And so it finally happened............

From 2011 06 11

At least now he can flip the bird for the whole summer.

Gabriel has never had a serious accident and never an accident related trip to the ER. The pressure is off because it happened.

When life was good at Veteran's park.

From 2011 06 10

And then.............it was really hot so we decided to spend the day right next door at the ER waiting for the hand surgeon because it was really really cool at the hospital. Really good AC there. Beds network TV. PBS was really great yesterday.

From 2011 06 10

We went to the park to ride Gabriel's bike. We did. He had a great time. We played at the park there for a little while. It was great. Then a grandpa who was there with his two grandsons yells over, "Your son got his hand caught". I ran over, leaped over the bridge he was on (without stepping on it myself) because I could see the bridge had tension on it) and tried to get him out but he wouldn't come out. His hand was being crushed under some part of the bridge. I thought if I lifted him all the way off the bridge the tension would be released and he would slip right out but I had him way up over the railing and he still was just as stuck. He was crying and really scared and I could see his fingers were pretty crushed so I pulled him out and he came loose but he left one fingernail on the jungle gym and the other was hanging on by a thread. I threw him in the stroller and told Sylvia to be a big girl and run behind us to the car. I told the man there we were going to the ER and he was super nice and went to get Gabriel's bike for us.

Gabriel was a super big boy and his version of crying was more worry and scared and wanting to get out. He even was belligerent in the car and told me he didn't want to go to the hospital, he wanted me to take him home and give him a band aid. Even when we got to the ER, which is right next to the park (except for that difficult left turn, damn that turn, I had to make a right turn, turn at the light and then go to ER, still it likely took less than 10 minutes) he refused to get out of the car and said he just wanted to go home and get a band aid. He was scared about the whole thing.

The ER doctor took one look and said we would have to wait for the hand surgeon. That was between 12 and 12:30. I'm still not sure what time it was. We waited with just a betadine solution till about 5:10 for the hand surgeon/plastic surgeon to finish his surgeries and see us. We watched PBS all day and Gabriel was happy with that. Both kids were really really good there. At about sometime after 4PM Nanny came to take Sylvia out. It's good too because I really needed to be with just Gabriel for the procedure to fix him up. He's been crazy glued.



The Dr. said he was the best 4 year old he's ever seen since no one had to restrain him for the anesthetic. It was a ton of medicine in a really big syringe injected to multiple parts of the fingers. We were told usually it takes 4 persons to hold the kid down to do it and Gabriel just said, "I don't want you to do that anymore". After he was numb it was better.

There is a good probability that his nails will grow back. But only time will tell. He is wrapped up pretty well and we now cannot do anything that I just paid for. Pool membership-gone; karate-gone; gymnastics-gone; dancing-gone; T-ball-gone; I paid for multiple summer camps and since they don't start till the end of June we'll have to see how that goes. If he can't be careful with his hand, it will jsut be summer camp with Mommy and Sylvia. There will be a bag on his hand for bathing, but now since we can't do anything he usually does he won't really be dirty.

Everyone who reads this knows how terribly active Gabriel is and this is going to be tough.

Well, he is a big enough boy to swallow a nice sized pill, so the antibiotics till now are going well. I'm waiting for the pediatrician to call me with pain meds because the hand guy said he wouldn't have pain but, two ripped off fingernails on a 4 year old, he says it still hurts and I gotta say I'm not surprised. He's had children's tylenol and we'll see what else we can help him with.

Well, if you're wondering what we are doing for the nearest parts of the summer. We're here, trying to not sweat under the bandage, watching TV.