Our Labor Day

So it's official. Brian is accident prone. This weekend his left hand was the latest victim. He was using a t-post driver to drive down a t-post. This is a t-post driver and a t-post:

The red tube weighs about 20 lbs and you hold the handles and slam it down over the t-post. As Brian stood back to admire his work he decided one needed to be hammered one more time. He immediately regretted that decision. Instead of the driver going over the t-post, his hand landed in between the top of the t-post and the handle. Result: bloody gory mess and bye bye to his life long dream of hand modeling. (joking aside, he really does have nice hands)

He ran inside and I had to say a quick prayer that God would help me help him and not faint as I saw his pinky facing the wrong way and the bloody hamburger meat blooming out of the openings. I judged him to be about a 90/10, fat content wise. I sat him in front of the tv with a bag of corn and Malcolm in the Middle to take his mind off the pain. I'm a nurturer. After 10 people not answering their phones I finally reached my mom who drove over to stay with the sleeping children. We raced to the urgent care center and proudly walked in with our bag o corn and big green chip bowl that was catching the blood.

They cleaned out the fingers, soaked them in cleaning solution, and sewed him up. The doctor apparently skipped class the day they taught about having any empathy for your patients because, how do I say it, she lacked a gentle touch. I thought Brian was going to break the rail off the bed a few times. Or punch her. Either one. But he toughed it out and they told him he would have to have surgery to repair the crushed pinky.

The next day Brian told the surgeon, "Who needs a pinky anyways?" and made the decision to chance it and see how it heals on its own. The fingernail might be facing the wrong way but Brian has never been one to give in to vanity. I guess we will see how this one turns out.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of the fingers after tucking all that meat back in and sewing them up:

And because I love you and can't leave you with that image in your head, here is a picture of my nephew, Little, who spent the holiday weekend with us. If you ever need a laugh or a little shot of happiness, you should hang with him for a few minutes.

Update:

Brian went to see a hand surgeon specialist today because he lost feeling in his finger and it was cold. He is going ahead with surgery next Thursday because the doctor said he severed the nerves and arteries and if he didn't do the surgery he wouldn't get feeling back and would lose alot of his gripping ability because the pinky is second in importance to the thumb...who knew?