Max's bike accident

We went for a family bike ride one evening in September and it ended a bit dramatically! We'd stopped at the park but Max continued riding on the sidewalk that goes around the park. The bike tipped over and he hit his eye on the handlebar on the way down. The metal cut a perfect little semi-circle in the corner of his eyelid. I ran to him quickly but couldn't see where the problem was until suddenly it started bleeding like crazy. I held the cut together while Tyler biked home (never seen him ride so fast!) to get the car. Gigi met us to get Millie and Harvey and then Tyler and I took Max straight to the hospital. With the location of the injury we were nervous to go anywhere else. Max was such a trooper. He screamed for a minute after the initial fall but after that was totally calm and collected. I told him to keep his eyes shut the whole way there and he was so good about that. Such a brave boy.

It took a while for his eye to stop bleeding every time a doctor or nurse touched anywhere near it. It was hard to see exactly what was going on but they were confident his vision wasn't impaired. We were (are!) so grateful for that.

The doctor decided that all he would need was a couple of stitches. Because of the location they had two plastic surgeons do it. They put him under for the procedure so he would be still. Watching Max come out of anesthesia was so funny and cute. He seriously didn't complain or cry at all the whole time! At one point he was staring at me and he said, "What is that on your shirt?" I told him it was blood and he asked, "From who?" I laughed and said, "From YOU!" He got to watch the movie Wall-E in the hospital and thought it was such a cool movie. He refers to that night as his "eye appointment" and still remembers how they made him drink juice to make sure he wouldn't throw up after anesthesia. Funny boy.

Max slept with us for a couple of days so we could make sure he wasn't itching or picking at his stitches in the night. It was so interesting to watch his eye heal over the next couple of weeks! The first day or two it was SO swollen and goopy.

Oh and I forgot to mention that one of the awesome nurses gave Max this little monkey because he was so brave. She said he was the most brave and calm boy she'd ever seen! We were so proud of him. He named the monkey Fork. He came up with this while still a little loopy so we were surprised and amused when he remembered and kept the name. Fork is still one of his favorite stuffed animals!

Max was curious to see his eye from time to time. It was interesting to see his reaction. He would shrug and say, "Okay, cool!" or something nonchalant like that. 

He also thought his black eye looked like an eye patch and he called himself a pirate from time to time. 

We had left my bike with the trailer on and Millie's and Max's bikes at the park that day and a friend of ours that lives nearby grabbed them for us so they wouldn't get stolen. A few days afterward we got them back and Max was anxious to ride his bike again. I wanted him to be safe but I also didn't want this to create a fear of riding his bike! So off he went, just down a few houses and back a couple times. No fear at all. He's amazing.

More eye healing pictures. Quite the rainbow!

This last one was from his first checkup with another plastic surgeon. The doctor was very pleased with how it healed. We are so thankful our sweet Max was able to recover from it and has nothing but a tiny scar and a cool story to show for it!