Chris's Visit to the ER

October 30, 2007 - 4:50pm

This weekend my parents were in Phoenix visiting. While Mom and I went to the spa on Saturday, Chris and Dad worked on a new desk for the office. They were finishing the desk up on Sunday when Chris had an accident and cut a couple fingers on the table saw.

I was sitting on the couch watching TV with Mom when I heard the guys come into the kitchen. Very calmly, my father asked me to come into the kitchen. Chris was at the sink with his hands in running water. My first thought was he was simply washing his hands but very quickly realized that he was washing a wound. We immediately went into problem solving mode. We first looked up urgent care centers and ultimately decided to go to the hospital emergency room, which was much closer.

Chris got pretty dizzy and saw stars while standing at the sink. He was definitely the whitest I've ever seen him. Dad helped him quickly to the car and once he sat down things were better. We zipped to the ER where we were helped very quickly. By that point, much of the bleeding had stopped. Chris was handling the pain quite well. (Much better than me!)

I haven't spent any time in the ER before so I was very impressed at the efficiency of the process. Within two minutes of walking in the door, a nurse was taking Chris's vital signs. Within 10 more minutes, a triage nurse was evaluating the severity of his wounds. We waited for a little while before getting a room, but once you're in a room it feels like you can breathe a sigh of relief. The true relief came when Chris finally had both fingers numbed. (They call it a digital block because it blocks pain in a digit, the finger. But I couldn't help think it sounded like a technology phrase.)

There were x-rays and cleaning and stitches and super glue and dressing. Chris got ten stitches in all. Then we got drugs from the pharmacy and went home.

All things considered, this wound is a lot better than it could have been. Table saws aren't particularly kind to fingers. And I'm sure the new, sharp, shiny blade didn't help. We're lucky that Chris missed the bones and that the doctor was able to put him back together. I'm sure the healing process will take quite a bit of time, but as long as there's no infection, he should be fine.

I was impressed that afterwards, Chris and Dad talked about the accident. They talked about what they did and what they could have done differently. They're both sorry it happened but were able to turn it into a learning lesson. I know that Chris isn't going to stop working with wood and I certainly don't want him to stop. I just want him to be very careful so he doesn't injure himself again. I love him a lot and don't like seeing him in pain.

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Actually, it's probably really good that it was a shiny, sharp, new blade -- that made it a nice clean cut. Dull old blades do nasty things.

Posted by michele on November 1, 2007 - 8:38pm

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I'm glad you're okay! You need one of those cool saws that stops when it touches flesh: http://www.sawstop.com/media/WMV/Hot_Dog_Demo.htm When I almost cut the tip of my thumb off while making a salad last year I wrapped it up and drove to the ER and then got all woozy once I was at the desk filling out information. I was told by the nurse that even when THEY cut their hands/fingers they get that way because the massive number if nerve endings in those areas overwhelm your system. Or maybe they were just trying to make me feel less wimpy. The funny part was that once they put me in a room to wait for the doctor to come stitch me up they turned on the TV for me and someone was SLICING TOMATOES ON TV WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS DOING WHEN I CUT MYSELF. Either a higher power wanted to pick on me or at least show me the RIGHT way to do it. Take care! Wayne

Posted by Wayne on October 30, 2007 - 8:53pm