Stitches for Matthew

OK, so last week I wrote about the worst phone call of my life. Although Tuesday's doesn't top it for worst ever, it was still not a good one. So, it started out as a good day. I had arranged for Matthew's new desk to be delivered, and was expecting a call sometime early afternoon. Right after Nathan got home from school at 11:30, I was busy in the boys' room, vacuuming with the crevice tool in the area where the desk would be placed. So I didn't hear the phone ring. When I finished, I could hear the tail end of a message being left on the answering machine, so I headed in to the kitchen to take a listen. It was Mrs. Verhagen (Matthew's teacher), telling me that Matthew fell and cut his knee, and I should come to school to take a look. I immediately called back and got Peggy in the office; she said she had put some butterfly bandages on it, but it looked like it might need stitches. I called the doctor and got him a 2:30 appointment, then headed to the school. Matthew was lying down, and bandaged up so I couldn't see the wound. I explained that his appointment wasn't until 2:30, so he could stay at school, or come home with me. Of course, being Matthew, he wanted to come home.

After the desk arrived and grandma picked up Nathan, we headed to the doctor's office. Matthew was very anxious about the possibility of stitches. Sure enough, after taking a look and cleaning up the wound, Dr. Barton said he would need stitches. From there, things moved pretty fast; they moved us into a different room to do the stitches, and Matthew was quite scared. They wanted him to lay down on the table, but being Matthew, he wanted to sit up. So we kind of compromised -- I put my arm behind him so he could lie back but be propped up a little bit. He just screamed when they used the needle to numb the area, and said "I'm so scared!" We really tried to keep him calm, but everything was going so fast, I can only imagine what he was thinking. When he realized the stitches themselves were not hurting him, he really relaxed. He ended up with 4 stitches. The worst part is that it's right on the bend of the knee, so he has to be careful not to re-injure it. No gym for the week, and we go back in a week to get the stitches out.

So today (Wednesday) we meet with Dr. Steffen for his Conner testing for ADHD and other related issues. Pray that goes well and we get some good information and direction. By the way, he's actually been having some pretty good days at school behaviorally. He got the Pace testing 2 weeks ago, which confirmed that he's a very bright kid. On the bell curve, he was above the 90th percentile, which puts him in the top 10%. Predictions for kids in that range of ability include advance placement courses and graduate school some day. Great things are in store for this child -- we are very proud of him!