elle's blog: "My little corner of the universe"

Last night Chelsea, my now 11 year old (same one who had the kidney stone) pitched herself a royal hissy fit when hubby said she couldn't go to the gym with him (she'd been obnoxious all day and is also too young) so she stomped into her room and slammed the door. Clara, our 2 1/2 year old went to her room, probably to see what was up, opened the door and Chelsea hollered 'GET OUT' and slammed the door, right on Clara's baby finger on her left hand. Caitlin (14-year-old) had been in the hallway at the time and ran and got Clara's finger out of the door, and brought her to me, blood everywhere, the end of her finger just kind of hanging there, the nail was also just hanging, I'd never seen anything like that before. I covered it and tried to get it to stop bleeding, hubby called 911 and all the girls were around just screaming, Clara was screaming and crying and it was so noisy the 911 operator couldn't even hear what hubby was saying. I went with her by ambulance down to the hospital. It happened about 7:30 last night. They came in and looked at her right away and said that although it was bad, they'd seen lots worse than that heal up just fine. I was glad to hear that, I'd been concerned that it was so bad she'd lose the end of her finger. Katie said that it had been caught on the side of the door where the hinges are. It just looked so awful! They gave her some chocolate tasting drink that was supposed to make her drowsy, froze the back of her little hand so they could put an IV in, then gave her something else to really konk her out they said. We told them how we have a shirt for her that says, "SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK", which suits her perfectly. They gave her the first dose and started to work on her hand, she pulled it away from them. They gave her another half dose, she still didn't go out, but she was sedated enough they were able to get the 4 stitches in. The doctor said part of her cuticle is missing and that her nail may never grow properly again but he thinks the finger will heal up okay. We got home around midnight and Clara fell asleep and slept about 4 hours comfortably but then woke up screaming in pain. We gave her something for the pain and she settled back down and went to sleep. She's slept a lot today, and seems to be doing a lot better today than she did last night. Chelsea of course feels terrible, I told her I hope she learns a lesson from this and never does that kind of thing again. Clara yelled at Chelsea when we got home last night, it was so cute, she had her good hand in the air shaking her fist and slamming an imaginary door all the while jabbering on at Chelsea in her baby talk. I am so grateful for the people at the hospital, but I sure hope I don't have to see them again any time soon!!