Bloodied, but still smiling

The Wee ‘Un was helping in the front garden today, leaned forward to pick something up and toppled into the stone wall. The Other Half heard a loud thump, but initially it didn’t seem too bad as the Wee ‘Un was muttering imprecations to himself and was not unduly upset. Investigation revealed a lot of blood coming from a flap of skin so Pa was called with the magic box (aka the first aid kit). I held a pad firmly on the gash while the Other Half washed her hands, then she took over holding the pad while I cleaned my hands and put on disposable sterile gloves as I didn’t want stray garden dirt getting in the wound.

I cleaned the gash up, but the Wee ‘Un’s hair made it difficult to gauge the full extent of the injury so the hair clippers came out, he lost a little hair and after more cleaning I found he had a 1.5cm long cut, with a smaller cut to one side turning it into an L-shape. His skull felt okay, but I always play it safe with hard knocks to the head and the gash needed to be stuck or held shut, so it meant a trip to the village hospital A&E. I applied a Number 8 dressing over an aluderm compress, made sure the bandage was firm but not too tight, and then dispatched the Wee ‘Un to hospital with his mum. We have a routine for accidents like this so he was quite brave and cheery as he had his teddy bear, got a bandage so he could look like a wounded soldier, and was in line for a treat once everything was sorted out. Today, he came home pleased as punch because “the nurse glued my head back together”, he found I’d made him a chip buttie for lunch and, he announced, he can’t wash his hair for a few days and that means “no showers!”.