No Longer in Stitches

Shane and I took Austin in to get his stitches removed on Thursday- exactly 7 days after he got them put in. Oddly, they were excited to go to the doctor's office, probably because they didn't know what was going on.
Austin's finger was a little red and swollen, he liked to pull at the stitches. In addition to that, the nurse commented a number of times that the stitches were very tight.
(I thought that funny. Wouldn't you want them fairly tight so as to hold the parts of the finger together? Not too tight so as not to cut through the tiny bit you're allowing to hold the stitch, of course, but tight enough so everything is held thoroughly shut. I'm no nurse though.)
She was tuggin' as carefully as she could and even had to pull out those big magnification goggles to get the last 2 stubborn ones.
Austin was a tiny bit more uncomfortable than before; no numbing agent this time. In between her tugging, he'd pull his hand away for me to hold for a second before putting it back up to keep trying. Otherwise, he just sat perfectly still and watched most of it all. When he got tired of watching (I think it was getting more painful too) he turned (just his body) and cuddled into me so he wouldn't have to see.
He was SUCH a brave little guy! He got a cool shiny silver bandaid that lasted until we got home. Then it fell off and we went back to the super sport bandaids that really stick.
Shane was a trooper too. Totally bored, watched for a few seconds a few different times but otherwise sat/stood back and waited for the ok to head out the door.
He's healing up well and actually seemed to enjoy the whole adventure. (Except the cutting part and the numbing needle part) I still get a bit sad everytime I see it, though I think that's going to last for a while. Sorry, no pictures. If I leave the bandaids off for long without watching him closely, he starts peeling at the dead skin and picking at the healing scar. And it's rather gross still.