Harry Head Wound

Last week just before dinner, Andrew and Elijah were running back and forth in the hallway, around corners, etc. Hannah was in the kitchen and I was in the living room. Suddenly we heard a bang and both boys started crying rather lustily. We both ran to see what had happened.

At first, it seemed that it was nothing more than a baby collision, and that everything might be fixed with some hugs and kisses. Then we noticed the blood dripping from the back of Elijah's head. Upon closer inspection, I determined that he had an 1-1/2" long gash, presumably from hitting into the corner of the wall. It looked like stitches would be needed.

I called Greg, and he was still at work; it would take him at least a half-hour to get home. His van was broken and he was using my car, so I would have to walk in the dark to the hospital, which is about 20 minutes away by foot. I really wanted to avoid this if possible, so I called my parents and hooked up the video chat. My dad looked at his head for a little while and agreed with me that, while stitches might be a good idea, he is a boy, it is the back of his head, and if I felt that I could butterfly it together with surgical tape, things should probably be ok. (Elijah kept saying to my dad "I woke-a da head!" Translated: "I broke the head!") I called Greg again and he concurred with the tape idea.

I attempted to shave the area around the wound first, but Elijah was squirming and screaming at me "Head is all better!!" with such vigor that I only got his hair *kind of* short. I then cleaned it with alcohol and applied this prescription ointment called Bactroban (amazing stuff -- if you don't have any, see if your doctor will prescribe some to you -- it heals things crazy fast). I then put two band-aids over it and secured it with surgical tape, squeezing the sides together (Elijah was not pleased with this part). I definitely taped his hair, but there was nothing I could do about it.



For a few days, we just pushed more of the medicated ointment down behind the bandage with a q-tip, but finally I decided that the dressing should be changed. I put Elijah in the bathtub and proceeded to give him a crew-cut on the shortest setting (no attachment comb, which is the length Greg does on himself.) You can see how much hair was attached to the bandage in the top right corner of this pic.

He was less than pleased, but there was no other way to get the bandage out besides just ripping his hair out, and I felt this was the better option.

Even candy corn couldn't keep him happy, but soon he was a fuzzy little albino looking fellow, and he thanked me profusely.

No not really. But when Andrew saw Elijah's haircut, he wanted one too, so I shaved his head as well.

Elijah's head healed up really nicely. Here they are watching a knitting video podcast. You can see how long the wound was.

I'm very glad that it all turned out well. Sucks that he'll never have hair growing in that spot, but now he just matches Andrew (marble steps at the same age), Joel (I can't remember how it happened), and me (slid down an apple tree on the back of my head). So it's all in the family.

I miss Elijah's hair, but they do look pretty damn cute together.




Tomorrow I'll post pics from where Greg and I went last weekend.