Wednesday, June 05, 2013

poor abby

Abby was only home from school for about 10 minutes when she tripped over my shoes. I didn't see her fall I was in the kitchen answering some email and she fell by the back door. I definitely heard her and knew she had gone down hard and then she started to scream. You know that scream I'm talking about. The one that makes your stomach drop to your knees when it's coming out of your kid. So I run to the back door, she's in a heap on the floor cradling her hand. Yes, the same hand. The broken thumb hand. My stomach drops further.

Is it your thumb? Did you hit your thumb? I'm asking her, but she is borderline hysterical. I manage to get her calm enough to tell and show me that her thumb is okay, but, she says, my toe really hurts. I peel off her sock and oh my gosh. My stomach could drop no further. The toenail on her big toe had been more or less completely ripped up and bent back over her toe. Abby lost her ever loving mind when she saw it.

Mike was in the yard cutting the grass and I went out to get him at a dead run leaving poor Abby screaming by herself in the house. I was almost at Mike, close enough to touch him when I fell. My foot went into a sinkhole and I went down hard on my stomach. I had already put my hand out to touch Mike and I hit him on the way down. He turns to find me in a heap at his feet. He's making sure I'm okay and I'm saying not me Abby. Go see Abby. Who's still screaming.

We ended up calling TeleHealth because we weren't quite sure what to do. She was in a tremendous amount of pain and then there was the blood, not a lot, but enough given the circumstances. TeleHealth advised skipping the hospital and soaking her foot in cold water to soften the nail up enough to trim it then coat it with polysporin and wrap her toe in gauze. By the time we got off the phone with the very helpful nurse Abby was suffering from shock. She had the shakes and was freezing. So we wrapped her in blankets and stuck her foot in some cool water and then we called in ML.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love that chick. I called her up and told her what was going on. She had just been past my house, but that didn't stop her from turning around and coming right back. She took a look at Abby's toe and agreed with the TeleHealth nurse's recommendations and the best part, she helped Mike with the nail removal. I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it. The nurse on the phone had instructed me to get a cold wet cloth and apply pressure to her toe and it was all I could do to do that. I was so afraid to hurt her even further.

The nail removal went about as well as one would expect it to go. There was some discomfort, but it was over fairly quickly. She was still shaky, weepy and cold so I kept her bundled up with her foot elevated. Even still it was a long rough evening. Abby told me several times that she'd much rather have the broken thumb than the toe thing.... lucky girl has both now. By bedtime we had her toe polysporined, gauzed, bandaged and the advil had kicked in. She's not walking very well, but I have my fingers crossed that she'll be able to sleep okay.

Just never a dull moment around here.

5 comments:

Leah said...

Poor little sweetheart! My heart hurts for her! I wounded a toe nearly that bad, but kept the nail, and it was horribly painful. Very throbbing just to SIT still, let alone trying to walk, or wear shoes (I suggest flip flops if possible, or some other open-toed shoe, to keep pressure off that big toe). Give her big hugs and well wishes for a quick recovery! xoxo

Julie said...

Oh gosh, poor thing. And poor Mamma. I hope she is feeling better today.

Betsy Hart said...

Wow :( That is horrible.

Lynn said...

My mother always says, "It's always something," and it is, isn't it? Never a dull moment. I hope Abby is doing okay - it really does sound horrific. Poor girl!

Goofball said...

yikes, my stomac twisted when reading this. How stressful