my baby got hurt!
Daidra had a very unpleasant, actually horrific accident on Saturday. She is OK now but we had a really hard time for awhile there. I was cleaning up on the weekend. There was a pile of paper that I needed to dispose of. After watching me, apparently Daidra decided she wanted to help. Unfortunately, Mom's aren't always watching carefully enough and her little fingers went into the paper shredder.
AHHH! I was absolutely in shock. MY BABY! Even typing this is difficult as the images are so fresh and it is so morbid. I can still hear her screams and her "it hurts!". I'll never forget my screams for Ben to come quick! I didn't know what to do, besides turning it off... how could we get her fingers out?! He looked carefully and found that one came out but that the middle one finger was indeed stuck inside. We didn't know whether or not we should put the shredder in reverse or not. AHHhh, can you believe we had to ask ourselves these questions - as our baby is crying for our help. He eventually just pulled it out. I whisked her up and ran for my shoes. Blood was gushing everywhere, getting on our clothes. I grabbed a clean towel to wrap her hand in and held her as we drove to the emergency room.
She was in shock as she wasn't really crying until after we checked in. At first I was pressing her finger firmly to keep it from bleeding to much but then she was complaining about it so I stopped. They got us back really quick (bless them!) and the doctor looked at it. He ordered some oral medication for her and the nurse also put on some topical painkiller. It took at bit to work as she was still crying and screaming as they took an X-ray of her finger. Poor thing. I'm so glad Ben was there as I was an absolute mess. I felt like it was all my fault for not watching her closer and removing the danger. Anyway, the x-ray revealed that the bone was fractured - apparently that was where the paper shredder had stopped. I'm so glad that it wasn't very powerful - one of those cheap 3-5 paper ones. We had to wait a bit for the Dr. to stitch her up but the painkillers were taking off the edge. When he started working on her though, it was just too painful - especially the bone probably. They then numbed her hand with a needle directly into the nerve, apparently VERY painful though the effect is similar to what happens at the dentist. After that, she was very good about letting the doctor do his thing as Ben read her several books. The suckers helped too (as do the codeine pain killer and antibiotic every 5 hours). She was thanking the doctor and the nurse too. She has been happy and good about her wrapped hand ever since.
Our promise that the Dr. would make it all better hasn't been forgotten. She repeated has held up her hand and said, "nice doctor". She refers to her right hand now as her "big hand" (as it doesn't fit into her coat) and her left hand as her "little hand". She's gotten good at eating with her L though still colors and draws with her two exposed finger tips that are peaking out of her wrap. The hand surgeon unwrapped her hand yesterday and was very pleased with how she is healing. He said the emergency doctor stitched it up well. (There are a TON of stitchs all over her tip, as far down as where the nail was on all sides.) The nail will grow back for sure and probably straight but time will tell. Stitches will come out in probably a week though the bone will take longer to heal.There will be some scarring but she is young. We are so lucky that nothing was amputated and they were able to stitch back together all the "ragged" edges. MY BABY!
Unplug your paper shredders as little fingers have a knack for finding trouble.
AHHH! I was absolutely in shock. MY BABY! Even typing this is difficult as the images are so fresh and it is so morbid. I can still hear her screams and her "it hurts!". I'll never forget my screams for Ben to come quick! I didn't know what to do, besides turning it off... how could we get her fingers out?! He looked carefully and found that one came out but that the middle one finger was indeed stuck inside. We didn't know whether or not we should put the shredder in reverse or not. AHHhh, can you believe we had to ask ourselves these questions - as our baby is crying for our help. He eventually just pulled it out. I whisked her up and ran for my shoes. Blood was gushing everywhere, getting on our clothes. I grabbed a clean towel to wrap her hand in and held her as we drove to the emergency room.
She was in shock as she wasn't really crying until after we checked in. At first I was pressing her finger firmly to keep it from bleeding to much but then she was complaining about it so I stopped. They got us back really quick (bless them!) and the doctor looked at it. He ordered some oral medication for her and the nurse also put on some topical painkiller. It took at bit to work as she was still crying and screaming as they took an X-ray of her finger. Poor thing. I'm so glad Ben was there as I was an absolute mess. I felt like it was all my fault for not watching her closer and removing the danger. Anyway, the x-ray revealed that the bone was fractured - apparently that was where the paper shredder had stopped. I'm so glad that it wasn't very powerful - one of those cheap 3-5 paper ones. We had to wait a bit for the Dr. to stitch her up but the painkillers were taking off the edge. When he started working on her though, it was just too painful - especially the bone probably. They then numbed her hand with a needle directly into the nerve, apparently VERY painful though the effect is similar to what happens at the dentist. After that, she was very good about letting the doctor do his thing as Ben read her several books. The suckers helped too (as do the codeine pain killer and antibiotic every 5 hours). She was thanking the doctor and the nurse too. She has been happy and good about her wrapped hand ever since.
Our promise that the Dr. would make it all better hasn't been forgotten. She repeated has held up her hand and said, "nice doctor". She refers to her right hand now as her "big hand" (as it doesn't fit into her coat) and her left hand as her "little hand". She's gotten good at eating with her L though still colors and draws with her two exposed finger tips that are peaking out of her wrap. The hand surgeon unwrapped her hand yesterday and was very pleased with how she is healing. He said the emergency doctor stitched it up well. (There are a TON of stitchs all over her tip, as far down as where the nail was on all sides.) The nail will grow back for sure and probably straight but time will tell. Stitches will come out in probably a week though the bone will take longer to heal.There will be some scarring but she is young. We are so lucky that nothing was amputated and they were able to stitch back together all the "ragged" edges. MY BABY!
Unplug your paper shredders as little fingers have a knack for finding trouble.