I know I don’t blog
much anymore, but I feel like some of life's biggest moments need blogged
about. This week has one of those.
Most of you know the
gist of what happened just based on facebook posts, but I'll tell you about the
whole thing.
Caleb has mentioned
several times about how he would love to be able to do wood working and
carpentry on the side. I had a few
projects I wanted him to work on that I could sell at some upcoming events so
he was outside in the shed working on some wood. He was using a table saw (that I shall trash
now) and he was cutting a piece of wood when the saw kicked back and pushed his
hand in to the saw.
I was sitting inside
with my kids while they were playing and I was on the phone with my
sister. Caleb opened the back door and
yelled for me to grab a towel and call 911.
Of course adrenaline started pumping and my mind was running a million
different directions. I hung up from my
sister, grabbed a towel, and ran to the back door and threw it to Caleb. I could tell by the look on his face that he
was probably in the worst pain of his life.
I tried calling 911 but my hands were shaking and my phone hasn't been
working right so I had to try calling a couple of times before it went
through. Liam had come running in to the
kitchen to see what was going on and fortunately he had just gotten a new
sticker book on our trip that he and I had just taken with my parents last weekend
and I told him to go play with his new stickers. He actually obeyed and stayed in the living
room for a long time while everything was going on. That's not like him. This may sound silly but I really think it's
Divine intervention that he did that.
That kid doesn't forget anything and it's best that he wasn't right in
the middle of the action, which is where he likes to be.
Anyway, so back to
911. The guy was so patient with me when
I kept interrupting him to talk to my children.
Liam is in the other room yelling "DADDY! DID YOU CUT YOUR THUMB IN HALF??" I'm still not sure how it all worked out, but
I almost stayed calm the whole time. I'm
not sure that I've ever had a harder time being a parent with having to play
cool about a situation when my husband is laying on the back deck in
excruciating pain, breathing heavy, and I'm trying to tell my kids that daddy
just has a bad boo boo and these nice guys are going to take him to the doctor
to get a big band aid.
The EMTs were pretty
light hearted, which as my father in law pointed out to us later, it's probably
a relief to them to get to respond to a call that isn't life threatening but
they still get to do their thing. They
took a peek at his hand and told him that he got his thumb, pointer, and ring
fingers pretty bad. The tip of his ring
finger was barely still connected. One
guy told him that he earned a new nick name of Stumpy. They asked where we wanted them to take
him. We asked where the best place was
and they said that he would end up in Columbia but taking him to the hospital
at the lake would be the fastest.
Looking back I'm not sure why they couldn't just take him straight to
Columbia, but whatever, he was taken care of.
They had him in the ambulance for awhile before they left. It was long enough that I was able to call
Christa and tell her that I needed her to take my kids right now. I went into the other room because I was
stressed and when I'm stressed I tend to cry, and I didn't want Liam to see me
cry. I told her I would come drop off my
kids on my way to Columbia because the EMTs had said it could be awhile for him
to get transferred there so I figured that gave me enough time to pack up a bag
for them and get them taken care of before I got to the hospital. Christa also told me that she would take care
of calling family so I wouldn't have to worry about doing that. I ran out to the ambulance and told Caleb
that I would have the kids taken care of and I would meet him in Columbia.
I went back inside
and by this time Liam was crying because he didn't want his daddy being taken
away. Again, how did I keep my
composure?? I didn't want him being
taken away either without me being by his side! Anyway, I calmly sat down with my kids and
again told them that Daddy just got a boo boo and he would just have to go get
a band aid, but it may be awhile before they could get to see Daddy. I tried getting Liam excited to get to go
play with his cousins for the day and that seemed to work. Around then Lori was
there because Christa had called her at work to let her know. She said she would go be with Caleb down in
the ER at the lake. I told her that
would be wonderful so I could get the boys to Christa's house. As she was leaving there was a knock on the
door and it was Dave from church. He
wanted to make sure that I was doing ok and see what we needed done. I told him we were good and I would get the
kids taken care of. He made sure that I
would be ok driving them there. Also,
then his wife was calling me because she happened to have the day off of work
and was ready to come get my kids. I
called her back and thanked her but told her they were going to go to Christa's
house. She then took the time to pray
with me and said she would keep us in prayer.
While I was on the phone with her my phone was beeping because another
church member was calling to see if she needed to come get my kids or stay at
my house with my kids. (Seriously, how
amazing is this??) I then decided to
call my mom before she found out through someone else. While I was on the phone with her Christa was
calling me to let me know that they were changing plans and they were leaving
to come to my house and just get my kids so I could go to the Lake and be with
Caleb sooner. Christa said she would stay
with me and her husband would take my boys (along with her 3 boys) and take
them all back to their house and Aunt Rachel would come over and help out. This ended up working out great because I
didn't feel as rushed to get my kids packed and out the door. I could kind of just relax for a second
because it would take her about 45 minutes to get to my house. I went and dumped Liam's bag out from our
trip that we had just gotten back from the day before and just threw a bunch of
clothes and stuffed animals and blankets in the bag. It then crossed my mind to pack a bag for
Caleb because I was sure he would have to have surgery and stay overnight in
the hospital (which wasn't the case but we'll get there.) I got all of that taken care of and then took
my boys outside to play while we waited for Christa's family. As we were outside Caleb's brother, Micah,
came over and so I left the kids with him and went and grabbed a few last
minute things I forgot to pack. Soon,
Christa's family was there. I showed
Bert where all of the stuff was that he needed to take, showed him which car
seats to take, and then Christa and I left and went to the Lake.
By the time we got
to the hospital (side note, I'm glad I didn't drive him to the ER because there
was construction and we got kind of turned around just trying to figure out how
to get to the hospital) he had gotten an x-ray and was just waiting for a transfer
to University hospital in Columbia. I
could have driven him to Columbia but then he would have to go through the
whole check in process again and wait in the waiting room for who knows how
long. But, if he went by ambulance they would have a room waiting for him. By ambulance it was! Also while he was at the lake they had to cut
off his wedding band before his hand started swelling. It was sad, but it wasn't the ring that he
had when we got married. That one had been too big and this was just a $7
titanium ring he had bought online. I
told him he best let all the nurses know that he was married. He said that they had all already thought
that his mom was his wife.
So not long after
Christa and I had gotten to the Lake then an ambulance showed up to take him to
Columbia. Another benefit of going by
ambulance was they could hook him up to pain meds on the ride there, so that helped
him sleep there. By
the time we got there they had already done an exam and then the plastic
surgeon came in and she was ready to get started. They had Caleb in a trauma room so they kept
it warm since people tend to be in shock when they have trauma. So that along with not eating much, and this
doctor talking about blood and guts I had to step out of the room because it
was a little much for me. Christa and I
went and found a place to eat at the hospital.
Shortly after that Tim arrived and he went to go see Caleb, then he and
Lori came and joined us because they were working on Caleb and we couldn't be
in there for that….not that I would want to be.
It ended up taking
about an hour longer than the doctor originally estimated to get him stitched
up, but she was also able to repair a tendon while she was in there. She said that he has a tendon in his thumb
that is cut in two parts, but not all the way through. His thumb is in a big splint in hopes that
the tendon will heal on its own and not break all the way, which would most
likely involve surgery to repair. The
top of his ring finger got pretty severed and was hanging on by a flap of skin
(sorry if you want to barf…I do too) so big prayers needed that the skin
doesn’t die because if it does he will probably have to have that amputated…at
least that was my interpretation of what she said.
After all of that
was over and he was bandaged up then we were able to go home after I got his
prescriptions filled at the pharmacy. He slept most of the way home and was
kind of shaky by the time we got home.
He fell asleep almost immediately except for when we skyped the boys
right before they went to bed…he kind of faked feeling ok then since Liam had
been so concerned about him. I had
decided to leave the boys at Christa's house overnight because Caleb needed to
be back in Columbia Tuesday morning for a follow up appointment and I didn't
want to have to shuffle them around again that morning. Caleb had a little bit of a hard time sleeping
that night, but that was kind of expected.
Another side note,
while we were gone that day, Micah and a guy from church came to clean up. I had tried to clean up some of the blood
before we left because I didn't expect anyone to do that and I wanted to get it
before it was good and dried. Also, we were supposed to have an exterminator
come and a DHL delivery so I didn't want it looking like a crime scene. Apparently the guys cleaning up found some
chunks that I'm glad I didn't find.
Someone else from church made sure that the exterminator could get
in. Our church family was just so
wonderful to us.
Caleb's appointment
went well the next day. The plastic
surgeon was pleased with how his hand looked.
He told Caleb that he thinks he will have close to a normal working hand
when this is all said and done. Tim went
with us to watch and see how the dressings need to be done if he needs it
replaced because if I don’t HAVE to do it I don’t want any part of it until
it's more healed up. Caleb will go back
next Tuesday and they will try to wash his hand up and give him another
evaluation after that. The doctor also
mentioned that he may have to have some reconstructive surgery depending on the
way that it heals up.
After the
appointment we went and picked up the boys.
Liam was of course talking about how daddy's hand fell off and he needed
to glue it back on. HA! He has the story a bit more straightened out
now. The boys have been pretty good
about leaving daddy and his big boo boo alone.
I've been trying really hard (only with God's help of course) to have as
much patience with them as I can. I have
started transitioning my sewing business from Facebook to Etsy but some of that
may have to hold off for a while since I want to give my kids as much of my
patience and grace as possible. I know
it's hard on them and I don’t want Caleb to have to worry about them or what
they are doing. He just needs to rest
and take things easy so he doesn't make anything worse than it already is.
I had to get caleb's towel and pants washed that he had gotten...dirty. Lori had told me to use hydrogen peroxide on the stains. I thought about googling "how to get blood out of clothes" but I watch a lot of investigation discovery and was afraid to have that on my search history. ;-) One thing I didn't have to wash was his shirt. They cut that off of him at the hospital. Ironically it was his Hannibal Helping Hands shirt. HA! (get it?)
Caleb was still able
to preach Wednesday night. Of course he
wont be able to lead worship for a while, but at least he can still
preach. :-) I'll keep updates posted on
facebook, or on my blog depending on how things go. Thanks again for everyone who has prayed for
us and helped us out. We are
blessed.
Making get well cards for daddy!
