MomOTwins
04-09-2008, 08:00 PM
The phone call today was just classic (and I know you can all relate to it) -
"This is Mr. W (Andrew's teacher)....no, nothing big is the matter, but Andrew was in wood shop today, using a little hand saw, and ... well ... he cut one of his fingers and it is bleeding like crazy. The school nurse thinks it needs stitches. Can you come pick him up?"
The first thing that I thought was - "Well of course he cut himself, you called it a hand saw"
The second thing that I thought was - "Augh, not the ER, not stitches, not injected anesthetic in the finger"
Got to school, only a smudge of blood on his shirt, but a huge gauze bandage on his pointer finger. Shop teacher and aide looking mortified, Andrew looking upset (face ready to cry, but no tears) and telling me "I got a big cut".
Off to the ER just before lunchtime, sat in the empty place for almost 2 hours before complaining to the desk clerk who said that he'd be seen in another 5 minutes....20 minutes later we finally got the nurse to unwrap the bandage. A cut about 1 cm across the ball of his pointer finger, pretty much into the meaty part of the digit, but no vessels or bone involved - I can see why it bled like crazy!
The big debate (of about 2 seconds) was stitches or Steri-strips (like a butterfly bandage) - ended up gettting Steri-strips, a cage for the finger (only after I asked about protection and wouldn't a cage be a good idea), and that was it. No recommendation for care other than "keep it dry". Well, duh....
He calmly went back to school after I reminded him that Mr. W and the shop teacher would wonder how he was doing, the rest of the day went OK. Now I just need to keep the bandage on and keep it dry and hope that it doesn't get infected....oh well, crisis averted, no limb lost, just another day in my house!
"This is Mr. W (Andrew's teacher)....no, nothing big is the matter, but Andrew was in wood shop today, using a little hand saw, and ... well ... he cut one of his fingers and it is bleeding like crazy. The school nurse thinks it needs stitches. Can you come pick him up?"
The first thing that I thought was - "Well of course he cut himself, you called it a hand saw"
The second thing that I thought was - "Augh, not the ER, not stitches, not injected anesthetic in the finger"
Got to school, only a smudge of blood on his shirt, but a huge gauze bandage on his pointer finger. Shop teacher and aide looking mortified, Andrew looking upset (face ready to cry, but no tears) and telling me "I got a big cut".
Off to the ER just before lunchtime, sat in the empty place for almost 2 hours before complaining to the desk clerk who said that he'd be seen in another 5 minutes....20 minutes later we finally got the nurse to unwrap the bandage. A cut about 1 cm across the ball of his pointer finger, pretty much into the meaty part of the digit, but no vessels or bone involved - I can see why it bled like crazy!
The big debate (of about 2 seconds) was stitches or Steri-strips (like a butterfly bandage) - ended up gettting Steri-strips, a cage for the finger (only after I asked about protection and wouldn't a cage be a good idea), and that was it. No recommendation for care other than "keep it dry". Well, duh....
He calmly went back to school after I reminded him that Mr. W and the shop teacher would wonder how he was doing, the rest of the day went OK. Now I just need to keep the bandage on and keep it dry and hope that it doesn't get infected....oh well, crisis averted, no limb lost, just another day in my house!