While Dad was working on the house yesterday afternoon he had an accident with his table saw. Breanne was there (you can read more on this on her blog as well!) and was able to hurry and take him down to the clinic. My doctor that I work for had just left to go to the hospital so another doctor that was just starting his lunch break started taking care of him. When they walked in I looked at his hand and was shocked at how bad it was. Breanne was freaking out on the phone when she called me to say she was bringing him down - I soon saw why! I told them to go into the Procedure Room and I called down to Dr. Porter that this was a lot worse than I thought and wanted him to come up and look at it before I took him down to X-Ray. I have never seen Dad in so much pain! Dr. Porter was being very gentle looking to see what he needed to do. (Justin however got light headed and I had to get him lying down in an exam room before he hit the floor!) I asked Dr. Porter if I could get Dad something for the pain, he said yes. I left the room to go draw up his pain shot. One nurse asked if I was alright because I ran over to the lock box to get his Demerol. I said I was but my Dad was in here for a saw to hand injury. I tried to draw up the shot but was shaking so bad I couldn't! I passed it to the other nurse and she quickly drew it up for me. I got back to the room and Dr. Porter was just doing a numbing block to his ring finger and thumb so he could go to X-Ray. I gave him his pain shot and he went down to get X-Ray's.
Checking to see the damage to the tendon.
If you look close at the X-Ray in the middle you can see where his ring finger is turned to the side where it is dislocated. The best one is on my phone - sorry!
Final Diagnosis: Hamburgered Left Hand Requiring Surgery!
Pinkey finger lacerated and 4 stitches required. Middle finger lacerated and 6 stitches required. Thumb was cut through the bone and lacerated. Ring finger dislocated, cut tendon, fracture and you guessed it... lacerated! Dr. Porter was able to get his finger straighten out but had to put a stitch on the side because if his finger got bumped it would flop over. (Sounds nasty, but at the clinic this is the stuff we love the most!) The only finger on his left had that was not affected was his pointer finger. (These pictures don't even almost compare to what it really looked like and the best pictures are on my cell phone!) Dr. Porter did a great job, we really appreciate that he was there and willing to work through his lunch time to help Dad!
Dr. Porter working on repairing Dad's lacerations.
After Dr. Porter stitched his pinkey and middle finger we were waiting to see if he could get into the surgeon right then for surgery. His wounds had all been cleaned but you can see the thumb is pretty chewed up looking!
So after trying every Orthopedic Hand Surgeon from here to SLC he was not able to get an appointment for surgery until today at 3:00 with Dr. Sandersen. They called him in 2 hours earlier though. I sat with Mom at the hospital waiting for him to get out of surgery. (After a big fight between the surgeon and the anesthesiologist.) He had the whole 2 hour plus surgery with only local anesthesia! Whew! What a champ! He is the toughest man I know. When he came out of surgery Mom and I were there, he looked so good! He wanted to go home and get something to eat! During surgery they placed a few pins and a bone graft for the tip of his thumb - he had cut the tip off! (It is still in question if he will be able to use or feel the tip of his thumb.) For his ring finger they had to do a tendon repair and place 4 pins.
For those of you who know my Dad well know that he doesn't smile for pictures! Look at this one - right out of surgery and happy ready to get out of there!
The goofy grin in this picture is on purpose - he is not high on meds! Dad is showing off his "One size fits all" surgical underwear. He thought this was so funny - he and the surgeon were cracking jokes about it. It looks more like a Subway ad to me!
We are all so grateful that his surgery went well! Tomorrow I will be sitting with Dad while Mom goes to work. That is if I can keep him at home with his hand elevated! I made Dad some white choc. chip cookies tonight (one of his favorites) so maybe I can bribe him to be good!
Thank you for all your prayers and concern!
3 comments:
wow, good to hear it from someone else's point of view. Ican;t believe dad is smiling right out of surgery. We are definetly going to need to frame that for the new mantel!!! Thanks for going to the hospital with mom today. You are a great sister. And thatnk you also for getting good pictures and posting different ones than me. That makes it more interesting for our readers!!:)Love you!
your dad looks EXACTLY the same as he did when y'all lived in Gilroy.
i read about the accident on Breanne's blog and came here to see more pictures and read your perspective.
glad to see your dad smiling and the subway ad is HYSTERICAL!
we have your family in our prayers over here.
I am so glad that we have blogs and can keep in touch easier. I am so glad to hear different sides of the story and see the pictures of all that happened. My heart dropped when Nate called and told me what happened! What a scary thing! It's good to see that through all of this crazy stuff that he still has his sense of humor! I am so glad that the surgery went well and that he is on the road to recovery! We wish we were there, and are praying for Papa!
Post a Comment