I will start off this post with a warning that there are pictures of Isla and a missing digit, along with a description of what happened yesterday!!
Yesterday morning, Quin was not feeling great (or perhaps he was just a bit too tired to function), so we made a deal that he could stay home sick as long as he stayed on the couch resting. After an hour and a half or so, he said that he was starting to feel better (or perhaps bored from sitting on the couch?) and wanted to try eating breakfast and get ready for school. The kids ate, we got 90% ready to leave, and the kids went upstairs to play while I finished getting ready.
Not a minute after I went to put my contacts in, I heard screams. This, in itself, is nothing new in our house. The kids steal toys, hit, and generally act like siblings. For some reason, I decided not to let them work it out; I wanted to stop the screams since Tim was on a call and figured that I should intervene (not to mention they actually sounded like real screams!) so he could get some work done. When I opened our bedroom door, Isla was standing in front of it screaming and crying. I picked her up, carried her to her room, and tried to comfort her; I was not immediately aware that anything was REALLY wrong. The second I sat her down, I saw the blood. Her right hand was covered in blood and it was streaming down her wrist. I grabbed the closest thing I could find (a cloth diaper insert- don't worry, it was clean) and tried to clean her up to see what had happened. That is when I saw it: she was missing the top portion of her pinky finger. While holding her, I searched the upstairs hall for the piece of finger, finally finding it stuck to the door jam.
Poor Quin was crying and saying he was so sorry. At first, I didn't understand what he was talking about. After calming him down enough for him to explain, he told me that he had asked Isla to leave his room and then shut his door. He didn't realize that her finger was in the door. He felt responsible.
Realizing that we had to get to the ER, I called to Tim for help and tried to get the kids together to leave. We brought the piece of finger with us and headed for the hospital. Poor Isla was in shock, Quin couldn't stop crying (nor could Isla) and apologizing, Tim drove as safely as he could around all of the crazy people on the road, and I had to keep pressure on Isla's finger (and keep myself together). I tried to reassure Quin that it wasn't his fault and keep Isla calm.
Once we got to the ER, it was decided to try and reattach the piece of finger and hope for the best. After nasal versed to sedate her, they gave her two nerve blocks in the finger. She did great for the 45 minute surgery and remained fairly calm in my lap. After the finger was reattached, it looked pretty good, considering the trauma. After applying a huge bandage, they had done all they could. The waiting and watching began.
The odds that the tissue will stay healthy and allow her finger to remain whole are not the best, but she doesn't seem to be in nearly as much pain as I would expect. She is on antibiotics to try and prevent an infection, along with Advil for the pain. Since the finger was severed just below the fingernail and bone was exposed (but amazingly, not broken!), there is a great risk of infection; this could be very serious. Also, there is little chance that the fingernail will remain.
Today, she is in remarkably good spirits, acting relatively normal, and even running around. Quin still feels terrible about what happened, although we keep reassuring him that she will be fine and it is not his fault. Could we maybe stop shutting doors? Maybe take all of the doors off of the hinges? I think I might be freaked out about doors forever more!
We have an appointment next week with a hand specialist and we will see where we go from here. We had hoped to get an appointment earlier, but have not had any luck. I guess we will have to wait until next Wednesday, watching her closely to make sure she is doing alright. At the appointment, we will hopefully learn if the tissue is healthy or not. The speculation at this point is that she will more than likely need other procedures to fix the finger. Unfortunately, this is probably just the beginning for this tough little girl.
Okay, I know I am smiling in this picture, but I was trying so hard to keep Isla calm, happy, and reassure her that she would be okay.
Poor little girl is still healing from splitting her ear open on the coffee table a few weeks ago. Between Isla's head being split open when she was a baby, Quin's lip, Isla's ear, and now this, I have to wonder: Are my kids accident prone? Perhaps this is normal and we simply need to buy stock in 3M.
