Calm before the storm....
Isn't this sweet? Two sisters chatting on top of our doghouse. One of our recently sunny afternoons (although turning overcast and a little stormy) outside, enjoying the neighbor's wiener dog, Squeak.
What you can't see is the board that has been put up against the doghouse for ease of ascending and descending. As the daughter of a carpenter, there was ALWAYS lumber lying around for just such a use. Mostly see-saws out of sawhorses.
Fast forward about 30 minutes. Dinnertime! Everyone inside to wash up! No problem, right? We do it everyday......WRONG! Middle kiddo, in blue....rushes in with a bloody thumb. No problem...I've done blood. Its a nasty splinter. Ok....I'm the mommy. I can do it. Go wash it out, kiddo, and come back to me for a look. She's not even crying.....until she comes back! I think the sight of it freaked her out. Freaked me out a little too. There is a BIG splinter through her finger, under the nail and almost back out the other side of her finger.
mmmmkay.
So, I sit my child on my lap, she is shuddering with tears, and proceed to convince her it has to come out. Good news! I got half of it out just by grabbing it with my own fingernails. (My tweezers suck, btw.) Bad news: its so long, and big, that half of it is still in her finger, under the nail. There is NO WAY I can get that out without seriously hurting her.
Ok....gotta say that sometimes my DH, fabulous daddy that he can be, is clueless about the fears of little girls. He keeps talking to her about how he can get it out or what the doctor might have to do! Hello! Scare the cr@p out of her why don't ya? I give him the "cut" signal to make him stop.....and he looks at me like I'm nuts. So I say, "You're making it worse..."...and he stops. He needs a class or something.
In the meantime, I've chatting with my friends about what I should do, wait or take her to an urgent care? The house is divided. I call our doc's after hours service and get put in the que for a call back from the nurse. She'll call me inside an hour. Riiiiiight.
So, we've pumped injured kiddo full of Tylenol and got ice on it and she has quietly cried herself to sleep..now about 8:30.
Waiting.....waiting....I hate waiting. Kiddo wakes up now and then and wants someone to sit by her on the couch. Other kiddos have gone to bed. We're concerned about her thumb swelling around the splinter, making it harder to get out in the morning. More waiting. And an hour approaches. I call back, learn the service is having a crazy night and I"m still five down in the que. Okay. No problem. She's sleeping anyhow. Probably good.
Finally the nurse calls with the standard barrage of questions about us, injured kiddo and her injury. And the recommendation is the emergency room. Ok then.
We pack up.....I"m not sure how long we'll be there. I take a magazine and Nintendo DS. Just in case. My kid just had a nap, after all.
Emergency room: Not very crowded at all. I over hear a man that has been diagnose with a gallstone and will be staying over night. They are also testing him for diabetes. Injured kiddo and I play Nintendo. A super cute baby crawls over to us.....she had the biggest, roundest face. And was super friendly...waving to us! Cute! Injured kiddo is usually a big baby lover....she's 8.5 y/o, and will make an awesome babysitter someday, ....she just isn't really into the cute babe. I know she is hurting and she decides to snuggle under the blanket we brought. E.R. chairs suck, by the way. I'm sure they are made so you can't lie down, just like the airport. Why can't sick people be comfortable? The waiting area is the size of a postage stamp also. It is newly remodeled too. We were last in there in 2003 when we thought our baby swallowed a penny. (No penny found.)
OK...so fast forward to inside the ER. Kiddos is nervous and crying. But we get a fantastic nurse. She brings in a teddy bear named "Splinter". :) And the doctor comes in too. He's nice, but not as fabulous as the nurse. But he did the work. The nurse put some lidacaine on the thumb for a bit. Doc came in and explained that he would just try to open the already bulging skin and help the splinter fragment continue all the way out. This would be easier and less painful. If that doesn't work, they'll give her some injections in her thumb and remove it more surgically. We were in agreement that the first way was better.
I told kiddo to just squeeze my hand as hard as she needed to....and to look at me and "Splinter"....we chatted about the library and the books she chose that day. But I could see her little feet wiggling with nervous anticipation. Aw.....my poor little girl.
Well, ER Doc gets started.....and in just about five minutes....ITS OUT! Yahoo!!!! And my kid says, "that didn't even hurt!"
I love this kid. All that crying and fussing...just to say "that didn't even hurt!" She also thinks that the dog house is responsible. lol
So now we are back home at 11:30 p.m. and using antibiotic cream and fresh bandages. I can do that!
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