Change of Plans

I had it all worked out - I was gonna try and be a fun mom yesterday and serve green food for St. Patty's Day dinner. None of the foods really went together, but I thought the kids would get a kick out of it. I thought maybe we'd start with an appetizer of Lucky Charms, then move onto the main course of beef, green salad with cucumbers, celery, green jello, green beans, green Powerade to drink. Maybe we would even have green popsicles or green M&M's for dessert. Fun right?? My plan was brilliant! Then we had a little accident.......

I was trying to get an email sent off that I had been typing so I could start on dinner. The kids had just come inside from playing and starting chores and homework. Our doorbell rang and I answered it - a neighbor kid was telling us that Mason left his little bike outside. I shut the front door and told Zach to go out and put the bike away, then I walked back to the den. Right after that I hear commotion from the front room and Tanner crying. That's when I hear Taylor freak out and screaming, "MOM, MOM!!! TANNER'S BLEEDING!!!" So I ran to the front room and find Tanner with blood running down his right hand. I picked him up and quickly ran to the kitchen sink and started running his hand under cold water. He's bleeding pretty bad. Through Tanner's crying I ask Taylor what happened. She said Mason had opened the front door to see his bike and Tanner tried to walk out and Mason then accidentally slammed the door on his hand. Mason felt sorry and was telling me over and over that it was an accident.


I looked closer at Tanner's ring finger and surveyed the damage - his fingernail was completely detached at the bottom where it meets the cuticle and flipping upwards, barely hanging on - it was SOOO GROSS!!! I kept the finger under the water for a little bit but the bleeding wouldn't stop. I decided it was probably best to elevate his hand. I wrapped it in a towel and held his hand up and sure enough the bleeding started to subside a bit. By this point Taylor and Zach are completely freaking out at the sight of blood and the nasty wound and I'm trying my best to get them to chill out and calm down. I sit at the kitchen table with Tanner in my lap, give him a bottle of milk and he calms down right away. Andrew comes home a few minutes later and we decide to take Tanner into urgent care or the ER. I loathe Urgent Care facilities and wondered if the ER would be better, especially since he was bleeding kinda bad. We called our insurance's nurse hotline and she suggests an ER because of Tanner's age. So off Tanner and I went to the hospital, leaving the rest of the family to have dinner without us.


At the ER, they did quick x-rays to make sure there was no fracture (there wasn't) and the doctor said it was best to leave the nail on the finger instead of removing it completely. He preferred to do it that way so the fingernail could serve as a band aid to the raw tissue underneath. He explained the procedure to me: he needed to numb Tanner's finger and then actually push the nail back underneath the cuticle. There was a good chance the fingernail would still fall off, but he thought it would be better for healing purposes. He told me he had done the procedure on his own kids. Of course this meant restraining Tanner, which is always my favorite part!!! The staff asked me if I was okay with that, and I just kinda laughed and told them that Tanner is the youngest of 4 and I've been through this situation a few times before!! I liked this doctor's twist on the papoose technique though. After wrapping Tanner in a sheet super tight, he then taped him to the gurney! It was a little barbaric, but quite effective!!



Tanner was such a trooper through the whole thing!! He cried initially when they numbed his finger, but after that he just laid there and stared at me and the nurse until they were finished. All I have to say is kudos to the Centennial Hills hospital!! We were in and out of there in under two hours. They were super friendly and I'm so glad I took him there instead of somewhere else.

Tanner is doing just fine now and still his happy self. His little hand is wrapped up in gauze like a boxing glove to keep him from trying to pull off the bandage on his finger. He's not quite sure what to make of it, but we hope his little finger will heal up okay.

After last night's experience however, I'm convinced that trips to the ER are rites of passage when you're a mother of boys, especially the more boys you have!! I've been twice with Zachary, twice with Mason, and now Tanner. I can assume it's only a matter of time before Tanner will be making a second trip to the ER to keep up with his brothers. Poor Taylor - she's turning 10 this year and still no emergency room trips for her.

So darnit, we didn't have the festive green dinner I had envisioned, but they made do without me last night. At least they ate the green jello! Maybe next year.........