Fresh Wounds

As of yesterday. Jasper’s wound was looking really good.  You could barely see the points of entry for the stitches, and the actual scab was coming off on its own. 

That was until we got home from the post office.

I was carrying in Benjamin and Jasper was in front of us carrying his Lightning McQueen hat.  He turned the corner out of the laundry room, and I turned around to close the door to the garage.  In an instant things changed.  When I turned back from closing the door, there was Jasper standing in front of me with blood pouring out of his wound and out of his nose.  It was in his mouth and all over his hand which was also in his mouth – his gaping wide mouth from screaming. 

I couldn’t believe it.  I didn’t know what happened or really what to do.  I put down Benjamin and picked up Jasper and made a bee-line for the kitchen sink.  Jasper would not stop crying and would not tell me what happened.  Neither thing was helpful.  He recoiled when I put a wet paper towel on the wound, but I could not get the bleeding to stop.  I tried having him lie down on the floor to let gravity help me, but the wound on the bridge of his nose just poured blood into his eye.  Goodness! 

So I had to get tough.  I put more pressure on his wound and told him he HAD to stop crying.  Once I started talking like that, he realized I was serious and fell in line.  He explained that he hit himself in the nose with his hat (you know how kids hold the back of the hat – the loop that loosens - and kind of fling it around?  I can only guess he was doing that and really clocked himself in the nose.  How does that happen?  How does it happen to my kid who just had stitches???)  The fact that his wound was pouring out blood with greater force than when it was actually injured initially was wild and totally shocking.  I guess the nose has more blood vessels that the bridge of your nose, and when they rupture, the blood looks for the easiest way out.  (Spoken like a true layman.)

As far as I can tell – the stitches stayed in, and things don’t look too bad up there.  Now, of course you can see the points of entry from the stitches again and the scabbing is fresh.  And I think the blood vessels inside are more damaged from this latest injury … so we could see more colors of the rainbow.  But other than that, he seems back to normal. 

We’ll see what this afternoon holds.