So I have determined that if I attempt to play catch up and write about everything that has been going in the last several months then I will never blog again. So we are going to move forward and pretend like I never stopped and that I have written many uplifting, hilarious and informative posts about life. Besides if I write about the past too much my favorite Nathan will mock me. A lot.
Wow, what a weekend!
If you want the short version. Jonathan had a big stick go through his hand. Long ER visit. He is fine now.
If you want the really long version. Here it is.
My 3 oldest and I went to see the Scarlet Pimpernel performed at my ole Alma Mater. Lucky for us we went with a small portion of my family. Family is good.
The musical (which is one of my favorites, but really in retrospect what musical do I not like) was delightful. I noticed in the program that a friend that I graduated with was listed in the program as a helper so after I sought her out and was chatting about life when it happened.
Let me preface by saying that I have boys. Boys that like to climb. They will climb anything. This night was no exception. While I was chatting with my friend the boys were attempting to climb the walls. The walls there are made of an old, old wood in a bead board type fashion. So Jonathan, my 10 year old, was being lifted up to reach the upper lip of this wall by his older brother. Once he reached the lip his brother let him go to hang. Well he hung for only a moment before slipping down the wall.
As he slipped down a small piece of wood entered into the bottom of his hand but it became bigger and bigger and longer and longer before it eventually broke off. It exited a few inches above the entrance wound. When Aaron's yelling and Jonathan’ ashen face finally convinced me to come over and see it the stick reached several inches beyond his fingertips and was about the diameter of a sharpie. It looked awful.
I grabbed his wrist to try to stop the bleeding and told my mom that we needed to go. Literally my first thought was how am I going to hold his hand and drive at the same time.
We walked out into the foyer and within 2 seconds there was a man introducing himself as Dr. Strong and telling us that he was an ER doc. He looked at it and decided that the stick needed to come out so that we could put pressure on the wounds. He pulled out the top and at that point I thought Aaron would faint. Yep not Jonathan but Aaron. Then he pulled at the part of the stick remaining and sticking out the bottom of his hand. At this point I told Josh to go get me a bunch of toilet paper. The doctor then pulled out the bottom part and boy did he bleed then! We got a wad of toilet paper from Josh and a dishtowel from Tricia and staunched the bleeding. Don’t ask why Tricia had a dish towel at the musical but there is a reason her purse is the size of a piece of luggage!
At some point Mom told me that Dave needed to meet us at the ER and I reminded her that I had the only car. The next thing I know there is a vascular surgeon who also happened to be at the show (must have been Medical Professional discount night). He walked us out to Mom’s car where Alli had pulled around. He took a look at the hand and told us that it hadn’t hit any arteries and bleeding was slowing so we had time to go to Primary Children’s. He treated Jonathan for shock and we started on our way. Mom and Alli informed me that Tricia would take my boys home in my car and Brandon would pick her up there. So grateful for my family.
Now I have to tell you about some of the hilariousness of my and my family dealing with stressful situations like this.
Here is the phone call that Dave got.
Mom: Dave, Tricia is bringing you the car.
Dave: OK.
Mom: Brandon will come get her.
Dave: OK.
Mom: Then you can come to the hospital.
Dave: Did something happen?
Mom: Jonathan got a splinter in his hand.
So you can imagine what Dave is thinking at this point. A SPLINTER? Really?
Then Tricia shows up.
Tricia: Dave it is really bad. Really bad. You have got to get to the hospital.
So Dave is wondering at this point if it is a splinter or a power pole that has gone through Jonathan’s hand.
In the meantime I am riding into the hospital and Alli and Mom are comforting Jonathan.
Mom: Jonathan, just imagine if you were a pioneer. You wouldn’t have an hospital to go to. Remember Joseph Smith and how he had to have part of his bone removed. Also there was that story about the boy who had part of his hip blown away and had no hospital to go to. You are so lucky.
Alli: Jonathan, think of it this way. I bet you won’t have to fast tomorrow.
Nice.
We arrived at the hospital and called the boys at home to make sure they were ok (they weren’t) Jonathan comforted them both and told them that he was fine and not to worry.
Dave eventually arrived and was relieved that Jonathan didn’t have a power pole running through his hand and also that it was probably major enough to warrant a visit to the ER.
Mom and Alli left to check on our family at home and we were taken back to our room. Little did we know that we would be there for the next 6 hours. It did start to feel a bit like home!
So apparently you treat puncture wounds a lot differently than lacerations. Lacerations I can do. Been there done that. This was different. They don’t want it to heal. They kept coming in and lifting open the wounds so they wouldn’t heal with all the dirt, dust and wood still in there. Here is the hand. The triangular cut at the base of his thumb is the entrance wound and the cut at the top of his thumb pad is the exit wound.
I won’t give you the play by play (I know I already pretty much have). We saw 4 doctors and had a consult with a 5th by phone, 1 xray tech and the poor nurse who actually had to do all the work. We had lots of time in between waiting for medicines and pain killers to kick in. Thank goodness for the Disney channel and the all you can eat slushies.
Mom, Alli and Tricia had all told us to update them as we heard anything. The funniest is the last text we sent to Tricia. It was late and I am sure she was asleep. But she responded “Gdosgd”. We decided we didn’t need to text her anymore. We texted Alli and she responded in a very coherent manner but then claimed not to have heard from us all night. She can text in her sleep apparently. We finally told Mom just to go to bed because it was so late.
The doctors debated back and forth about actually doing surgery and cutting open the wound to clean it out or flushing it with saline and hoping to clean it out that way. We all opted for the flushing although halfway through I was ready to change my mind.
They had to put an IV tube into the wound and then the nurse would use a large syringe to force the water through the wound and flush everything out the other side. Needless to say it was horribly painful for Jonathan and he had to take frequent breaks to relax and stop shaking. For 2 hours we did this. They really wanted it cleaned out. And so did we. Jonathan was such a trooper. At about 4:00 we arrived home and fell into bed to sleep a few hours before church the next morning.
He had to soak his hand several times a day to keep the wounds open and keep water flushing through. He was worried while in the hospital about being able to play basketball and baseball this week but with enough padding he did just fine. They had a come back on Monday to check for infections and also had a see a “Hand Guy” to make sure his thumb was not traumatized. He was all clear on Thursday! Yay. So glad we aren’t pioneers.
We are so grateful for all the little tender mercies of people being there at the right time and making a bad situation a little more bearable.
