning about her owie hurting. for the most part though, she seems just fine. randy will have to change the dressing again when he gets home tonight.

this whole experience made me appreciate our friend, dave badger, even more than i already did. dave is a family friend who is also an excellent surgeon. on several occasions (many involving me), dave got a call from my dad asking if he could bring a kid by to check if something needed more serious medical attention. dave was always a great sport and never seemed inconvenienced. although i think that madeleine is just fine with steri strips and no stitches, it would have been nice to at least have dave check it out.