A "Splitting" Headache

Yesterday (Sunday) I was just starting to make some cookies in the kitchen when I heard a loud "something bad just happened" crash come from the bathroom. It sounded like a cupboard fell off the wall and crashed onto the ground or something big like that. I ran towards the bathroom and met Joseph who was running from the bathroom saying, "Mom, Austin!" At that point I knew one of my kids was injured, but I was not mentally prepared for what I was about to find.

I took one look at my child, standing in the bathtub (note: he was NOT taking a bath, but more about that later) with blood streaming from his forehead and the most ghastly sight I have ever seen. Now, I'm no stranger to having my kids' heads cut open and bleeding. Hans has needed his forehead stitched or glued shut at least three times and his chin once. Joseph had to have the back of his head stapled once before, and Grant had to get a gash glued shut right under his eye once. Each of those times, although I was upset, I was able to stay calm and rational enough to handle the situation. But in this case I lost it. I completely lost it. Austin's wound looked like someone had taken a perfect circle cookie cutter the diameter of a penny and cut straight into my child's forehead all the way through to the bone. I immediately started screaming and I couldn't look at his head without feeling like I was going to faint. Joseph ran to get Dad while I stood there frozen. Joe was taking a Sunday afternoon nap and all the commotion woke him up causing him to run in and take over. He was able to stop the bleeding and calm the situation. I feel so guilty now looking back, my poor little guy standing there needing action and comfort, and I just stood there screaming, scaring him even more. After a couple minutes the wound started to fill up with blood, making the the white go away and the skin around it seemed to close up and it took on a less circular shape. Joe took a picture of it before taking him to the ER to have it stitched up, but it does not look as horrid as it did when I first walked in the bathroom.






Joe took him to the ER with his brother Jeff, and the report is that Austin had to be strapped to a board and had to have his legs and head held still. Joe said he got two layers of stitches, an inner layer with dissolvables, and an outer later which will have to be removed later this week. After getting all stitched up, he was a new little person, happy and smiling. He hasn't complained of it hurting, so he has only had two doses of pain reliever, once right before leaving for the ER, and once right before bed the night of the accident. He doesn't seem to have the headache I thought he would, and hopefully he won't have a horrible scar either. We're supposed to keep the wound out of the sun for at least six months by slathering it with sunblock and keeping it covered with hats.


Now, this is how it happened according to Austin's own story, and according to Joseph and Grant, who were in the bathroom with him when it happened:

Austin found a new bar of soap and wanted to put it on the shower caddy hanging from the shower head. So he stood on the bathroom counter and was reaching over to grab the caddy. He stood on a towel rack on the edge of the counter and at some point after he got the soap in place (we found it placed neatly on the caddy) the rack collapsed and he fell over head first into the bathtub. We don't know what his head struck that made it split open. Maybe the faucet? Edge of the tub? I guess we'll never know. As rambunctous as Austin is, this interestingly is the first time he's ever been seriously hurt. Let's hope it's a long time before he gets injured again.

Austin explaining how he fell into the tub