Celo's Stitches

I'm finally getting around to writing the story of how Celo split open his eyebrow.

On our 5th day of being in Colombia, we were all inside my grandparents' house getting ready to have dinner. The kids were playing in the living room area, while my mom and I sat on the couch and watched. From one moment to the next, Celo tripped and fell straight into the corner of one of the little sofa chairs. He immediately started screaming. I ran over and picked him up, thinking that he had maybe hurt his hand or arm because of the way he landed. I picked him up, and immediately tried to look at his arm. Marcelo was standing in front of me and said, "Babe, he's bleeding," just as I felt blood start dripping down the front of my shirt. He wasn't bleeding. He was gushing. So much blood was coming out so fast. Marcelo took him from me and we ran towards the kitchen. Belen, the lady that works there for my grandparents, got a towel and Marcelo held it to Celo's face to try to clean up the cut and see how bad it was. When we saw how bad the cut was, Marcelo was like, "He's going to need stitches." I just nodded and turned to my mom and said, "We need to go to the hospital." She took care of telling my dad and grandparents, while I quickly packed a bag to take to the hospital. I had no idea how long we would have to wait or how long the car ride would be, so I threw in a bunch of stuff as fast as I could. At that point, Celo was still bleeding pretty bad, so Marcelo said, "Find some vaseline." Belen helped with that, and we put it on the cut to stop the bleeding. It helped a lot. We decided we would just go to the nearest clinic, which was only a 20 minute drive as opposed to a 45 minute drive to the hospital. So Marcelo, Celo, my dad, my grandma, and I loaded up in the car and drove down to the clinic. Celo didn't even cry the whole way there. He just sat in Marcelo's lap and ate the snacks I kept giving him.

When we got to the clinic, they saw us right away, and said only one person could go in with him. I decided I should go, just in case they started asking a bunch of questions. If Marcelo went, there could have been a bit of a language barrier. (His Spanish is good, but I just wanted to play it safe.) I went into this little room, laid Celo on the table, and sang songs to him while he laid there calmly. I couldn't believe how calm he was. I started talking to him telling him that he was about to get a big owie, but that I was there, and that everything was going to be okay. He just stared at me.

A nurse came in and handed me a prescription for antibiotics (to prevent infection) and tylenol, and then started cleaning Celo's cut. This is when the crying started (Celo, not me). Then the doctor came in and gave Celo a shot of anesthesia, which made his cut swell up and split open even more. This is when the screaming (Celo) and bawling (me) started. It was so horrible to see him in so much pain. It was just about the worst thing ever. He screamed and screamed and cried while I held him down with all my strength and did some crying of my own. After a little while, Marcelo came into the room. My grandma had been hearing the screams in the waiting room and told Marcelo to go help me because she thought I must have been freaking out. So he came in to help hold Celo down and said, "You can go." But there was no way I was leaving. We both held Celo and waited for it to be over. Right as the doc was finishing and started cleaning up the wound, Marcelo looked at me and said he felt sick. I told him to go back to the waiting room. He went out there and sat down, and I stayed with Celo. The nurse went and gave him an alcohol swab to smell because they were afraid he was going to pass out. He later told me that the whole thing just kind of hit him all at once and made him feel sick. When we talked afterwards, he was like, "How is it possible that I was able to watch you have 2 c-sections without any problems, but my kid gets a small cut and I can't handle it?" It's simple. He loves him more than he loves me. :) Kidding. It's not easy watching your baby in pain like that!

Anyway, as soon as it was all over, Celo acted like nothing had happened. He's a tough little guy. He ended up with 4 stitches. Two days after we came home, we took him to his pediatrician to get the stitches out. He'll be left with a little scar above his eyebrow (about an inch long). This is just another testament to me that we gave him the right name. Apparently if your name is Marcelo, you need to have a scar somewhere on your face. Marcelo has scars on both sides of his mouth and down his chin from a really bad encounter with a dog.

Here's a picture Marcelo took right when we got home from the clinic. The stitches are covered by that bandage. I don't know why Celo is making that crazy face.


And this is what caused this whole thing to begin with. This harmless looking chair.


He fell right into this corner. Does that look like it could cause such an injury? I don't think so.