Mary Can't Catch a Break

Our little Mary can't seem to catch a break lately.

After she bit through her lip on Monday and received one stitch on the outside of the cut, the cut inside her lip burst open. It looked really freaky, as some of my friends to whom I showed it can attest. Clearly it would need fixing at some point, probably by a plastic surgeon. Chris and I considered whether we were supposed to rush her back to the doctor, but by then it was 24 hours later and surely a wound can't be stitched that late, right? Plus it wasn't bleeding or infected. I've taken children in to the doctor so many times when it was not necessary and I've felt foolish. We stayed home. Apparently we didn't make the right choice.

Today, as scheduled, Chris took Mary back to the same doctor at the same Urgent Care to have Mary's one stitch removed. She was scared, but I assured her that I'd been told it would not hurt and she'd be dropped off soon thereafter in time for art class and gym time at church where I'd be with the kids. See you in an hour, honey!

When the doctor saw the inside of Mary's mouth, she said, "I'm so sorry. That was entirely unanticipated!" She had been so sure that the cut on the inside of the mouth was already healing and sealing such that she should not stitch it at the time. The doctor got a senior doctor a couple of decades older than her to help advise. A white board was brought out so the senior doctor could draw a diagram of what would proceed step-by-step.

The senior doctor said that the now healing malformation inside Mary's mouth could be repaired today and that they could do stitches. I've never heard of doing stitches five days later! Meanwhile, I am getting quick updates from Chris while at art class. A mother-friend of mine (who has great experience with medical procedures) and I wondered how on earth they would get the wound to adhere and close when it had been healing for five days. You can't get healed skin to stick together, you know?

My precious not-yet-four-year-old girl was wrapped up in a blanket, laid on her back with her head tipped way back, received the burning Lidocaine shot, and the doctor used a scalpel to cut hatch marks into the wound so it would have open cuts to adhere and heal together. That's how they got the wound to close. Last time the single stitch took one long minute and this time Chris says it was about ten whole minutes and numerous stitches, with pinned-down Mary screaming and begging the whole time.

To add insult to injury, then she couldn't join us for gym class because we felt it would be too unsafe for her and her freshly sewn mouth to be in the room full of zooming children and flying basketballs. So she went home alone with Daddy . . . and a soft serve ice cream cone. 

I left class early with my tearful mama's heart and went to the grocery store to stock up on soft treat foods (again!) as well as pink roses and a pink helium balloon. It turns out that while Mary was screaming on the table, Chris had promised to buy her a toy . . . something before I would have scoffed at in my ignorance but now understand completely! I'm surprised he didn't promise her the moon! Well, the little girl has not forgotten and has reminded us a couple of times tonight not to forget to go out and buy her a toy. ~sigh~ I have incredible admiration for parents of a chronically sick or disabled child who try hard to raise that child with a degree of normalcy and good moral character instead of just pandering all the time. Because I'd give the moon to Mary right now too!

The small mercy now is that the stitches on the inside of her mouth are dissolvable  so she should not need to return to the doctor.

Pray for no more complications!