Seattle Plastic Surgeon tells the story of the Scab Fairy, a story that every parent needs to know.

This is the Scab Fairy. She’ll leave you a little something if you put that scabby Band-aid under you pillow.

Last week I had the opportunity to take care of a delightful little boy in the emergency room.  He had a classic childhood injury:  forehead vs coffee table.  The table won (it always does) and he needed a half dozen sutures to sew up the deep, jagged gash in his forehead. 

When he came to my office for suture removal, his suture line was scabby and crusty and this can make it hard to remove the teeny, tiny sutures.  Now little kids do not like having anyone mess with their scabs but once I told him about the Scab Fairy, he became much more enthusiastic about the whole thing.  

 You see, the Scab Fairy visits every night looking for scabby Band-aids that good little children have placed under their pillow.  Usually the Scab Fairy leaves something like a Hershey’s Kiss or even a little money.  Once one of my children scored a Pop Tart!   Once my little patient heard this, he was fine with me gently removing the Band-aid and underlying scab.  I made sure to send this home with him in a little baggie. 

 So,  all of you parents out there with active children:  There will be scabs and you need to make friends with the Scab Fairy.

 Thanks for reading!   Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder.

Can you name the rules for lawn mower safety?

Seattle Plastic Surgeon and mother of three, Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder nags her children and you about lawn mower safety.

It is such a wonderful thing to get some yard work out of my offspring now that they are old enough to mow, rake, sweep, weed, water, trim, edge, poop scoop, etc.  As much as I love the smell of newly mown grass and the thought of them working (instead of me), I worry.  I worry about the lawn mower thus the little nag session each and every time one of my boys has been nagged into mowing the lawn.  Please take this little test to make sure you or your offspring are being smart with this most dangerous of yard care gizmos.

And I will add a couple of my own to the list:

• Only children over 13 should mow a lawn.
• Ear plugs okay but not no ipodlistening.  They need to hear you yell, “Watch out for the dog!”
• No mowing until the offspring has cooled down from his/her rage at having to actually perform agreed upon chores for agreed upon bennies.  Rage and lawn mowers should never coexist.
• No using the lawn mover for anything other than mowing the lawn.  This calls for a cautionary (and I swear to God true) tale.  Two patients in the same day present with nearly identical lawn mower injuries sustained while attempting to trim a hedge with a lawn mower.  Patient #2  happen to see patient #1 (prior to his mishap) trimming his hedge with the lawn mower while Patient #2 was driving to get gas for his lawn mower and thought “Hey, what a great idea.” Not.

Stay tuned.  One of these blogs I will tell you about my dad’s snowblower injury.

Thanks for reading.  Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder

I spent New Year’s weekend with my family in a rustic ski hut. When we weren’t skiing or eating or sleeping (three of my very favorite activities) we worked a little on a gazillion piece communal puzzle. Finding that just right piece and having it fall into place is such a great feeling. It is sort of like the feeling I get when I sew up an injured patient like the one on the right. His injury looks like such a big gaping hole but actually, it’s just a puzzle. No pieces are missing; they are just out of position. Finding them and putting them back where they belong and putting in a few stitches to hold it all together can make me look and feel like a real wizard. This particular patient was one of my best emergency room cases because he was injured on the job – playing Santa!!! Ho, ho, ho. No coal for me that Christmas! Happy New Year!

Meet Stella. She’s 3/4 Australian Shepard and 1/4 Border Collie with a little bit of Snapping Turtle thrown in. Because of her breeding and puppy hood, she is very nippy. I’m taking her to obedience school and she is slowly learning to control her “snippy, snappy snarly snout” as we call it at home.

Two weeks ago, I was at obedience class working with Stella and our trainer on her nipping. Actually, trainers call it “mouthing” when the perp is a puppy. When she’s older, it will be called biting and we do not want to go there – ever. Hence the training. Five minutes before class was out, I got a call on my cell phone from one of the local emergency rooms to come take care of a toddler with a dog bit to the face. Weird timing, huh? I dropped Stella off at home, went to the E.R. and stitched up a darling little girl. The perp was a friend of a friend’s dog at a social gathering. What a lousy way to end a late summer BBQ.

Over the years, I’ve sewn up dozens of little kids with dog bites. Despite having and loving a dog in my youth, I became vocally anti-dog and a proponent of “one bite and you’re out”. And now here I am, in love again with a dog, and a nippy one.

I never ever want Stella to be on the delivery end of a dog bite. My family and I will do everything we can to be responsible owners.

If you have a dog or a child, check out this web site. It has loads of good and very visual information on dog safety. It just may help a child in your life or your “best friend” avoid the pain, suffering and scarring of a dog bite. http://www.doggonesafe.com/