Easter Sunday Stitches

What’s Easter without a trip to the ER? Or should I say a trip to a local Ugandan clinic! Our Easter went from a calm lunch at a Pastor’s house eating matooke and meat and chatting about Ugandan traditions to wrapping Perez’s forearm in a ripped sheet and running up the hill to catch a boda boda while trying to apply pressure and keep his arm above his heart.

I’ve never had this experience before in a foreign country, but I didn’t have much choice. After a quick dousing with water and getting a good look at his cut, it was VERY obvious that he was going to need stitches ASAP. I squeezed the cut together, wrapped it as tight as I could and off we went. I told the pastor to take me to the best clinic they have in this town. We didn’t have time to arrange transport to another town. So you get what you get. We do have travel insurance, but I didn’t have the card on me and, to be honest, I don’t even really know exactly how it works. At the time, none of that mattered.

Can’t say much about how impressed I was with the clinic (those details are probably better shared in a not so public sanction) but I can say how impressed I was with Perez. The kid is amazing. He cried a little when it first happened, calmed down, then cried a tiny bit more when they injected the anesthetic. That’s it. By crying, I mean tears rolled down his cheeks. Nothing else. He didn’t make any noise and he didn’t resist at all. He sat on my lap, took a couple deep breaths and clenched his teeth down, determined to be strong. He watched the whole thing.

It’s not the prettiest stitching job I’ve seen and I’ve got a hunch the scar won’t be that pretty either, but it was necessary. I’m praying for no infection!

We returned to the Pastor’s house to share the news with all that were there and say thank you for being so kind. Of course, Perez wanted to stay and play, but being the mean mom that I am sometimes I said it would be better for us to go back home. So now, we’re home. He and Maggie are currently performing “surgery” on another friend while he lays on the coffee table wrapped in a towel with his head covered in a shower cap and his feet restrained with one of my headbands. Looks more like an abduction than a surgery, but they are all laughing, so I guess all is well.

From Uganda on Easter Sunday,

Ali