This all started way back on September 4th. Matt and I had our house refinished with Hardi-board siding and, since I love to have things match, we decided we'd refinish Cooper's playhouse/my storage shed with the leftover materials. Then Matt had the great idea to do Ruby's dog house as well so everything would really match. Well he'd been pretty busy with drywall and farming for quite a while so things were a little slow going with our 2 smaller projects. Since I actually really enjoy doing things like that I would do what I could during the day to help things a long. Plus neither project was very big so it wasn't like we needed 2 people to work on it together.
So I got the playhouse done like I'd wanted but kept putting off the dog house cause it was so small and I didn't really want to have to cut the trim that small. Well September 4th rolled around and I figured I just needed to get it done before it started getting too cold. So I started ripping the trim all down so it would fit. I was just ripping down the last board when it kinda caught on the end and I tried to flick it through the rest of the way with my thumb. No the greatest idea. I didn't realize how high the blade was up and ended up filleting my thumb when I tried to push the board off the table.
I'm so glad the body going into shock when something traumatizing happens to it. It honestly didn't hurt that bad but it sure looked gross. I'd cut from the top of my thumb down through the first joint of it, running parallel with my fingernail so 1/4 of my thumb was just hanging there. I used my right hand to put pressure on it and hold it together, but that made it hard to try and call someone to help. Because we live out in the country we don't have the greatest service and because of my weak stomach I needed to lay down/crawl on the ground or I was afraid I'd pass out. So I ended up crawling around outside in the back yard until I could find service. My first call was to Barb to have her come down and drive me in to the hospital, but they'd just gotten to Lethbridge so she called Matt's grandma Orr instead to come and get me instead. A minute or two later Matt called me. Honestly I'd forgot to even call him :S. He was drywalling out in Taber so it wasn't like he'd be able to come get me and I was more focused on keeping pressure on my thumb. He left as soon as he could but was still going to be over an hour before he could get there.
Through all this Cooper was inside. He'd been watching a movie while I finished up the trim and then, once it happened, I wasn't able to open up the door to get inside the house without letting go of my thumb. That was when I started to cry. Having Cooper standing at the door crying for me and not being able to help him broke my heart. I'm not exactly sure but he may have been looking out the back door when it happened because afterward when we'd ask him what Mommy said he'd say "Bzzz ow ow ow". I told Matt luckily I didn't swear when it happened or I'd wonder what he would have been saying instead. Thankfully for the shock, since it wasn't hurting at the beginning, all I honestly remember saying was ow.
Once Matt's grandparents got there we decided Grandpa would stay with Cooper until Barb got there and Grandma would drive me to the hospital and stay with me until Matt could get there. As a side note through all this Cooper was in the middle of potty training so when Grandpa come for some reason that was my biggest concern, making sure Cooper went to the bathroom enough. Fortunately he stayed dry the entire time.
Once Grandma and I got to the hospital they took us right back and had some x-rays done to see if I'd gone through the bone and tendon. I had so they decided the best thing to do was bandage it up and send me home so that I could have a plastic surgeon look at it in Lethbridge the next morning and re attach the tendon before they stitched it up. They'd frozen my thumb with some local freezing so it hadn't started hurting again yet, but in the middle of the night I woke up in the worst pain! Because I was pregnant the strongest thing they recommended me taking was an extra strength Tylenol. Needless to say it didn't do much and I didn't get a lot of sleep before heading in to the hospital the next morning. Since I didn't want to take Cooper with me to the hospital I drove myself in so that Barb could watch Cooper for me. I had quite a few offers for people to come and sit with me at the hospital, but I preferred to go by myself since I knew what a baby I could be and didn't want anyone to see me cry.
Once I got to the hospital I found out they didn't have me scheduled in so they were just going to try and squeeze me in. Once I got back there they didn't have the right equipment (a C arm I think) in the room that would allow the Dr. to see if he was setting the bone and tendon right, so he had to do his best to guess and then stitch it up. Then they sent me for another x-ray to see if everything was set right. The joint was in so many pieces and there were a couple that had to be rotated into the right place so back I went to the plastic surgeon to have them take the stitches out, rotated the bones, and then restitch me up again. They wanted me to get a brace made for my thumb/hand/arm so that I wouldn't move it, but the hand clinic was so backed up that they just put a full cast on it and told me to come in the next week to have a brace made. This whole process took just over 5 hours so by the end I was very glad to be able to go home.
My parents came and took Cooper for the weekend so I could get some rest and I was lucky they did. Because my thumb was healing and swelling so much the cast was putting a lot of pressure on it. I ended up being sick all Friday night and by Saturday morning needed to go back to the Fort Macleod hospital. I was still only taking an extra strength Tylenol every 6-8 hours like they recommended, but it wasn't enough. Combine that with the morning sickness I had still and I wasn't able to even keep the medicine down. Matt hadn't gotten any sleep the night before either because he was taking care of me so Barb took me back in to the hospital so he could get some sleep. They gave me 3 or 4 IV's to rehydrate me and a shot of morphine in my thumb and I was able to get some sleep for a bit. When the doctor came back he told me I had hints of starvation and that he was concerned that I might have gestational diabetes because of my blood glucose levels so to make an appointment with my OB. He also gave me a prescription for morphine and told me that I could take 2 extra strength Tylenol every 4-6 hours instead. This helped a ton! I made sure I was still careful with what I was taking but it was such a relief to be able to manage the pain better.
I made it through the weekend and by Monday had appointments with my OB, the plastic surgeon, the hand clinic to get a splint made, and my chiropractor. The OB said the pain meds were fine to be taking and that they would still wait until I was 26 weeks to check for gestational diabetes. The plastic surgeon took my cast off and had me get an x-ray again before they made a splint for me at the hand clinic. It was a busy day and just a hint of what the next 2 months would be like. My trips to Lethbridge consisted of going to see different doctors and leaving Cooper with Grandma Barb in Fort Macleod. Slowly my thumb has been healing and I've been making appointments at the hand clinic for my rehab. I almost have full movement in the joint at the base of my thumb, but the top joint can only move 15 degrees instead of the 70 degrees that my right thumb can do. It's a work in progress but the more I work with it the more movement I'm able to get.
It's been a long process (almost 3 months) and I'm ready for it to be done. Although I am very grateful that it happened when it did and not when I was further along in my pregnancy. It's given me the time to heal that I need before the baby comes. Cooper is also at a very independent age which has been a huge help to me. Another small blessing is the fact that I could wear maternity jeans so I didn't have to do any buttons up! I don't have feeling in the very tip of my thumb so it's made doing buttons up a very difficult task ;P.
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