Are stitches contagious?

I ask because last week a boy in Primary had to get them, and now this...

Last night at home I was working on a project for Primary on Sunday, the kiddos had finished their homework and were playing in the living room and front hall.

I hear a scream.

This wasn't the normal "He hit me and now my feelings and arm hurt" kind of scream. It was the "blood-curdling, stop Mommy's heart because I'm really hurt bad" scream, and Dougie comes into the kitchen holding his mouth with blood on his hands crying. A quick look (and later discussion on the way to the emergency department at City Hospital) revealed he had run into the corner to the hallway and split open his upper lip, which successfully kicked my mode from just Mommy Mode to Panicked Mommy Mode.

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity... Get your shoes on... don't worry about socks right now... help your brother get his coat on... put this on your lip... everyone in the car... who wants to say a prayer? We took turns praying in the car, and when the direness of the situation finally started to upset everyone else in the car, we started singing Primary songs (THANK YOU for my new calling where I learned the songs we sang!!!). I started making phone calls when we reached the top of the mountain - I asked my parents to take Audie and Chloie while I was at the ED with Dougie and left a message for Tim.

My sister, who met us at the hospital to pick up the kiddos, said I sounded different because of the evening's events, and looking back I would have to agree. There's something about a hurt kiddo, I mean beyond the normal bumps and bruises kind of hurt, that puts an edge of panic in one's voice, like you're walking a fine line between trying not to cry and remaining calm.

We sat there for about 45 minutes before we were called into triage. Tim's perfect timing brought him to the ED just as we sat down. Luck for us the split didn't go all of the way through his lip. It did have a bruise line on the inside of his lip, but his teeth were OK. They took us back to the minor injury section to get him stitched up. A physician's assistant and then the doctor came to take a look, talked to us about the injury and what they would do to fix it, and started making preparations. There was some concern about the location, but the doctor was confident that he could fix it with minimal scarring and without the need for later cosmetic correction. He said that the hardest part would be making sure the lip line was straight, but after that it was only closing the wound. He also said that he would use smaller stitches to reduce scarring, but more of them so that they would hold it closed and wouldn't break.

We wrapped Dougie in the papoose to keep him still, and Tim and I took turns covering his eyes when the doctor injected the numbing agent. I kept my eyes closed. I saw the first stitch at the lip line, but couldn't handle the tugging on the skin around the cut, so Tim took over and I sat down. I seem to remember that the head injury last February was a lot easier to handle than this. Tim (a.k.a. the poster boy for the American Quilting Association for the number of stitches he had to get as a kid) was fascinated. Dougie was a little trooper. He only cried when they injected his lip. He'll have a fat lip for a couple days, and the stitches will come out Monday. He'll have to be gentle eating and brushing his teeth for a few weeks, but all in all he will be OK.

I wasn't brave enough to take pictures of the before and after, but Tim did. I'll post pictures later when I get them from him. In the mean time, Dougie is spending the night at my parents' house. The whole excursion from leaving the house to the ED to my parents' house for dinner (we left our house before we had a chance to eat) to getting back home took about 4 hours. I'm glad it is over.