a different type of stitching

A few years ago, we visited friends for a week. The husband is a gynaecologist and sometimes videos himself operating, for later reference. He wanted to show us some of his videos. Not surprisingly, we declined that opportunity! We did joke about comparing stitching techniques though.

Yesterday afternoon we were relaxing at home. I was doing some gardening (anyone who knows me personally can faint now!), my husband was doing some stuff inside, and my children were playing in the yard and on the driveway.

Suddenly the Sunday afternoon peace was rent with a blood-curdling scream from my youngest daughter. I raced down the driveway to her, to find a bloody mess underneath her chin. She had fallen over while skipping with a skipping rope on the concrete. It was a hospital job, being deep and jagged. My thoughts were, “this will be stitches, not glue”. She’s already had her chin glued up once before, some years ago, after doing the same thing.

So off to the hospital we went. 4.5 hours later, she was newly stitched up. I stayed outside the procedure room with our other child, while my husband was in with her. When they stitched her up, apparently they covered her head with something so that she couldn’t see what was happening. She squeezed my husband’s finger to help express the pain, and though she was brave, she did (quite understandably) cry too.

My husband said he had a morbid fascination with seeing what the nurse was doing, as he’d never seen anything like it before. I’m sure I too would have found the stitching interesting, had I been in the room. However, as I was already feeling quite queasy, I’m not sure that I would have not been violently ill!

Thanks Nurse James, for taking good care of her and your skill in stitching her up.