When memories fade...: Tennyson's amputated finger

On Monday Feb 22, 2010 at 6:30pm Tennyson had the end of her finger crushed off when a old wooden school desk chair fell over with her. Within minutes we picked up the finger tip from the floor put it in a damp towel (a haunting memory I might add) and headed for the hospital. At: 7:42pm She was transfered from Chilton ER to Children's Hospital to be "put to sleep" for surgery.
Upon arrival, we were immediately sent back despite a packed full waiting room...a crying baby with blood and an amputated finger gets everyone's attention and a high triage. The surgery went well. Children's called in a hand specialist plastic surgeon and they decided to sew on her finger. There is a 50/50 chance she will lose/keep it. They don't anticipate much scaring. She had a bit of a reaction to the Ketamine used to sedate her but a nice dose of Benedryl helped aide that issue. Mark and I were able to stay with her throughout the surgery. She has a pretty purple splint cast and will be on antibiotics and pain meds (Tylenol, Motrin, and Lortab elixar). At 2 am on Feb 23rd we were discharged from the ER. We will follow up with the plastic surgeon in 2 weeks.

We got home and put her in bed at 4am. When she woke up she went to the playroom and looked at the school desk/chair and took a giant step backwards and said "uh oh". She proceeded to walk around and say "mess" at the blood all over the floor. She is handling the cast well and we are managing the pain. She was so strong through the whole ordeal and it is amazing how resilient children are. God took care of her !!! And my precious daddy cared for Braxton and Asher while we were gone.

Also, my Grandmother, was admitted to the hospital the same day for an ongoing kidney infection and adverse reactions to the antibiotics. She is very weak and confused. My precious, and WORN OUT mother stayed with her in the hospital.

Here are a few poor quality images of us in the hospital and the progress over the past couple of weeks.

We were awaiting the plastic surgeon to come re-attach her finger. We were proud of how well she handled the pain and the whole situation for that matter.

Here is the best image we got from our camea phone and a point and shoot. Anyway, She was upset about the "mess" on her new pajama's that Nana had just sent her.

Mark is holding her after the surgery. We were waiting on her to wake up from the sedation which was not an easy task at 2am and much exhaustion from the day.

She is outside taking a walk to see the birds and dogs, and chickens, and rocks and whatever else her busy little eyes find.

We went for her follow up visit and unfortunatly the finger did not take. Eventually, it will debride itself naturally. Even though at times it hurts and it is hard for a loved one to think about. We try to focus on the positive b/c it could have been worse. God will continue to take care of her and ease our minds. We are thankful because she is still healthy and.....