Monday evening Jenna, Grant and I were in the basement school room. Drew was holding Hannah upright at the door and unbeknownst to Drew Hannah's little hand had moved into the hinge-side of the doorway. Playing, Jenna ran over and slammed the door...completely closed...as in the door was shut...with Hannah's sweet little finger in it. Oh my. We didn't even realize she was caught until she started screaming. Once we got the door open, we immediately knew her finger was broken. We ran upstairs, got a wet washcloth to help stop the bleeding. I called my mom who immediately came over to stay with Jenna and Grant while we drove to the ER.
For those who don't know, one thing we've realized with Hannah's Cerebral Palsy is that she doesn't feel pain the way a "normal" person does. We've seen instances of this before, but this incident really made it clear to us. Hannah was definitely screaming and crying in pain when her finger was smashed in the door, but before we left for the hospital, we put her pacifier in her mouth and she immediately stopped crying. As in...happy, sucking on her paci, even giving us smiles and a few giggles. Oh my! I know, had that been my finger, I would have still been crying hysterically. Needless to say, she barely made a peep the whole way to the hospital while I sat in the back singing to her and making sure the washcloth stayed wrapped around her hand.
While at the hospital, we joked with Hannah that she better stop smiling and laughing because they'd drop us to the bottom of the list thinking that everything's "fine and dandy." :) I love her sweet spirit and good attitude...and, although I definitely want her to have the right sensations, I am thankful that she just couldn't feel the pain the way she SHOULD have been feeling it!
So at the hospital they did an x-ray of her finger, which confirmed that it's broken. Then when the nurse practitioner came in and looked at her finger, she informed us that her finger also had a significant cut - about 65% through the finger right below her fingernail, which in the medical field is classified as a "partial amputation". Oh my. Poor, poor Hannah. A broken finger and a partial amputation. Yep, I would definitely still be crying.
The nurse practitioner then numbed her finger the best she could. Apparently there was one side of her finger that she wasn't able to completely numb, so Hannah felt some of the stitches...oh my. Then she reset her finger, put five stitches on the sides of her finger to help hold it together, and then cleaned her nail (which had come off) and reinserted it in her finger in it's "track". Apparently, if you don't put the nail back in, scar tissue will form and a nail would no longer be able to grow. So she put the nail back and then added two stitches to the sides of the nail to help hold it in place. They put a splint on her and wrapped it up and told us to follow up with an orthopedic doctor in a few days. They prescribed her an antibiotic as well as motrin to help with the pain as needed.
I didn't know what to expect from her the next day, but honestly, you wouldn't know she was injured if she didn't have her hand wrapped. She was amazing and mostly back to her normal self. The biggest issue I had was keeping her splint on! Little stinker didn't want to slow down and would roll over on top of her hand (OW!!!) and then yank her hand out from under her...again with no crying...but the splint would come off. So I saw a lot of her finger (OUCH!) and tried my best to rewrap it like the professionals.
This morning we met with the orthopedic doctor. He said her hand is looking good, but it needs more time to heal, and since she's young and won't leave it alone they decided to cast it for three weeks, which I'm thankful for. I can't imagine having to keep her away from her finger for the next three weeks. She is one tough cookie and such a joy!
