Progression of a Black Eye

Back in June (Thursday, June 9 to be exact), Evie was playing in my bathroom when she tripped and fell. She just happened to hit the corner of her eye on the corner of the tile around our bathtub and it split the skin wide open. I had just gotten out of the shower and had no idea whether I should try to take her to get stitches or not. Luckily for us all, I got ahold of my mom, because I thought all stitches had to be done in the emergency room and that's where I would have gone, but she advised me to call my pediatrician. For some reason they were really busy that morning and the first time I called the phone just rang and rang. Finally I got through and they gave me an appointment time, but when I got off the phone I realized that I only had thirty minutes to finish getting dressed and get my kids into the car and up to the doctor's office. Since it takes twenty minutes just to drive there, I was a little bit frantic. Plus it was hard to get dressed with Evie crying and bleeding all over the place, but we managed.

Evie was a good sport considering all she had to go through. I guess it's been long enough that I don't actually remember the order of things, but I think first they numbed the area with a gel. At some point they gave her an additional shot to numb the area and then they had to wash the cut. This involved spraying water on the cut using these syringes with a dome on the end. She didn't really like that part. Despite all the numbing agents, she also didn't like it when the doctor started to put the stitches in. I had to hold her still as she squirmed and fought and tried to get away--not my most fun moment as a mom.

Anna was a pretty good sport through all of this too, for the most part sitting quietly, watching a movie, while the doctor and nurse were working on Evie.

right after getting her two stitches

later that day and looking a little happier

June 10: her eye continued to get blacker and puffier for the first few days

June 12

We went back to the doctor on Tuesday, June 14 to have the stitches removed. The nurse turned on the movie, A Bug's Life, again--they had it one while she got her stitches too. Evie wasn't too keen on getting her stitches removed, but she didn't fight quite as hard this time. She still has a little scar next to her eye and for a few weeks after, I jumped every time she tripped, but so far--knock on wood--she hasn't taken anymore falls that resulted in any cuts, let alone stitches.