Head Staples

Yep, it's what it sounds like.  I had just gotten out of the shower when my youngest son Kaiyin assaulted me about having cookies (I may be being slightly melodramatic).  Allowing my ADHD kid to have sugar plus red and yellow die was not going to fit in with my schedule that day, and if you know anyone with ADHD you KNOW what I'm talking about.  He skipped off downstairs which should have been my clue that he wasn't interested in what my schedule looked like that day.  I heard a crash followed by blood curdling scream followed by stomping upstairs in my direction.  

My friend asked me later that day if I was panicked. Ummmm... I wouldn't say panicked, more like ticked off!  In typical recovering supermom fashion, I preceded to lecture my 5 year old about sneaking cookies off the top shelf when I specifically told him he couldn't have cookies.  Also, I let him know I didn't have time to go to the doctor to get his bleeding head fixed up!  Now before you call social services on me, I did get ice and put enough pressure on it to stop the bleeding.  Now came the decision I dreaded.  Who would do the best job stitching up my son, urgent care (which everyone knows is the antithesis of urgent) or my pediatrician.   Well to be honest, the "best job" wasn't my only factor in my decision making process.  Realistically, I was trying to figure out who would be the quickest.

I called my pediatrician first, she said it would take an hour and half to get him in... bummer!  I had to take my chances with urgent care.  I called to see how busy it was and she said there were only four people waiting.  Perfect!  I rushed over to urgent care after guilting my 14 year old into coming with me to hold ice on Kaiyin's head by reminding him he had been through this 3 times (don't judge) and by the time I got there, there were only 2 people ahead of me.  SCORE!  The lady at the front desk made a comment about me being pretty calm.  She didn't know I'd done this stitches thing 5 times in heads alone and two in fingers!  

I knew I had made the right decision, until an hour and half went by and I was kicking myself for not going to the pediatrician.  Thinking I could still rectify it, I called them to see if I could still get in and ditch the NOT urgent care.  While on hold, they of course called my name.  Dilemma... I hung up with my pediatrician and asked the nurse how much longer it was going to be.  She said he'd be right in, which everyone knows is code for 30 more minutes!  By the time the doctor entered the room, my 14 year old had whined 14 times about how he knew he shouldn't have come, he was starving to death and the first words out my 5 year old’s mouth to the doctor were, "my mom's mad"  I'm surprised he didn't call social services on me at that point!  

By the time we got finished, Kaiyin had 7 shiny staples in his head and was calling himself the "Real Iron Man" because he didn't cry one tear and had metal in his head.  He finished the experience by high fiving the doctor while jumping off the medical table. Clearly he is a superhero.  When it was all said and done, he looked at me with his sweet smile and big brown eyes and asked, "Are you still mad at me m om?"  As my heart melted I answered, "Yes! Don't steal anymore cookies."