A Bloody New Years Eve

On New Years Eve afternoon my dad was coming into the house from the garage.  I was holding the door open for him when he started to come up the steps.  He grabbed onto the railing and took the first step up.  But he didn't get his foot on the step all the way and he fell flat on his back onto the concrete floor.  I saw it happening too late and couldn't do anything to stop it.  I ran to him and helped him up.  He said, "If you had been a little quicker you could have caught me on the second bounce."  Well at least he still has a good sense of humor!

His skin is so thin that it just peels right back.  It was a bloody mess.  And he hit his neck so we put an ice pack on it.  I thought for sure his back would be full of bruises the next day.  But amazingly none have shown up yet.

A little earlier in the day Tanner called to tell me that he cut his thumb.  He was at Shay's parents house when Grandma Jensen came over pulling the kids on a sled.  She wanted him to get a knot out of the rope.  He got a pocket knife to do it. But he didn't lock it in and it flipped back down and sliced off a quarter of the pad of his thumb.   Yes, this from a kid who has 412 pocket knives, didn't lock it in... Shay's dad had to give him a hard time about that and give him some remedial instructions on how to use a pocket knife.

He picked it up, blew the snow off of it and Shay's brother, Ridge, took him to Community Care.  But first they took the time to stop at RMS where Zak works to show him the cool wound!

When he went into Community Care they gave him about five shots in his thumb and then began stitching the piece that had fallen off back on.  The P.A. told him that it wouldn't stay on but that the skin would be the best band aid for him.  I have heard this before.  But the next day when the stitched on piece was completely black and had puss coming out of it we began to wonder. 

Our neighbor is a nurse and she asked the doctors she works with about it.  They told her that if the piece of skin was completely severed that it never should have been stitched back on.  That having it on there was just going to promote infection.  So she took the stitches out, but didn't want to tear the skin off.

So he came home and soaked it in warm water, but it still wasn't coming loose.  So he ended up tearing it off and going through the original pain all over again.  Then we didn't have any non-stick pads.  So the next morning when he took the wrap off it was like pulling the skin off all over again.  Poor kid!  But I must admit he really took it all like a man.  I on the other hand just about passed out when he was trying to pull the dead skin off.  It wasn't the blood but just the thought of how much pain he must be in.  So I don't think being a nurse is in my future. 

The P.A. did give him some antibiotics and Tanner wasn't sure he needed to take them.  I asked him if he wanted to loose his thumb to an infection.  He didn't think it would be that big of a deal.  But when I asked him how he would ride his dirt bike without a thumb he reconsidered the benefits of antibiotics!

On the positive side it all happened on the last day of the year and we have already met our deductible for the year.  So here's to hoping that this is not a foreshadowing of the coming year.  It would be so nice to go for a year without any surgeries or major heath problems.