When the ADHD child needs stitches.... | ADHD Information
Oh man, what a day we have had. I get a call from school today saying "DS had a spill off a scooter in PE and there is a lot of blood and he won't let anyone touch him - can you come up here please?" So, I rush up to school to find my son crying and screaming, blood on his hands and face. I figure out he has split his lip on the inside, and has banged his cheek as well.
I get him calmed down and cleaned up as best I can and bring him home for the rest of the day. His lip is sooo swollen and just looks weird to me. He has bruises on his cheek and jawline as well. After having him home about an hour, I ask if I can check on his lip. When I flip and look inside, I find a 1/2 inch gash in the inside of his lip! ACK!
I call the dr - he says bring him in. He looks, decides he needs 2 stitches. I am thinking - yeah - right - ds is NOT going to cooperate with this - and dr thinks the same thing. We try anyway. Intern holds ds head, nurse leans over his chest and holds his arms, I put my fingers in his mouth so he can't clamp it shut (although he clamped down on my fingers - ouch!). Dr puts a shot of novacaine in his lip, he screams bloody murder, my 13 yr old dd runs out of the room crying. Dr gets novacaine everywhere - hehe - then when it numbs a bit, sticks ds a couple more times to make sure it is all numb.
Then dr tries to stitch, ds is not believing that needle isn't going to hurt. Dr manages to stitch thru 1st time and pulls string out far so ds can see it. Ds thinks that is major cool - and lets dr stitch the rest. When it is over, nurse brings my crying dd back in the room - and my ds says "don't cry sissy - it is ok" AWWW!
When the school originally called I cringed, thinking he was in the office again after the problems we had last week. I was relieved to hear he was injured - how weird is that? Not that I want him hurt of course - just glad he wasn't in trouble. On a high note, the teacher said he was golden all day today up until that point - YAY!
So, that was our crazy day! Man, I hope the stitches dissolve and we don't have to try and have them removed! =)
This is a normal thing with ADHD boys, so I have heard-and experienced. My son has had his head stapled shut, his collarbone broken, ran through a glass window, fallen a million times, etc. He is covered in scars, scratches, bites his nails down to half mast, etc. My son even falls in the shower-regularly. I have to keep an ear out to make sure he is ok. (He is 13 now, just fyi.)My fav school picture is when he is missing his two front teeth and he has a sling over his healing collarbone. (shoulders) It is priceless!
I do know what you mean about at least he wasn't in trouble again. It is a sad, sick day when your child's injuries are preferred over discipline problems.
Not sure if we have chatted before, but once my son was on meds his "major" injuries declined. Also, the older he gets the less he seems to get hurt too.
I really think, however, that there seems to be something wrong with the teachers at that school. I mean, who would leave a child on the ground bleeding like that? I remember as a child myself running around a corner and having a child running around the opposite corner-landing directly into my nose-full force!! It was broken badly and I was bleeding everywhere. A teacher that wasn't even mine took some paper towels and applied pressure to help control the bleeding.
I would ask the principal about their knowledge of first aid. That is ridiculous to allow an injured child to flail about on the floor until his mother comes. Just pathetic!
Just after my son turned 3 he had "bursting injury" with his lip. He got his stitches in the ER. They had him put his arms behind him, and fitted a pillowcase over them, then he layed on the pillowcase so he couldn't move his arms. It was a genius way to keep him from jumping. Still horrible, though. They numbed him for over an hour and he still felt it. But he's okay now.
Hope your son feels better soon! 
How's his sis?
Just to clarify - they didn't leave him on the floor, he was in the nurses office when I got there. And she was doing her best to try and calm him down, clean him up and get him to put some ice on his lip. He just wasn't cooperating AT ALL. He was pushing her away and kicking at her and such. He never does when he gets hurt - not even for me until he calms himself down a bit. He cooperated much better once I got there and let the nurse clean off his face, and such.
My dd was traumatized by the whole thing - she HATES for him to be hurt. But, he recovered pretty well and was bouncing off the walls again by bedtime. He got up this morning, said it "felt funny" because it was swollen but that it didn't hurt - and he wanted to go to school.
Once arriving at school he was a celebrity. Of course everyone wanted to know how he was, and hear his stitches story and see his stitches. So, I am sure he will be hamming it up all day. hehe! When I left, his favorite little girl had her arm around him saying how brave he was - HAHA! I just rolled my eyes at the teacher and left laughing.
oh wow, how scary that has to have been! My DS, 5, was just diagnosed with adhd...and he's been sick alot as well as getting hurt (he decided to shave with a disposable razor one day that his sister had left out-talk about blood!) Anyway, I have to say, he's always been pretty good about medical stuff--it's really rather amazing.
Hope the funny feeling wears off soon and htat he is feeling better quickly
hugs
Vicky
Our DD has had so many stiches and bumps and bruises that I swore somebody was going to call social services one day. Just a day in the life I guess.
Once, before meds, she was chasing the cat around the house and ran into a table and got cracked on the head with a Crystal vase, the vase got more damaged than her. That was her first set of stiches.
Another time she decided to jump off the side of the tub and before I could catch her she landed inside, slipped, and hit her chin. She knocked a tooth loose, ran it through her lip, and had to have stiches in her chin. Thankfully she was a trooper. The ER doc said he had never seen a child so calm when having to have a shot and stiches. I was so proud!!
It's amazing what our children can deal with.
There is a topical ointment that the doctor could have put on the spot where he was going to insert the needle so that your child could not even feel the needle. It takes 20 or so minutes to work. I just did this with my daughter b/c she was freaking out in the ER about the needle. lol i've been though this to when dd was in jk, she fell at school on her face and split her chin open....nice....din't know she had adhd at the time, she was great untill he jabed her once, and he was not gentle, din't even care a$$hole, anyhow pore kid she was so upset.