Erin's Owie

Greetings true believers!

(Ok, so I stole that greeting from Stan Lee but if you have to copyright infringe on someone, it might as well be him.)

Anyway, after a long Christmas/New Year's break, it seems as though I'm no where near getting caught up again. It sure doesn't take much for me to fall behind. Despite my never ending task list, I thought I'd share Tuesday's adventure.

At about 3:30 I got a call at work and at the other end was two babies crying along with my wife. From what I could make out in between sobs, Erin was peeling potatoes (with a brand new serrated peeler mind you) and had sliced off a chunk of skin; the tip of her pinkie to be more precise. She continued between pain bursts to tell me she was in a tremendous amount of pain, couldn't get the bleeding to stop, and both Brevin and Haddie (the little girl Erin babysits) were both bawling.

I had a new found appreciation for 911 phone operators. I did my best to calm her down and tried to help her get the bleeding to stop before I left the office. Thankfully Haddie's mom Arika had left STEM 10 minutes prior and should be at our place anytime.

By the time I arrived home 15 minutes later, the scene was completely different from what I heard over the phone. Arika was entertaining Brevin, Haddie was walking around playing by herself, and Erin had stopped crying and had her pinkie wrapped in paper toweling and ice. The bleeding still hadn't stopped but the situation didn't seem so dire.

I'll admit I initially was skeptical as to whether or not we needed to seek medical attention or not. But that quickly changed when I looked down at the kitchen sink and saw Erin's finger tip chunk-o-skin. EWW! EWW! EWW! I wasn't nearly as squeamish when I saw her actual finger though. Where our pinkies curve was now flat and bloody.

Again, thankfully Arika was there to watch Brevin as we headed the few blocks to the hospital. We had to wait 10-15 minutes in the waiting room (which of course seemed much longer). Erin's finger still hadn't stopped bleeding as I had to get more toweling from the men's room. But when we were able to be seen, it had stopped. As they unwrapped our home-made suture, the doctor said there would be no stitches since there was nothing there to stitch, but they would clean the wound, make sure the bleeding had truly stopped, give her a professional bandage and send us home.

What was cool was what they put on the owie help with the bleeding. They said it was pretty new and that it looked like cottage cheese. They were right. The "cottage cheese" came in what looked like a sweet and sour container from McDonald's and when they put it on, it immediately only adhered to the blood only. Like I said, pretty cool. There was even another EMT in there just to see the cottage cheese go to work. Before they sent us on our way, they said to soak the owie a few times a day and in a few months, her finger tip would look normal again.

Looking back, we definitely saw God's hand (pun intended) in it all. The fact that Arika was on her way, the location of the hospital, my availability to come home from work, and that I didn't have freelance that night.

Speaking of freelance, this month should hopefully be the last of a very busy freelance period. I'm gone about three nights a week which leaves Erin a single mom for more than I'd like. I'm not complaining though since working with John at City Vision is crucial to get bills paid.

Having said that, I obviously haven't been able to spend the time with my family that I'd like. So one can't help but wonder if Erin didn't slice her finger tip off just to get some attention. You know kids these days. ;) Just kidding honey. I love you!

—b

UPDATE: Erin's finger is looking much better. To even quote her and stick with the food theme "It looks like a bloody raisin." Yum.