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This article contains graphic images of my son’s wound. I am sorry, but it is necessary for the story.

The Alternative to Stitches

Well, if you remember, the big concern to send us to the ER (besides the actual impact to the head) was the hole in my son’s lip. They seemed to be getting us ready to leave when I asked how we should be treating it. I honestly think they were not very worried about it, but the doctor took a look and said it was definitely a hole. However, stitches were not something that would help. Instead, they were going to use glue. Yes, I said glue. I then got a history lesson on glue, which I actually vaguely remember learning about in school. It was accidentally made and used in war to treat wounds. There is more to that history lesson, but I kind of tuned the guy out because I was freaking out about how my son would react to what was happening.

I will say now that if this is information that you want to know about, you really need to speak to a doctor about it and not go off whatever you find on the internet. Each person will be given a little different directions based on their specific situation. My son had a hole that was being sealed, but there was no skin to cover the hole. So, his body had to create skin, which meant that saliva and food/drink, etc. would be hitting that glue. That means our directions would be very specific for that situation. They told us a specific number of days to keep an eye on it and how to treat it. If you happen upon this because of someone you know with a similar injury, you really need to follow the directions of your doctor and not just go off what is on here.

The reason glue was needed was to reduce the chance of infection. Glue is put on his wound and then dried. It created a protective layer to help prevent infection. There is always a chance of infection with a wound like this. We were then told we would be given directions on cleaning, but…. they did not actually give us any directions. They just said watch for infection and keep it clean. I called the pediatrician the next day and got some directions and then made an appointment for him to be seen. This is what we had to deal with, though. There were two main injuries, but I’m going to go over them one at a time, so it makes sense for each area.

The Face Injury

This picture is actually after the urgent care trip. The doctor cleaned up his face to see if there was anything that needed immediate attention and they needed to see what was going on. There was a lot of blood. His upper lip was severely swollen because of his teeth going through. If you can see the hole above his lip, you’re probably wondering exactly how his teeth could possibly get that high. It’s because he landed on his forehead and then slid at the same time as the rest of his face was hitting. So, the lip slid down and it allowed his teeth to go through that lip. Yes, this is horrifying. All of this is important to know, though!

In case you’re reading these stories out of order, the cat scan on my son’s head came back clean when we were at the emergency room. Please know that he is OK right now!

Since we were at the Emergency Room for a ridiculously long time, everything was basically dry by the time we went home. I’m going to go ahead and link to products that we used for the treatment so it’s easy to find but make sure you KNOW your child can tolerate or use the products. There are always alternatives. You and your doctor will know what is best for your child.

The glued area wasn’t supposed to get too much on it, but we had to treat around it still. So, everything on his face for the first couple of days got Neosporin. I use the one with pain relief, but I honestly don’t know if that was necessary or if it even helped. He said he felt better trying it “just in case”. No bandages were used on his face! Everything was left open. We were told, though, that to reduce scarring that we need to keep everything moist. So, we made sure to do that.

I know what you’re thinking right now. How do you keep the ointment from making a mess at night when the kiddos sleep like tornados? Well, it’s not as easy as people think. Yes, a pillowcase will help prevent that, but if you want to add some extra protection, I suggest a soft cloth of some kind that won’t stick to the face during sleeping. It’s hard to know the best option, but we had some old baby blankets that we could use. Flannel baby blankets that we still have because they were made by myself and my Grandma. Not only did they protect the pillow a bit more, but they also provided some comfort during this time. I know it’s weird, but even adults need something comforting during times of crisis. I let him pick out two or three that he felt he needed to use, and we put them around the bed in case he tornadoed throughout the night.

After two or three days, though, you don’t really need to use the Neosporin anymore. If everything looks good, you just want something safe that will keep the moisture. Everyone will have a suggestion, but I have used the same stuff for my children since they were babies, so I knew what to use for my son. We used Aquaphor on all of the spots. Remember, though, you don’t want that glue to come off too soon. So, it’s going around the glue at this point. They said it would take about 7 days for the glue to come off his lip and that’s literally how long it took.

After the glue came off, we ended up heading to the pediatrician for a checkup. Actually, it lined up with our already scheduled appointment, so we lucked out there. They took a look at everything, heard his story, and asked if he was wearing a helmet. I’m very glad that every doctor and nurse we saw the entire time was worried about the helmet. I think it really helped to enforce how important the helmet is when riding the electric scooter (or anything like it!).

It had been about 2 weeks since his accident and the pediatrician said that everything looked like it was healing nicely. Every person that had heard about my son’s story had mentioned using Vitamin E to prevent scarring. I remembered hearing that growing up as well, but some AI versions said that wasn’t a good option. I wanted to hear it from the doctor. She actually said that Vitamin E wasn’t completely necessary. The main point was to keep it moist. She said it looked like whatever we were doing was good enough and we didn’t have to get Vitamin E, but my son said he wanted to try both. So, we purchased Vitamin E Oil for his face. Our instructions were to use the Vitamin E and then cover it a little with the Aquaphor. So, we have been doing that. (I can show some progressive pictures of how it’s healing in future posts for those that want to see how it’s been going!)

Two things I want to mention that make life a little easier. First, I cheated a bit on washing my son’s face when his wounds were fresh. The first night, the doctor’s had cleaned up him really well, but you want to keep washing the face. I have some face wipes that I use off and on and I let my son use these to wash around the wounds to keep the oils and dirt off his face as much as possible. Also, depending on the age, acne might become an issue when you are trying to keep the wound area moist. If a spot showed up in the wound area, I would let my son wash his face and then I spot treated with an acne cream that has worked for him before. I let it dry, then applied the Vitamin E and Aquaphor over it.

The Other Injury

I don’t want you to think this other injury is any less important to the story. However, the face injury was front and center the entire time and frankly, it was the most shocking. The other injury, though, was my son’s knee. He was only wearing his helmet, so his arms and legs got banged up pretty bad. When he flew through the air and landed on his face, his legs came down after his face hit. He was at an angle, so one of his knees ended up hitting the ground very hard. The knee was extremely swollen and bleeding. The doctor’s had to cut off his pants to get a look.

Again, this is after it was cleaned up, but you wouldn’t have seen much before it was cleaned up anyway. The bruises were there almost immediately. To be honest, I have seen injuries similar to this in other situations, and they were not good at all. So, I was a little worried about his knee as well. The doctor also noticed it and suggested that we do an x-ray if we were OK with it.

I want to pause here and say that I was shocked at how much the doctors did NOT want to do x-rays. It was like they were worried we were going to sue them for radiation exposure or something. Honestly, I would much rather make sure my son could walk and not die. It bothered me tremendously that they were trying to convince me that an x-ray was necessary. I understand if I took him in because he fell at the school and scraped his knee and it looked like it needed just a bandage. However, this looked like a serious injury to me. So, I can see why an x-ray is necessary! I don’t really like feeling like I’m the one that has to be the doctor and make the decisions. I was already scared and stressed out over my poor son and how much pain he was probably in. I just wanted to make sure we could figure out the best way to help him and get it going as soon as possible.

The x-ray came back clear. No broken bones. The wound care on his knee was the same as if he had scraped it badly at the school or park. Take off the bandage to clean and reapply ointment as necessary. Watch for infection. I’m not going to lie. I didn’t do that every day. He wasn’t out being active for the first week or two of recovery. Plus, it was so much time of stress and drama that I lost track of time a little bit. It was two days before we changed the bandage and it ended up being stuck to his knee!

This wasn’t the worst thing to have happen, but it can be super annoying. I put a folding chair in the shower with a small bucket of water. I handed my son a washcloth and told him to put water on the gauze that was stuck to soak every few minutes. I put on a cartoon on an ipad outside of the shower and would come back and check on him. This worked out better than trying to soak his entire body in a tub for 30 minutes. After the gauze came off, we made sure the knee was all cleaned up and we reapplied the Neosporin and I used my own bandages instead of what the hospital gave us. The next time we had to clean it up, it was much easier!

Obviously, the knee was the lesser concern, but you really don’t want to ignore it just because it’s not front and center like his poor face. Infections anywhere on the body can turn bad. Overall, though, his knee wound healed up pretty quickly. The bruises have taken longer to go away but the rest looks healed up pretty well.

Something I Wish I Had Known Before

Remember when I told you that everyone kept asking about the helmet? Well, we ended up back in the ER a week after the first trip (that story will be next) and the nurse that was checking us in was insistent that my son hadn’t really been wearing his helmet. I asked her how she could possibly say that because it saved his life. She said that she had never seen anyone wearing a helmet end up with such severe injuries. I was defensive at this time because I felt like she was saying my son was a liar and told her that there was a kid that had been in the ER just before us the first time we were there and we were told he didn’t wear a helmet and it didn’t turn out as good for him. She looked a little sad and said she knew about that incident and then went on to tell me that she was just surprised that my son was so badly injured.

This prompted me to start looking into more about the helmet. To be honest, it’s a good helmet for people that ride bikes and things like that. However, when you’re driving at higher speeds on an electric scooter, the helmet he started with might not really be the best option. Although the situation was a little random, the speed of the electric scooter added to the injuries. If he wasn’t going so fast, he might have had time to put his hands up in front of him. That would have changed the outcome completely. So, I looked into different helmets and we’ve changed it up. In the next few articles, I will go over the rest of the problems that came from the accident, how we’re coping with recovery, and what kind of gear we’re going to be using from now on.