A Stitchy Situation

Today was not a great day for the Joe Bug. We made our first trip to the emergency room with him and also experienced our first stitches. The above photo was taken on Dean's cell phone and doesn't do the wound justice. Here is what happened...

Much to their delight, Joey (and Ben) were spending the day at the Chaplins so I could go to work. At about 1:00 p.m. I received a call from Angela, whom I could tell was on the verge of panicing. informing me that Joey had his pinkie finger on his left hand shut in a door and "had a really bad cut." I told Ang to put the finger under running cold water and that I was on my way. I then called Oma to head over and help Angela out since I could tell she was pretty upset and she had four other children to care for in addition to my wounded pup! I was on the phone with Dean, letting him know what happened, when Angela called me back, sounding even more paniced, and said that she thought the finger was "severed and really needed stitches." I assured her I was driving as fast as I could and Oma was on the way. In the meantime I called my mom and Angela called her in-laws to come help out and by the time I arrived there were two grandmas, one grandpa, and a frantic Angela tending to Joey!

I heard Joey screaming on the phone when Angela first called me so I know he was very upset, but by the time I arrived he was calm (the Motrin Ang gave him probably helped too). Oma went with me to the emergency room to help with Joe...she actually rode the whole way in Ben's booster carseat in the back with Joey so she could elevate and put pressure on his finger!!!! I told her she could move the seat, but I think it added to the excitement for her!

Upon arrival to the hospital we were triaged and spent a couple minutes in the waiting room, much to my annoyance. Soon after my mom and dad arrived and Dean and we were escorted back where the nurses peeked at his finger and decided "yep, he got it good." They said they wanted to do x-rays to make sure it wasn't broken and also brought in a hand surgeon to take a peek! Yikes...this was starting to look worse than I thought!

Throughout this whole ordeal at the hospital Joey was so brave and calm. He was his usual flirtatious self, smiling and waving to the nurses and x-ray techs. I was amazed at his demeanor. The good news came back that the finger was not broken and would not need surgical repair. The good news, however, brought bad news for Joe as it was time to clean up and repair the laceration.

Our nurse recruited a strong-appearing male coworker to help hold down Joe while she numbed the finger (gave him several shots in the digit). Joe was less than amused and started screaming! My tears, which I had valliantly held back until this time, began to flow as well. The nurse assured us that the numbing agent worked instantaneously and that Joey wasn't feeling any pain, he was simply upset at the procedure, but that didn't make it any easier to watch him writhe around on the bed trying to get out of the grasp of the male nurse. Dean and I sang to him and kissed him and rubbed his head, which was so covered in sweat his little hair was curly! Joe looked so helpless and the whole procedure felt like it took forever, but was really probably only about 15 minutes. The nurse ended up cutting down the nail, but was able to salvage a small portion to "encourage nail regrowth." She then placed six stitches, which seems like an awful lot for a little baby pinkie; you can imagine how big that cut must have been to require six stitches in such a tiny area.

The next challenge came when the nurses tried to bandage the finger. Their first effort was immediately removed by Joey so they resorted to using two overlapping bandages. This was a great plan....until I had to remove the bandages later this evening to clean the area and realized that they had accidently put the adhesive on the wound and it was pulling the stitches when I pulled the bandage. Poor Joe!

Joey is sleeping soundly now and we both survived his first dressing change. My effort may not be as pretty as the nurses, but it will most definitely not stick to the wound, poor baby. I put a glop of bacitracin and a small piece of gauze on the wound before wrapping the finger in three bandaids! He just looked at me the entire time like I was a crazy person and in no way qualified to address his medical needs. I agree. But I did the very best I could.

News traveled fast so I'm sure most of our blog readers were already aware of Joe's rough day. Thank you so much for the prayers and well wishes (and visit/balloon Aunt Barbie and Casey). Joey is doing great...so send some love Angela's way because I know she feels terrible, despite my best efforts to assure her that it was just an accident and could easily have happened in my presence as well.

So here's to a better tomorrow and quick healing...stitches come out in 7-10 days and we have to do cleaning/dressing changes twice a day in the meantime...so maybe say a little prayer for me as well to continue improving my nursing skills!