I'm Broken

So about two hours before Steven, Liz, and their kids (our Durango friends) were to arrive and surprise our kids on Saturday, Kyle and Reed thought it would be a good idea to go outside, move the window well grate, and climb up and down the fire escape ladder.

 

 

For you Texans: you have to have a way to get out of the basement in case of a fire, so there's a little "well" with a ladder outside the basement windows. 

 (This is not the one they moved. The one they moved is raised, so they were able to just slide it off.)

 

 

Kyle came to get me to show me the "cool thing" they were doing, and after I put a stop to the "cool thing", decided to put the grate back on.  I didn't realize how heavy it was (I mean, I thought two 5 year olds had lifted it) and not knowing they had actually slid it off, picked it up and dropped it on my right hand ring finger.

 

 

As soon as I did it, I squealed "I just broke my finger!"

And it hurt! The kind of hurt where I couldn't even cry because it took my breath away hurt.

 

 

I called Jason's mom who left her groceries in the middle of the store, and Debbie, my neighbor.  They were both here in a second, and Debbie took me to the ER, while Sherry watched the kids.

 

 

Now at this point, you might be wondering where Jason was in all of this.  So for the irony of the story...Jason was in Houston at a safety banquet for work! Yep, he was about to honor one of the guys in his region with the North American safety award for the year, while his wife was at home (clearly being unsafe) and breaking a finger.

Back at the ER, Debbie was a great partner and kept me thoroughly entertained while my finger looked like this:

When they asked me what my pain level was I said, "Well now it's a 7, but when I did it I thought I was going to die!"  (Never wanting to pass up an opportunity to be slightly dramatic.)

My official diagnosis is I fractured the tip of my finger. I went back to the doctor yesterday, where my finger looked like this:

 

The doctor said I'll be in the splint for at least 2 weeks, and started me on 10 days of antibiotics since I also have an open wound and they're worried it might become infected.

(And he said I'll definitely loose my finger nail. Ugh!)

 

So what does that mean for you:  Well, for you blog readers, you'll need to excuse misspellings and dropped letters/words since typing isn't the easiest thing in the world. 

And for those of you who see me in public, please excuse my hair, make-up, and children's hair.  If we're all fully clothed, I'm calling it a success!