"It's just a flesh wound!"

Never before was that quote from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (and the Broadway version called, "Spamalot", which we had just seen) more applicable to our lives.

We are in the process of remodelling our bedroom to turn it into the sort of formal library you would find in a mansion. Chad and I both love books, and each of us has a pretty good-sized collection. Chad even has a couple hundred leather-bound books. We already have a room we refer to as the library, but we have to get that room cleared out to make room for baby, so the natural thing to do was to add built-in bookcases all around or 300 sq. ft. bedroom surrounding ourselves with something we both enjoy: imaginative stories.

Nothing is as easy as it seems. To make way for the bookcases (which are making way for baby), we have to get rid of our dressers. Clothes belong in the closet, so step 1 is to remodel the closet to hold all of our clothes. The centerpiece of the closet is a 12-drawer dresser that stands 5 feet tall. Chad enjoys building things, so he has been sporadically working on the dresser over the last couple of months. Yesterday was one of those days.

I don't know if Chad was just jealous of all the fancy fingernails I wear from time to time (I had some neat Halloween nails that had spiderwebs on them) or if, as he put it jokingly, he didn't like how the fingers on his left hand were different lengths, but yesterday Chad had a true "Tim 'The Toolman' Taylor" moment when his hands got a little too friendly with the table saw blade.

Here is the story in Chad's own words in an email he sent to his team last night.

Table saw...1
Hand........0

Not sure how it happened because I’m normally very safety conscious, but 3 fingers met the 2,000 rpm cabinet saw blade this evening. All I felt was like a strong pinch, and I thought, “what the heck was that?” Then I saw the tears in my glove…

Fortunately, the damage is not too extensive in that my fingers are intact for now. I am missing 2 large chunks of the fingernails on my index and middle finger. My ring finger suffered the brunt of the damage. I pretty much lost the tip of the finger, and fractured the bone. They removed the entire fingernail and folded the remaining skin up over the front of the finger and stitched it in place.

The major concerns at this point are infection and lack of blood flow to the flap of skin. In a worst-case scenario, I would have to have the tip of the finger amputated. I will have to see an hand specialist and may need reconstructive surgery.

Aside from the fact that my fingers are each dressed like a bratwurst, the doctor said no work for me this week. I’ll probably be pretty drugged up this week. (I’m writing this now before all the local anesthetic wears off.)

The good news is that I’m in good spirits. Understandably, I’m a bit embarrassed by the accident, but accidents do happen. We actually had a good time at the hospital bringing quite a bit of good cheer to those that were working on me. I mean, if you’re already at the hospital, and there’s nothing you can do about it, you might as well make the best of it. That’s how I roll. :)

I don’t know how frequently I’ll be able to check email. IM will probably be virtually impossible since I’m one-handed for a while. I’ll forward my office phone home in case you need to get a hold of me and you don’t mind drug-induced stupors and ramblings… I figure we never use our phones at work so the likelihood of getting a call from someone off the team is low. I’ll keep you updated when I find out something else new.

We had a busy night at the emergency room last night, but all in all it really could have been a lot worse. Originally, Chad came and got me and we were going to drive down to the hospital. It's only 3 miles, but it is down a heavily congested road. We had to take Chad's car, which was parked behind mine. I was so flustered that I wound up announcing our presence to the neighborhood by setting off Chad's car alarm when I got in. We were about 3 blocks from the house when we remembered that Meridian is heavily congested. Chad had me turn around and go back to the house because an ambulance with lights and siren would be much faster. They are also stationed real near our house. Unfortunately, the emergency response process doesn't mean they show up quickly...

Chad was a LOT calmer than I was when the whole thing started. When I called 911, I was so frazzled all I could get out was "My husband! uh... Hand! uh... Saw!" while he calmly said, "Just tell them my hand hit the table saw." Who do they send? A firetruck. Not exactly what we hoped for.

When they cut off his glove, we found out for the first time that the fingers had not been severed. They were cut pretty badly, but nowhere near as bad as we had envisioned. The fireman who removed the glove said that he had seen MUCH worse recently. Chad did ask for an ambulance at that point. A few minutes later the lumbered onto our streets. Don't get me wrong. The first responders do good work, but when your heart is racing and adrenaline is pumping you want everything to happen NOW!

We took the ride down to the hospital to Good Sam's in an ambulance. Later, Chad told me that he set the tone for the night in the ambulance after he had heard his fingers were still mostly attached. He started joking with the paramedic, which elicited such responses as, "You know I've never put in an IV before so this may take me a few tries."

The trip went something like this:
"Would you like some morphine?"
"How much you got?"

A few minutes later, "You're holding out on me, aren't you? I can still feel my hand." Then, "Great. My legs and pelvis just went numb. How about meds for my hand? You got anything over there that says, 'For numbing hands'?"

No wondered they threatened to drop the gurney when we got to the hospital (sans lights and sirens, by the way).

I called Dad to let him know that we would probably need a ride back at some point. He ended up coming soon after I called and hung out with us while we waited for various hospital staff to work on Chad. Chad and I were both not wanting to look initially, when I finally did look my thought was, "Oh, it's really not that bad". We were jovial and laughing for most of the time at the hospital.

Today Chad has been taking it easy and continues to be heavily medicated. Hopefully he will be able to make an appointment with the hand specialist for tomorrow, however they may not be open as it is Veteran's day. We shall see. How he heals and how much of his ring fingertip he will lose remains to be seen. Overall we are thankful because it really could have been much worse than it was. Between me being nauseous and Chad not being able to use his left hand or get it wet it seems that the dishes in the kitchen may be stacking up for a while until either I feel better or Chad's hand gets better.

Here is a pic of Chad's Mickey Mouse hand.


They don't usually have the fancy braid, but I sarcastically suggested she braid the ends and she did.