The Finger Adventure, Episode 3

So I call Andy and tell him we're going to the ER, and since he had to be at work at 6 the next morning, he might as well just stay home and get some rest.

I wince as I make the turn back onto the interstate, knowing he will pick up on it. But I look in the rearview mirror, he is concentrating on some thought.

"ER??" he asks.
"Yes, do you want to go?"
"Mommy go ER?"
"Yes, I'm going"
"Me go ER too?!"
"Sure! We'll have a little ER party tonight!"

He seems excited. I'm trying to calculate how long I can ride this little ray of sunshine luck.

We get there, and he is still happy. Mum (that's what he calls my mom) is there too. It's always helpful to have a nurse around to explain what's really going on. We wait for a few minutes. Brent seems okay, and then I see him looking around at all the people that have some sort of physical illness. Mum and I watch the realization creep onto his face slowly - that this is not the kind of place healthy people to go have a good time. He looks at me, a bit unnerved. "Me not want go ER anymore".

But we did get back there, waiting for hours between doctor or nurse sightings. He was pretty good. We watched cartoons and sang my new hit single "Party in the ER". He enjoyed his "new" bed in his "new" room, and all the cheese puffs we let him eat from the vending machine. We wore fashionable lead jackets when x-ray time came, and he let me manipulate his very-painful finger for the shots. Finally, the diagnosis came - it was infected, most importantly, and broken as well (poor little tip was crushed). They would have to lance under his fingernail to get all the nasty goop out, and then would buddy tape his finger to the one next to it.

So I held him down, and looked away as they put that needle into his finger. He screamed, but got over it quickly, I thought. I would have been LOADS worse about it, personally. And today, it's looking much better. He is agreeable as we soak it in the evenings and re-make his splints.

So, his first broken bone. I don't have a date, since it was a couple weeks ago that he got it caught in the door at school and must have broken it then. I would have never known if it didn't get infected. Goes to show just how tough this kid is.

Thanks for joining us for the Finger Adventures. Hopefully this will be the last episode in the series :)