5 Stitches

Today hadn't been a good day. First, we've gone to SengKang's Daiso right after school and I didn't have a pleasant lunch at the foodcourt there - rude hawkers.

Then back home, as I was busy talking to PX whilst sorting and packing things up, we heard a rather loud tug coming from the 'study/activity room', followed by Renee's cries. I quickly got up and PX also stopped her ironing and tried to rush over. Renee, coming out of the room, was bleeding non-stop! There was quite abit of bleeding from her mouth(blood stains on the floor) but we couldn't tell for sure where she was bleeding exactly 'cos there also seemed to be a cut under her chin.

PX asked for some sugar and after rubbing some onto her gums for a couple of times(first she checked if thr's any loose tooth), the bleeding slowly began to stop, *phew* and we managed to see that there's a cut under her chin and another on her lower gum. . We had thought to leave the laceration under her chin as we were afraid that stitching it up will leave an ugly scar but upon my closer inspection, it seemed like the skin had torn rather 'wide' and I'm afraid that the open wound would get infected.

It was raining and at a time close to the taxi drivers' shift changing hour, I was afraid of a long wait but I failed to contact hubby. I phoned the PD's clinic(funny their phone always seemed to be off hook at times and this is actually bad) and they told me to bring her to KKH or a GP where surgery's allowed if I think a stitch's required. I tried to phone hubby again and when I still couldn't get him, I decided to try and see if any of my sisters could help. Knowing that Sis isn't sure of the route to our home, I dialled Eileen's but my BIL wasn't home and thus, I called Sis. Whilst waiting for my sisters(Li guiding Sis over), hubby phoned back(must have read my urgent msgs) and told me to wait for his return in 20mins' time but as my sisters were already on the way, he then suggested meeting us at the clinic. PX later told me that I had turned 'white' when I saw Renee bleeding, well, that's probably a very natural maternal reaction...

The GP assessed her injuries and advised that it's better for her to have the laceration stitched to prevent a bigger and uglier scar and so, with her referral letter, we rushed over to KKH children's emergency department, in case Renee needed to be sedated. Luckily for us, there weren't alot of patients there this afternoon. I was supposed to go back with Renee myself as hubby needed to attend to some work he's dropped to come over, but he later managed to get his bro to tend to them on his behalf and stayed on.

We were given an option between an application of local anaesthesia or, in case she struggles, a sedation by either inhalent device or injection. Without saying, we went for the formal(but were made to sign on the form for allowing the latter in the case where sedation's really required) and to prevent the sedation, I explained to Renee a couple of times on what would happen should she resist.

Never had I known how a shock could do to one's body and now I knew for sure, it's - sheer Exhaustion. To begin with, I was already feeling tired, still recuperating from the extreme lack of rest/sleep the whole of last week and thus, this was like adding fuel to a fire. Whilst waiting for the anaesthesia to work its magic, hubby went to look for a drink and as much as I tried to control myself, I still succumbed to a doze, though sitting very closely to Renee(arm over back of her seat). What had seemed to me a doze of merely a few seconds had actually been one of about 5-10mins and I awoke to the calls of my child's name(so, it's good thing that they've pronounced her name correctly) to the surgery room.

I was told to place Renee on the 'table' and to prevent her from sudden movement or struggling from fear, she was tightly 'secured' by wraps and her chin was raised up by the nurses placing a small bolster like pillow under her neck. First step - cleaning(to prepare for the stitching) and Renee was so frightened but immediately calmed down(shld have seen the 'eyyy?' look on her, :P) when she felt that there was actually 'no pain' and we knew then, that the 'magic' has taken its effect, :). But the cleaning had made the view of the wound alot more visible and seeing the flesh, I made a face to hubby and I guess 1 of the nurses must have seen the look and quickly asked 'is mommy ok or should daddy hold her?" Oooh, though I'm still ok to hold her, I responded quickly to that suggestion, heee.

3 stitches were initially expected but after the 4th, the doc said a 5th's needed, oh man! In fact, Renee had already started to complain "why so long?" at the start of the 4th and after the 5th, she broke down and teared, awww...

Although hubby had requested the doc to 'make it nice' but to be realistic, he's just a doc at KKH children emergency dept. afterall and we really cannot expect too much(maybe my gynae will do a good job but we can't go to him right?). Anyway, all we can hope for now is that the scar won't be a bad one, *crossing fingers*.

For precaution's sake, the doc had also given us a referral letter for a dentist to check on he teeth/gum and as the centre's already closed by the time we're done, we now have to wait for them to get back to us on the appointment date/time tomorrow. Hubby asked if we could do without it if we find that there aren't any damage but I thought, since her 1st proper dental check is long overdue, we could use this as an opportunity to act on it, :). Let's hope all would be fine.

heart-aching right? It was heart wrenching for me... :(

After the stitches