Our Traumatic Event

I am sticking this in here out of order, the next 5 entries occurred before this traumatic event. But I figured this should take priority at the moment.

This post WILL contain bloody pictures. Before the reattachment, during and after. I personally think that they are not that bad if you choose not to click on them. The small versions are not very graphic until after the stitching. However, if you are easily grossed out you have the option of the “minimal blood” version here: Non Graphic Version of this entry

That option just eliminates the gory pictures leaving everything else.

You HAVE been warned, I don’t want to hear any complaining!!!

At dinner time on Thursday night, Sadi decided that she wanted soup for dinner. She had already had some fruit cocktail an hour before so she wasn’t starving. I told her to wait (while I finished putting in a load of laundry) and I would get her the soup. She decided not to wait and went to get the can. Which, she has done a thousand times and I consider it one of those “battles I don’t choose to fight” most of the time. I was always concerned that she would drop it on her toe or fall on it and hurt her face. She falls down constantly, so we are always concerned about what she has in her hands when she does. But she is running 99% of the time anyway and whatever she is carrying goes flying anyway.

However, in all the concerns I ever came up with, no matter how creative I was with it…I never imagined that my child would amputate a body part with an UNOPENED can of soup. Never imagined it.

However, she managed.

This would be the can in question.

She tripped carrying it (while WALKING she wants me to emphasize.) She fell and that top part landed on her finger, then she landed on the can itself. (So she has a round can bruise on her chest.) She immediately starting screaming and Sadi doesn’t do that. She might whine a little with a stubbed toe but she does not panic and scream like that. However, the blood fountain was what caught my attention. There was blood everywhere. I couldn’t stop it, or clean it up. I didn’t realize the severity of the injury itself at the time because there was so much blood.

Ali was very upset and immediately got angry at my “inaction”. You know, while I was attempting to stop the blood fountain! Ali went running for the phone and said “I call 911 for you Mom!!!” I told her to wait, that I was pretty sure we didn’t need to do that. (Though I was later thrilled that she remembered the “if it is bleeding too much for me to clean it up or stop it, that is when we might call 911” rule that we learned. lol)

Side note: We are 1/4 of a mile from the hospital. Can be there in literally 2 minutes including getting in and out. The ambulance is 3 miles away and can take 10 or more minutes to arrive. Unless we are concerned about moving the person, we take them to the hospital ourselves.)

Once we slowed the blood down a bit, I could tell that it was her finger, not just her nail. You will understand why I initially thought it was just her nail ripped off. I mean, we are talking about an unopened can of soup here! Since it cut just below the end of the nail, it was an easy mistake to make.

Thursday evening when we should have been going to bed…

We were instead in the ER, (in shock by this point thankfully) waiting to be stitched up.

This, would be the reason why.

So we just relaxed after the medicine shots directly into the finger. Which we said ow ow ow about but didn’t freak out. Like I said, being in shock was a good thing.

Then (after Dad arrived of course) the doctor came in and cleaned it, removed the nail and started stitching it up. The nail had to go in order to have it sewn back on. The nail bed was a huge part of the issue. It also took him a while to get the pieces of bone out to make sure he got them all.

She did great, just chilled. We put a pillow on her chest and laid her down, so she couldn’t see it.

It took him quite a while to sew it up…

While Dad at and held her hand…(I know, awwwwwww.)

Part of his issue was keeping the bleeding down so he could still sew. He had to stop every few seconds because of that artery.

She was very tired and cooperative…

Helped of course since she couldn’t feel any of it. Then it was done. That is when the swelling became obvious, I had been wondering about that.

Good thing we had our airplane blanket there…as I was calling the Pediatrician (at home I might add) to find out if I had to take her to the Children’s Hospital or not…I asked her what she wanted to take with her and she said her airplane blanket.

Getting all bandaged up…

Ready to go…

Worried dog and sleepy kid.

Day 2: (Friday) in the morning when we had to rewrap it…

Day 2: (Friday) at bedtime when we had to rewrap it…

Day 3: (Saturday) in the afternoon when we had to rewrap it…

Day 4: (Sunday) in the afternoon when we had to rewrap it…

Day 5: (Monday) in the evening when we had to rewrap it (are you sensing a pattern here?)…the day before our check up on day 6. I guess if it was going to get worse, that was the time to do it. I had just hoped it wouldn’t. But, the bleeding more I guess is a good thing…should help prevent infection from getting in while the blood is coming out. (At least that’s what I’m telling myself.)

Cleaned up and ready to bandage again…

Now almost to day 6 she is still needing the Motrin. We tried to switch to Tylenol and she was asking for it every two hours (and she doesn’t like it, so that is saying a lot.) We switched back to Motrin and she is okay now. I am sure the pain is from the inflammation. I can't imagine the pain given the blunt force nature of the injury. Unfortunately when I rewrapped it on day 5 it doesn't look great. She is in a lot more pain. She is going in tomorrow afternoon and will be done with her antibiotics by then. So, if she needs a stronger one they can do it then.

I can not even imagine just the cutting off part of your finger. That would be bad enough. But to also have the bone crushed in the process, is awful. With a sharp object it just cuts and it’s over. If the bone is broken it is a clean break. With this it crushed and cut at the same time. Horribly painful I’m sure. I keep hearing that initial scream and seeing the panic on her face. It was awful.

Of all the medical emergencies we have had to deal with, I think this was the worst. The most traumatic. For everyone. Poor Ali was freaking out and I was rethinking my decision to leave her home. They are so close, that I probably should have brought her. But I was afraid she might eliminate the doctor’s ability to have children if he hurt her little sister. :)

(The check up day 6– removal of stitches on day 12 will be in another entry. I didn’t feel like drawing this one out further, there are people who are very anxious to see the damage. lol)

“Ali I can’t hold your hand so you will have to hold mine.”

Kori (Uncle Riley’s friend) brought over presents for the injured child and her sister of course. This was her get well card…

Bear backpacks!!!

Woah, wait there is something else in here?! (It’s a good thing Kori pointed that out or we would have just thought some toys appeared out of nowhere.)

Doggie and bunny!!!

You may be wondering… why the bunny’s head is in the cup. I did wonder this as well.

The answer, of course was obvious.

“Mom, he has a headache!”

Well of course his head should go in a cup of ICE then. Silly me.

Okay, time for some water..

Tired kids..

The bear backpacks…

The bunny and doggie that were in them.

Okay, sleeping…

We went to see Foster’s (a few days after the traumatic event) after we took Nana to the airport in the torrential rain, on the day when the 3 trailer semi carrying ammunition blew up. We were worried about getting her to the airport late…while her pilot was stuck in the traffic from the semi accident for 3 hours.

They were pretty impressed with Sadi’s finger.