Tuesday, July 6, 2010

First Three Stitches

Its been one of those hot, muggy days here in Ipoh. The kind of day that makes me lethargic. Unfortunately, there was no lounging around enjoying a fresh coconut though. We have had some excitement in this household today.

Adrian was playing on the floor next to me this morning while I paid some bills on the internet. He played quietly with his toys and seemed contented. I looked at him one minute and things were normal. After I finished with the bills, I looked down and there was blood all over his face and hands. BUT, he was still playing quietly and contentedly!

My first instinct was to check his mouth thinking that he had chewed on something sharp. Not the problem. Nosebleed? No. The blood was everywhere but we finally figured out that it was from a cut on his index finger. We tried cleaning it up, applying pressure, putting a cold compress on but it just kept bleeding.

So, off we rushed to his pediatrician. He checked it out and it appeared that Adrian had somehow nicked a blood vessel or an artery or something and he would need stitches. For this, he recommended we take Adrian to a plastic surgeon because he would be better with tiny stitches. Off we rushed again in the hot sun.

About 30 mins after I looked down to see all the blood, two nurses were pinning him down and the plastic surgeon was doing his work, leaving three stitches on my baby's tiny finger. The screams were heart wrenching! The poor little guy is only 6 months old.



The only dressing the wound received was a simple band aid over the stitches and we have been having a horribly hard time keeping it on. Adrian has bitten it off 4 times this afternoon and each time he does it, we need to hold him down, dab on a little antiseptic cream and then try to get the band aid over his finger again.

We tried putting a sock over his hand for awhile but he ended up sucking on it till it was all soggy.



So the latest thing we've tried is to pound up some leaves from the Neem tree and dabbing a bit of that bitter stuff on his finger. Lets hope it works.

Does anybody have any other ideas on how I can keep him from taking it off?

7 comments:

John A Hill said...

Awww. Poor little guy! Good thing that kids are as resilient as they are. I'm sure that he'll be fine.

How's his mama doing?

Fiona said...

ouch. it must be worrisome & heart wrenching painful, that rush from doc to doc. take care there!

Scott and Elaine said...

Sorry to hear about Adrian's accident. About the soggy sock.. Perhaps you could try a little glad wrap around just pass his finger and then the sock or a baby knee high sock (that's what I used on Isabella with her eczema). If there is too much plastic than sock it might not have enough grip. Poor darling. Give him a kiss from us.

Mike said...

So when you went to the doctor did you have your "I didn't do anything to him" look on your face?

Bilbo said...

You must live in a pretty tough neighborhood, when even the 6-month-olds can get into knife fights. In that last picture, it looks as if he's saying something like, "Hey, you...yeah, YOU...you want a piece of me?? Huh?? Do ya??"

Hope everything comes out all right.

Amanda said...

John - Yes, he seems to feel no pain today even though he's frequently putting that finger in his mouth. And his mom? She sat for a long time staring at him while he slept last night.

Fiona - I was just thankful it didn't happen in Palembang! I'd definitely be in a panic there.

Elaine - I'm going to give if a try tomorrow. We went through an entire small pack of band-aids today.

Mike - You guessed it! I'm not sure they bought it though because I kept seeing the "negligent parent" look on their faces.

Bilbo - LOL! Well, hopefully it will teach him to grow up tough.

Minghan said...

hmn, pacifier doesn't seem like a bad idea after all.
you could imagine how i feel when lucas had to fix his hernia when he was like 2 months old