Still stitches

My day was one huge to do list timed per 30 minutes of what I had to achieve in order to get ready. Rushing from school to daycare to stores to the city hall to home for one hour of suitcase packing while snacking a quick lunch and back to day care and back to the school early where I had to pick-up Kabouter to get his stitches out.

Right on time I was at the playground of the school in their afternoon brake where everyone was running around outside in the heat. I was also sweating like hell, carrying Beertje on my belly as usual.   I saw Kabouter immediately walking at the hand of his teacher in the garden with another of his classmates. He had clearly played a lot outside as he had a nice big red blush on his cheeks. Reminder to myself: watch the weather forecast and put sunscreen on him before dropping him off at school.

We quickly said goodbye and took his father's day present along and walked off in the direction of the doctor's office where we had an appointment. As always he didn't want to walk back but climbed in the stroller that I bring along and he was asleep after 100m...not entirely unusual either at the end of a week school. The doctor was running late and he slept part of the waiting time in the hallway and then leaned tiredly against me.

"What can I help you with", the doctor asked.  I told her about last week's accident and asked her to get the stitches out as the ER doctors had instructed.  She was quite surprised that we'd do it already after 5 days but understanding we were about to leave on vacation, she took a look...and frowned when the sticker went off.

"that wound is infected"

Her words hit my face. What?   No, you had to be kidding, it had looked alright all week.

"I can't take those stitches out, the wound is infected. If there's puss inside, it's not completely grown and you risk that it pops open next week."
I stared in disbelief at the wound that looked indeed swollen and red, unlike it had been all week.

While she was talking, I saw us sitting abroad in the heat with a super fun pool close-by while trying to explain to a whining toddler why he had to stay out of the pool (and us too in solidarity).  My brain raced already ahead how we'd organise our "relax and pool" vacation dry and keep us occupied in a fun way.

"Oh and he has a fever, he really has a fever."

I felt so embarrassed and wished I could disappear.  I simply brought in a kid to get stitches out, unaware of his infection and fever.  Gosh, I surely won 'worst mom of the day' award.

"He's very clingy, isn't he? He's not responding to very much at the moment"
"Oh but he always falls asleep after school and it was such a hot day, that behaviour is  not different from other days", I mumbled.
I touched his forehead and felt a little oven indeed. Ha, no sunburn but fever cheeks. That also explains his 4 nightmares that woke us both up...they predicted the infection that was going to break out. I should have known.

"Do you want me to get the stitches out?'
(well, dugh, you just told me that was a big risk)
(please please let us go on vacation)
"I trust you take the best decision doctor"
(please please let us go on vacation as we intended)



In the end it didn't seem so bad as I first feared:  the stitches stayed in for another 10 days, he got antibiotics and fever medication but should be fine to be in the pool as of Sunday with good water resistant bandaids.  Indeed by the end of the evening, when the fever was lower already, Kabouter was just as responsive again as always and my heart settled again. Nevertheless I still feel so awkward for being there not being aware of his infection and fever yet, even though the doctor claimed that it probably just broke out that day (as they had not noticed anything at school either). On the other hand I was so relieved it broke out when it did (while we had that appointment) and not during the night or on the morning we had to leave!

Comments

Tess said…
Pfff en zo is het toch altijd iets he!
Gelukkig maar dat het zo gelopen is. Ik hoop dat hij zich snel beter voelt en dat jullie een geweldige vakantie hebben!

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