oh snap! i still have my staples from halloween 2000 - i keep them in a plastic bag!

Awww!! Poor little guy!

See, I'm a mom, and not a second-grader, so I can say that.

And I bet that, dry matter-of-fact narrative notwithstanding, you were FREAKING OUT.

Geez, I freaked out when my wife accidentally trimmed to close with the nail clippers and drew two drops of blood from our infant daughter's finger. I can not imagine what it's going to be like getting those calls. I trust your guy is bouncing right back.

That being said--the kid in the link seriously needs some lessons in cleaning his piercings. About half of those look infected.

you were FREAKING OUT

On the drive over there, yes. I had mental images of him trying to keep his brains from sliding out the massive hole in his skull. Once I got there and he was sitting up and dry-eyed and the EMTs were just standing around joking with him, the tension dissolved.

He was a real trooper about the whole thing; didn't even flinch when they put in the staples.

Monkey (my 2nd grader) had to get about 7 stitches in her chin a couple of years ago. She was great while we were in the waiting room at Urgent Care; however, when they attempted to put stitches in, she suddenly turned into Linda Blair in the Excorcist.

It was even worse when we went to take the stitches out. But I shouldn't have been surprised - when she was two years old, the doctor gave up trying to examine her and decided she was healthy based on the amount of fight she had in her.

No, given the way fate handles these things, your kid's future probably lies here.

That drive through the city must have sucked! Glad he's OK. And the staples are kinda cool.

your kid's future probably lies here.

Yes, probably, given enough head injuries. [grin]

I don't mind the staples so much, but when they put they hold the stapler up to your kid's head and then slam it really hard with a fist... that always makes me a bit queasy.

When I was 10 or so I caught a hockey stick to the face at the local rink. Blood all over the place. I borrowed a friend's bike to get home quicker. When I got home no one was there and my face was a bloody mess. A big bloody mess.

But when I cleaned it off there was the tiniest little gash next to my nose. I mean like 1/16th of an inch. It was very disappointing when my folks got home.

Oh, metal staples! That's why the mother ship lost contact!

Sympathies and kudos to your boy. Good luck with the future piercing thing, I had to go through that a few years ago (being parent of a piercing obsessed teen).

Public service announcement - scalp wounds bleed like heck, but aren't usually serious. Blow to the head are, and the effects can often show up hours later. If your kid gets a serious whack in the head, it's not a bad idea to have them looked at by competent medical or first aid people. If you can't, check them every fifteen minutes or so for confusion, memory loss, inability to follow instructions, or differences in body function between the two side (get them to squeeze your finger with each hand). Also look for eye pupils of different sizes, or pupils that react differently to light or not at all. Any of these are generally signs of swelling in the brain, and they need to get to a hospital as soon as possible. Stuff like this can happen hours later if the brain swells slowly from a concussion.

This public service announcement from an over-paranoid parent. Also, bubble-wrapping your kids also works.

A cousin jumped off a swing and accidently sent it flying into the path of Emily's approaching head. It opened a cm. gash in her head and sent blood gushing. Like you said, head wounds look exponentially worse than they are in reality. She survived but her daddy teard up at the thought that her perfect face had been scarred.

By the way, have you see the math challenge presented for you recently?

Y'know, I did see it, but couldn't solve it and thought maybe I'd just pretend not to have seen it. Does the Asubn equation hold for all values of n except 1?

Last math class I took was in 1986 and my skillz are rusty, yo.

Oh, wait. Is it 13? I was reading the equation incorrectly: Asubn-1 vs. Asub(n-1)

her perfect face

Lucky for her she favors her mother.

I once caught an elbow under my right eye in a basketball game. Five stitches. You would havethought I cut my head off with the blood on my shirt and the floor.

I am SO not looking forward to those calls. I felt bad enough when D fell in the bathtub and wacked his tooth. I can't imagine a real injury or health crisis.

Shudder.

So Keegan earned a head wound that required staples?
Another childhood milestone has been achieved. Congratulations to Keegan!