Preston's Poor Pointer...finger

Every time I think life will settle down for a second, something major happens. I guess I was totally wrong. This must just be the pace of life with three little ones at home, a busy husband who works full time and part time and church callings. More to come on the rest of life later.

Last night, we had just finished eating dinner. I was doing dishes, Marcos went to put Marissa in the bathtub and the boys went out to ride their bikes on the sidewalk. Next thing I know, Dylan is running in yelling "Mom, Preston fell down and hurt himself. He needs you." I ran outside and he wasn't kidding. There was blood everywhere. It took me a minute just to figure out what had happened. At first I thought his mouth was bleeding because the blood was all over his face, but I soon realized he had cut his right index finger...bad. I had Dylan run get Marcos and a drink for Preston to try to calm him down. I took Preston over and sat him on the lawn. Blood was everywhere so I didn't dare take him in to try to clean him up. Marcos called a neighbor to take the other kids and I called the doctor's office to make an appointment. We got there and were told it was too deep and we would need to go to the Emergency Room. I thought that might be the case, but was hoping for the best. The whole time blood is gushing everywhere and I'm doing my best to hold gauze on Preston's finger while sitting next to him in the van. Marcos takes off like a complete maniac and I spent most of the drive trying to convince him speeding and crashing would not make his finger better. If you don't know us very well, I tend to be the one who stays calm in emergency situations. And that's probably the understatement of the century. The kid freaks out when stuff like this happens.

We waited for a bit in the waiting room and then were taken to triage to be assessed and admitted soon after that. The doctor who saw us, Dr. Heilaster (or something like that) was awesome. We got x-rays and found out his finger was most likely fractured and he had probably severed the tendon. All I have to say is even when things seem incredibly difficult, it's amazing to catch a glimpse of the tender mercies from the Lord. There was a doctor on call who is a plastic surgeon specializing in muscles and tendons of the hand. Seriously? How did that happen? She said that was pretty unusual. It took quite awhile for him to call, but we were grateful he was the one on call and was willing and able to squeeze Preston in first thing in the morning. His office is on a different floor at the hospital. He didn't even have the E.R. doctor stitch him up so it wouldn't heal wrong since the tendon was involved. Poor Preston finally fell asleep around 10:00 p.m. just in time to have a rude awakening now that they knew what the plan was and needed to clean the finger really well...without using any numbing at all. I had to hold him down while he screamed and was sweating from the struggle. It was a hard thing for a mom, but you do what you have to do. I held his hand, chest and head while Marcos kept him from kicking. They got him bandaged up with a green bandage over a temporary split, we waited for his first dose of antibiotic and then we headed home.

We got home to our neighbor who had Dylan and her kids watching TV and had put Marissa to bed. We have the best friends ever! Seriously! The village really is helping to raise our children. So...we are dog sitting for our other friends and Dylan assumed we had the dog with us. So the whole time we were at the hospital, there was no dog. We got home finally ready to breathe and I just about had a heart attack thinking I'd lost this cute little dog. I had to take a minute alone in the basement and just lock the door and pray and think. I knew I couldn't figure all this out alone. Everyone was walking around the cul-de-sac whistling for the dog and Marcos was in panic mode yet again. I got a flashlight and keys and headed over to their house. I had the impression the dog might have gone home and knew I had to go look. Sure enough, Belle was there in the backyard. My guess is someone saw her by my house, looked at her dog collar and took her home. Either way, I have never been so grateful for so many blessings. Okay, I probably have, but this was definitely one of those moments of intense gratitude that sometimes come. The Lord heard me over and over and answered my prayers. I know prayers are not always answered immediately, but when they are, it strengthens my testimony in leaps and bounds. I almost don't feel worthy of being so looked after and cared for during such times of crisis. I went to bed and prayed and read scriptures and cried and prayed some more. It was an emotionally overwhelming night for sure.

This morning was utter chaos. I got the kids ready, dropped Dylan off to the neighbor because he had dress rehearsal for the play he's in this week. Oh, I should post about that so you can come if you want. Marcos and I drove separate cars up to the hospital so he could go to work afterwards and my mom met us there to pick up Marissa. We waited for what seemed like forever to get called back to the doctor's office and then waited another eternity to be seen. A few minutes before the doctor was going to be coming in, the nurse came and removed the splint (which was actually his second splint since he decided to rip the thing off this morning). The doctor came in and saw his finger and knew immediately the tendon was completely severed. The good news was he thought he could do it there in the exam room with just a localized shot. The E.R. doctor the night before thought they might have to sedate him so that was way good news. The bad news was entertaining a 4-year-old with sensory processing disorder for heaven knows how long was a less-than-pleasant experience. We sang songs, we jumped, he sat on my lap, I rocked him, I tried coloring animal pictures for him....NOTHING! He wanted out of there! We promised him a new Buzz toy if he was good and multiple other bribes I can't even remember at this point. It was HORRIBLE! Marcos had to hold his legs, I held his arm, chest and head down and the nurse held the injured hand and finger while the doctor stitched him up. What a process! He screamed the whole time and was dripping with sweat by the time we let him off the table. But the doctor thinks it went well. We follow up with him next week. He will probably have to wear a splint for six weeks while the stitches and the break heal, but we feel good about the whole thing. He comes highly recommended by the ER doctor and a friend of ours who is also a doctor. So it really was such a blessing that he was the one on call and could get us in this morning.

As soon as Preston was off the table, he was happy as can be. He just didn't want to be held down anymore. We stopped at the cafeteria for some lunch since he wasn't able to eat breakfast in case they had to put him under anesthesia for surgery. He enjoyed every bite and then was eager to go find a Buzz toy. At one point I looked over to watch him dunk the splint into the ketchup and lick it off. Seriously! I had to keep reminding him to leave it alone. But...I'm a sucker and "good" is a very relative term. I figured he survived stitches and being pinned down for what I'm sure felt like forever so he ended up getting a Buzz and a Woody toy from the store. :)

He keeps trying to take off the splint and chewing on it so it's going to be a long six weeks trying to keep that thing in good condition, but at least it's done. Hopefully it will heal well and life can move on. We didn't get as good of pictures as I wish we would have with trying to hold him down and keep him from making things worse, but here is what we did manage to capture of this traumatic experience.

I wish I would have taken a side picture of his finger on the camera. I got one on my phone, but it's not great and I have no idea how to upload the pictures from my very old school phone. That cut went all the way to the bone though so it is much worse than it looks. The whole fingertip felt like it was just hanging there. And it was dangling when he tried to point and hold it out straight.

Part of our three hour emergency room wait. You can't tell, but all the spots all over him and his pants are blood...and that was after trying to clean him up. He was a MESS!

Trying to entertain the little man. We sang lots of songs since there was nothing kid-appropriate on TV and there wasn't exactly time to grab a DVD player on the way to the E.R. We could have used a movie distraction though...big time!

He finally fell asleep around 10, just to wake up screaming when they had to clean out the finger and bandage him up to send him home again. Poor kid!

The temporary split from the E.R. He was not a happy camper, but was very brave for the whole process.

Waiting for the plastic surgeon. He was spinning this tray around and around. He was bored and almost at his limit before we even saw the doctor. I knew it was going to be rough.

The nurse taking off the first splint so the doctor could look at it. It must have hurt him pretty bad because Preston is my tough little man and he was flinching the whole time.

Another crappy picture trying to show how bad it really was. Sorry, this was as good as I could get. Marcos has a decent one on his phone if I can ever figure out how to upload his pictures.

A little bit better view. It had stopped bleeding for the most part, but as soon as they took the bandage off and he moved at all it started gushing blood again.

We took Buzz to help pass the time. It helped in the waiting room but that's about it.

The only moment during the stitches we could capture. He was moving too much and we needed all hands on deck. (Sorry they got out of order. This obviously happened after they numbed his finger)

Trying to calm the kid before the real storm hit

Just after they numbed the finger

Leaving the doctor's office with the new splint on

Happy to be leaving the hospital with a full belly and lemonade in hand