Ouch!

One quiet day in July I sat on the cabin porch enjoying conversation with my sister and sister-in-law when off in the distance I heard crying. The boys were off with the men playing at the "rock place." All of our ears perked up, listening to see if it was our child crying. I realized it was Gove, stood up, walked to the end of the porch and saw Nolan running carrying a screaming Gove up the hill to the cabin. I noticed that Nolan's shirt was spotted with blood and that Gove's face was covered in blood. "Gove's hurt! Get some paper towels!" We all sprang into action. Nolan took Gove to the water spicket to clean off the blood and within seconds I ran up with paper towels, followed by Kellie and Kami with more paper towels. It was immediately obvious that Gove needed stitches. Nolan explained that Gove had tried to climb up a rock that was too tall for him to climb. Gove lost his footing and fell from the rock face-first onto another rock. Nolan was right behind him just in case he slipped, but Gove fell off the side of the rock rather than slipping backwards. Tyler, Shane and Ryan arrived back at the cabin with the rest of the children and we quickly loaded Gove into the car, woke sleeping James, loaded him up, gave Gove a blessing and raced down the mountain to the ER so the gaping hole in Gove's forehead could be stitched and cleaned. I sat in the back with Gove and gave him his video game to help take his mind off the pain and blood. His lips and nose swelled and I worried that his nose was broken. His mouth and nose were very scraped up. He vomited. We were very scared. Nolan drove fast down the winding switchbacks and I called my grandparents to get directions to the hospital. Ryan also called the hospital, got directions and called us. After what seemed like forever, we arrived at the very small hospital and they immediately took Gove back. After he was cleaned up, he looked a lot better. He laid on the bed and played his video game while they cleaned his wounds and stitched his forehead. He didn't even cry! He laid calmly while the doctors "fixed" him. He was so brave. He had a CT of his head and nothing was broken or bleeding. What a relief! I would still have to wake him every 2 hours throughout the night as a precaution. No problem. I wouldn't be sleeping that night anyway! We checked into a hotel near the hospital and as we were walking up to the room, Gove turned and said, "Mom, will you sleep with me? (Whimpering) I had a bad day." Poor Gove. He really did have a bad day.



Here is a picture of him in the hotel after he was all cleaned and stitched. Sorry, no before pictures. I was a little too preoccupied to take photos! After we arrived at the hotel, Nolan drove back up the mountain to get Max. I needed all of my boys with me and Gove wanted to show Max his stitches.

Can you see why I worried his nose was broken? It was very swollen. His mouth was all cut up inside too. His teeth were unharmed! The next day we returned to the cabin, packed-up and headed home after a quick lunch. During lunch, Douglas could not stay far away enough from Gove. If Gove got too close, Douglas would move while saying, "Stay away! You make me sick" Karson mostly stared in shocked horror.

Seven stitches. He now wants to be an ER doctor!