Wounds

Simon, oh my Simon. He's the one that seems to get hurt. He's the only one we've taken to the ER, the only one who's ever had stitches. The one who seems to bump his head a lot. There is a soft spot on my heart and that's where my Simon sits. This is a detailed account, you may not want to read it.

Simon got hurt on Monday night. He was going into the bathroom (that Noah had just come out of and shut the light off) and was reaching for the light with his left hand when he rested his right hand on the door jamb. With is pinkie finger barely in the way of where the door shuts. Noah slammed the door. It latched. Simon screamed. Really screamed. Noah opened the door. Noah saw Simon's bloody finger and came running into the kitchen yelling about Simon being hurt.*

Noah tends to be overly dramatic and I knew Simon would want to get Noah in trouble so I wasn't overly concerned. Simon ran into the kitchen holding his hurt hand. I pulled a chair up the sink and told Simon to hop up there, figured we'd rinse it off to see what we could see. As he got on the chair I could tell there was a lot of blood so I told Noah to run outside and get Tim. Then I looked at his finger. I saw white that was not his fingernail. I believe it was his bone. I also saw that the end of his finger was offset.

I FREAKED OUT. This was outside of my expertise.

I wasn't sure if we should rinse it or not, but knew we would be headed to the ER. I started to run for Tim, told Eli to stay with Simon (who is still pretty much screaming). I got to the door and yelled at Tim, "Come now! Simon's hurt, it's bad!" He was right on my heels, and so was Noah.

I let Tim pass me so he could look at Simon, he glanced, and I said, "Are we taking him?"

"YES! We need ice."

I said, "Noah get a bag of ice, I'll get the car!" I pulled the car up to the door, and Tim gingerly, but quickly, walked out carrying Simon with his hand on a baggie of ice. I ran to the door, yelled in to Eli, "You're staying with Matt!"

Times like these are when I'm glad we live about three miles from the hospital. We were there very quickly, they took his vitals and had us wait. By that time Simon had calmed down and wasn't crying. I called Matt to tell him to get the other boys in bed. One of the nurses gave us a couple of gauze pads-we put one between his hand and the plastic bag and one over his hand so he wouldn't have to see it. It was kind of freaking him out. They called us back after just a couple of minutes and took x-rays, then sent us to a room.

The nurses got us comfortable. Simon and I sat on the bed, he just leaned back on me and I kept my arms around him. Tim sat in the rocker beside us.

The doc came and asked what happened. He said that Simon had a "boxers fracture" which is the common name for breaking a bone in your fingers. He said Simon would have to have antibiotics by IV right away since it was an open fracture and that the PA would come in and probably have to do a few stitches, it was hard to know for sure how many before they washed it. There was blood all over his hands, not bleeding like crazy, but everything was covered and it was hard to see.

When the doctor left I asked him if he understood what was going to happen. He wasn't clear on it, so I went over what they were going to do, step by step. He did okay until I said he would need a few stitches. He remembered what that was like from this stitches in the spring and he started to cry. Then I told him we would just take one thing at a time. We couldn't handle it if it was all at once, but we can do one thing at a time. He calmed down and we waited.

The nurses came in and wanted to give him the IV for the antibiotics. I let him lay down with his head in my lap and kept his face towards me so he couldn't watch. As they stuck him he started to cry. Then he jerked. They tried again. He cried harder and said, "I can't take it!" My heart broke a little bit right there. He jerked again and they didn't get it.

I told him we were taking a break and we'd get him a drink and calmed down before we tried again. I got no push back from the nurses. One of them offered to get him some juice. He had a little apple juice and I loved on him. Then I told him we were going to do it one more time, and we were going to get it this time. I asked Tim to help hold him. With his head in my lap, I had his face in my hands, nose to nose; Tim had his shoulder, one nurse had his arm, and the second nurse had his hand. He started to cry and squirm, so I started to sing the "Simon Song", which works like a charm for Jesse when I sing the "Jesse Song" and always used to work for Simon, but I hadn't sung it to him in a very long time. But it did work, he relaxed just enough that we were able to keep him still enough that she was able to get it in his little hand. Then he watched as she taped it on so it wouldn't come out.

Then the next lady came in and hooked up the medicine in the IV. He enjoyed watching her screw the tube on and watching it drip down.

When the PA came in to wash his hand he wasn't happy about that either, but he just laid back on my lap and did fine. She initially said a couple of stitches and that she may have to sew the nail bed back on. As she was washing it Tim saw her raise her eyebrows and look at the other nurse. It was worse than she thought. I'm glad I didn't see that.

When it was time for the numbing shot he got pretty upset, but I started in with the consoling right away, and he said to me, among his tears, "Sing the song Mom!" So I began singing the "Simon Song" again and although he cried and squirmed, he held still enough and she got it done. Then after it was numb she did more shots (Tim said six more he thought), but he doesn't know that. He ended up with six stitches and she did have to sew the nail bed back on.

Then they gave him his pain meds, even though we asked for it from the start. Seems like tylenol with codeine would have relaxed him and helped with the IV and shot process.

They "buddy wrapped" his finger and sent us home with some more pain medicine since it was almost 11:00. But, it's all good, because he got a really cool truck for being such a good boy. And he did do really well. A trooper, that one!

When we got home he went right to sleep, it had been a long day! The other boys were all asleep in bed. On Simon's pillow was a card Noah had made, totally unprompted, he felt horrible. Jesse had insisted to Matt that they leave the hall light on or else Simon wouldn't be able to see when he got home.

We followed up with Tim's orthopedic surgeon's office on Wednesday and a nurse showed me how to wrap it properly (we had been doing a pretty good job) and gave me instructions for care. Change the dressing twice a day, don't let the stitches soak (no baths), wash the wound twice a day, elevate it as much as possible, and come back next week to see the surgeon who may take x-rays again. She also said that since the stitches wrap almost all the way around his finger they will probably have to stay in for two weeks and then he might get a cage splint after that, but maybe not.

In the meantime we're trying to be very careful, which is much harder than it should be, what with being four and having three brothers. As for Tim and I, we're trying not to worry, and just pray for healing and feed him lots of good food and vitamins so he heals good and strong! Hurts our hearts a little bit though!


*We determined that since his finger was shut in the door and he couldn't reach the knob to open it, he yanked it out. That is what tore his skin and made everything bleed. If he hadn't of yanked it out he might not have needed stitches, but you can't blame him for wanting it out and not waiting on someone to come and open the door. Matt had cleaned up all the blood by the time we got home, but we could see where his finger was shut in the door-it pulled paint off when he pulled his finger out-yikes! We're guessing the slammed door was what broke his finger. Poor little guy!