I thought I was tougher than this

[Gilgamesh]

Our four year old boy got hurt last night. An older boy ran into him in the playground at school and unfortunately, the older boy was bending down as he hit our son so their heads were at the same level and the older boy was wearing glasses which caused a lot of damage.

Our son ended up with a huge gash over his left eye which took about 15 to 20 stitches to close as well as a bunch of stitches inside the wound to pull the flesh together.

I was damn near in tears holding him as he cried, especially after seeing the wound because it looked really bad after I got the bleeding to stop. The flesh had been pushed up so it looked like a huge piece of skin had been torn out of his head (bigger than a NT dollar coin). Fortunately, the doctor was able to pull the flesh down and sew him up.

We still need to go back to the doctor today to check for infection and then again on Monday to see what can be done to minimize any scarring.

Like I said, I thought I was tougher than this but seeing my little boy crying, face covered in blood almost brought me to tears. The only reason I didn't end up crying was because his mother was crying, people around him were crying and I was trying to get my boy to focus on me and try to calm him down. I figured if he saw me crying as well, it would just make things worse.

He was doing a lot better after we got him stitched up though. He even wanted to go play basketball as well as play hide and seek after we got home. We didn't let him though but let him watch a movie. Today, he's a bit puffy and a bit of a black eye but doesn't seem to be doing to badly.

Now we're just hoping that there won't be to much scarring but I figure he's young enough that even if there is some scarring it'll fade over time.

Kids-You never know how tough you are until they get hurt.

[Steviebike]

I think you're tougher than you imagine

[TheGingerMan]

Sounds like you did just fine, getting him to focus on you and calm down. Someone has to keep their cool, when all around all losing theirs.

That's a fairly accurate definition of toughness to my mind.

[finley]

Poor lad. Hope he's doing OK now. I wouldn't worry about whether he gets a scar or not. I'm reliably informed that facial scars are cool (especially if they look as if they might have been inflicted by a wild animal or a knife fight), so when he's a teenager he'll have one less thing to worry about

[Gilgamesh]

He's doing better now and so am I. We just got back from the doctor and the cut doesn't look as bad. It's still quite big but it's all cleaned up and the stitches look fairly neat. At least, I can get the image of a bloody mess out of my head now and replace it with an image of a nice cut all stitched up.

[Super Hans]

Little lads are tough. He's fine and you held it together for him and his mother.
Then you came on here and admitted you're not tough, which is tough.
So you're a rugged tough guy with one of those square chin things and a permanent five o'clock shadow - but no matter, when bad things happen to kids it can cut up even the most hardest of people.
Now he's doing OK and he has a neat little battle scar and he can use it in the future to impress the ladies with stories concerning lions, crashed aircraft and racing cars.

[Tigerman]

You did very well, and your little boy will be just fine. As has been indicated above, kids are really quite resilient. And not to be flippant, but, scars on boys are not such a bad thing. I have been a bit... OK, quite... accident prone all of my life, and I have the scars to prove it. In January I ripped open a nice laceration on my shin coming out of the water after a dive. Here's that one after we got back to the hotel and before I cleaned and dressed it:



It healed up pretty well. Hurt badly for a while, but, its fine, now. Big scar, but, fine, otherwise. I kicked a bike last week and have a similar-sized, but, V-shaped nasty gash on the back of my other leg now. I didn't photograph that one, but, its going to leave an impressive scar, too.

As a guy, I've never been disadvantaged by scars.

It is difficult to see your child in pain and frightened. But, you did really well. So did your boy, it seems! Good for both of you!

[Wookiee]

You did great!
If you're worried about scarring, ask the doc to refer him to a plastic surgeon, pronto. Don't wait unitl after it heals. It is relatively inexpensive here, plus the costs may even be covered by his jianbao.
Some really good plasitc surgeons at the Chang Gung hospitals. As everyone who's swum with me knows, I am the king of scars, but it'd be a lot worse but for the work of the great plastic surgeons here.

[Shaktipalooza]

It's true, culturally scars on boys are cool, but a travesty on a girl.

I know a couple that were involved in a moped accident a few years ago. The woman ended up with an almost invisible scar on her cheek while the man nearly had his chin ripped off.

The insurance settlement payed out about 20x more money to her than her husband.

[NonTocareLeTete]

Awwwww, heart-warming to read about a good dad Your boy's a lucky one!