Stitches for Kennedy

Yesterday when Kennedy got to school she ran down the hall and slipped right outside of her classroom. She hit her head on the door and got a cut about an inch long on her forehead. Grandpa Brent called to let me know, but said that he thought it would be OK to clean it and bandage it. He thought Kennedy seemed more upset about not being able to go to school. So after some minor first aid, Kennedy went back to her class. Sometime during the day the school put a giant bandage on her head because it was still bleeding, but everything else was just fine.

Kennedy had a fun afternoon gathering pine cones on a walk with Grandma Sue and Macy to make into treats with peanut butter and seeds for the birds. I picked the girls up as usual, and Kennedy fell asleep in the car on the way home. She slept until 5:00 when we woke her to finally get a good look at the cut.

Jake went to the store to get some butterfly bandages and grapes, Kennedy's special request. When we tried to apply the strips, we just couldn't get them to hold the cut closed. We decided it was time to head out to the emergency room. The wait at the hospital seemed like it would be a while, so we left and drove to an Insta-Care.

Kennedy was so good and so patient! I'm amazed that both girls did so well waiting the two hours we were there. Kennedy was also very brave. She held very still and only shed a few tears in anticipation of a shot - which she didn't even feel at all. We'll be back in a week to get the five stitches removed. One of the nurses turned out to be the mom of the twins in her class at school - she told my dad the next day, when they made the connection, just how amazed she was that Kennedy was such an excellent patient!

While we waited, there were two emergency cases in the bed next to us. The first was a man suffering from what the doctor believed to be blood clots or a pulmonary embolism (obviously there were no walls in this clinic). He insisted on leaving, even though the doctor said it was totally against medical orders. Next, the bed was filled by a man complaining of chest pains and nausea. He and his wife tried to rationalize with the doctor that he was just fine...there's no history of heart disease in my family - except for my mom, but she didn't have problems until her 80s (he was 76). The doctor called him an ambulance, but the man and his wife were concerned about going to the hospital that was right down the street. Why? Because they weren't sure if their insurance would be accepted.