Carter's Dog Bite

Carter is always to one to push people's buttons and he's the same way with the dog.  He annoys her to no end.  London is the best sweetest dog in the world and takes it like a champ.  The other day, he was over at our neighbor Cooper's house.  All the kids were playing in Cooper's room when they heard their dog growl and bark and then Carter came running into the room covering his bleeding face.  They walked back to our house to inform me and Carter followed crying and dripping blood along the side wall the whole way (it's still can be found dried out there 2 days later).  I sat him on the counter and had him hold some paper towels to the cut for a minute, then when we removed then I could tell this was going to need stitches.

 I called Derek and told him he needed to come home from work.  Cooper's Mom and Dad stayed at our house with the kids till he got home.  Carter and I took off to AF Hospital ER (because I knew they would have a shorter wait time than Utah Valley).  Poor Carter cried most of the way there telling me to hurry and get to the doctor his face hurt until he finally cried himself to sleep.  

Once there, they explained how they often have to sedate kids in order to have them completely still for the repair of a lip.  Now if this had happened to either of my other two kids, I have no doubt that would have been needed.  But Carter is my most calm and least reactive kid.  So, I told then let's try just getting him numb and then I bet he will hold still.  Derek wanted to be there too, so he dropped the other two kids at his parents and came over to the hospital to join us.  They had a special hospital worker who comes in and give any kids in the hospital coloring books or toys/activities to play with to make their time more pleasant.  She asked if he would like to play with a toy or do an activity.  We asked if they had any puzzles because he loves puzzles.  She brought a bag full of goodies included at 25 piece Mickey Mouse puzzle.

Well in no time Carter had put that thing together and she remarked at how fast he has completed it.  He looked up at her and asked, "Do you have any more puzzles?"  She then came back with a 45 piece Ninja Turtles Puzzle and a 100 piece dinosaur puzzle.  And, she said we could take all these puzzles home.  Carter has been begging me to get him some new puzzles, so he was pretty excited about this idea.  He quickly got to work on the Ninja Turtle puzzle.  I held it together pretty well, until the ER doc came in to evaluate him.  I asked him if we better call in a plastic surgery to do the sewing because the dog bite had ripped right threw is upper lip and I know how tricky it can be to sew the vermilion border correctly.  Plus, on the way to the hospital I had called my Dad who had said I better not let an ER doc sew it up, but to insist on a plastics.  The ER doc assured me that he sews more of these than the plastics (and he did look to be an experienced doc) and that he would let me know if he didn't feel comfortable with it.  He also told me it would be about a 2 hour wait for a plastic surgeon consult and a steep additional fee.  That was when I lost it and started tearing up at the stress of knowing whether to trust this ER doc I didn't know with my baby's face.  Derek stepped in and made the decision for me and said if he felt comfortable sewing this up, then we would be happy to have him do it.  The nurse brought him an antibiotic to take before they started sewing.  She said I have this medicine for you take and Carter said "Is it yucky or yummy?"  And she said I think it's yummy why don't you tell me.  He swallowed it and then said, "It's yucky!"   Besides being completely adorable the whole time and winning the affection of the whole hospital team, Carter was indeed a champ.  Once numb, he remained calm and held perfectly still so they could repair his lip laceration.  He did seem to noticed the prick of the needles attached to the stitch in some places.  He reacted a little bit and someone asked if he could feel that.  While remaining perfectly still he politely said, "Yes, the pokey one hurts.  Can we not do the pokey one any more?"  And then everyone chuckled at his adorableness.  By the time they were all done stitching, Carter had finished the Ninja Turtle puzzle and wanted to start straight away on the dinosaur puzzle.  But by then it was almost time to go home, so I told him we'd save it for home.   And as soon as we got home he wanted me to sit down with him and put that dinosaur puzzle together (which we did).  Then, it was time for bed and he fell right asleep the second his head hit the pillow all tuckered out from quite the day.  Now, my only fear is that he enjoyed the puzzles and one on one attention from both Mom and Dad at the hospital so much that it wasn't nearly a negative experience enough for him to learn his lesson about pestering dogs too much.  And this cute swollen lipped boy with his stitched up lip can ask for just about anything right now, and I will say yes.