Not The Afternoon I Planned

After work on Sunday I was supposed to drive home, pick up Chuck and the kids, take Caleb to his basketball game, come home again, take a shower, drive the kids to Mamaw's, drive back to the city I work in for the annual Christmas dinner for city employees.... Whew... but Caleb called while I was still working to tell me his game was canceled due to slick roads. I was a little relieved. Now I could go home and relax for a bit.

When I got home the girls were laying on my bed watching tv. I laid down with them for a few minutes and decided a little nap would be nice. As I closed my eyes I thought about taking a hot bath after my nap..... My legs were in desperate need of a mowing.... I would take my time getting ready then Chuck and I would drive the kids out to his parents. We could spend some time visiting with them. Then we would take a casual drive back to the city for the Christmas dinner.... a night out with no kids... It seemed like the perfect plan.....

I wasn't asleep, just very relaxed. Gracie was down the hall playing with Caleb. All of a sudden she let out a holler and cried like I have never heard her cry.... something was wrong... Gracie had stepped into the bathroom and Caleb pushed the door shut on her pinkie finger.... Ouch!

Chuck and I both ran to Gracie. Caleb felt so bad. Gracie wanted her 'Daddy' so Chuck carried her to the kitchen where we had some good light. I looked at her finger and it wasn't good. It had already started to swell. The base of the nail was cracked and raised up off the tender skin underneath.... Yow! That's gotta hurt...

Gracie looked at her finger for the first time and cried even more, "My finger nail polish is messed up! Shirley will have to fix it!".... the babysitter had painted her nails a rainbow of colors... Chuck looked at her finger and tried to get Gracie to move it. She just cried and clung to her daddy. Chuck got some ice for it and took her to our bedroom to watch her movie.

We waited around the house for about 30 minutes and decided to take her to the E R. Caleb cried.... Chuck's trying to comfort Gracie. I am trying to comfort Caleb... We got Gracie ready, packed the diaper bag with things she might need, told the boys to watch Suzie and we headed to the hospital.

Gracie quieted down..... by that I mean she quit crying, cuz she sure wasn't quiet... on the ride to the hospital. She talked about seeing the Dr. She commented about how the snow looked on the round bails of hay... I always thought they looked liked frosted shredded wheat.... She talked about Santa. She said she didn't want Santa to see her hurt finger so the Dr needed to fix it. She talked most of the 20 minute drive.

The E R wasn't busy at all so we got a room right away. The Dr checked out her finger and ordered some x-rays. Gracie was calm for the most part but she wouldn't let go of her daddy. The Doc came back in after he examined the x-ray. He didn't think it was broken but recommended removing her finger nail.... that's not gonna be fun..... The Doc explained the procedure. They would have to strap her down, numb her finger, then remove the nail. I asked about the nail growing back. He said he would have to examine the nail bed but he was 90% sure it would grown back.

Now, this is Chuck's first visit to the E R with any of the kids. Gracie has been to the E R before but for ear infections. This is her first trauma. I knew what was in store with strapping her down.... both Josh and Suzie have been strapped down and I had to help hold them.... but Chuck was not prepared.... being involved in EMS he mentally knew what was going to happen, but he was not emotionally ready.

The nurse got her strapped in the papoose. I stood behind her stroking her hair. Chuck stood in front of her with his arm draped around her chest in a semi-hug. The Doc started numbing her her finger. Gracie screamed. Chuck cried.

Gracie quit screaming after her finger went to sleep but she was still crying. The nurse asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Gracie cried out, "I just wanna go HOME!" .... it was hard not to laugh at that.... Within a few minutes Gracie's finger was bandaged and she was back in her daddy's arms. The Doc wrote out a prescription and we were on our way home. The whole E R ordeal was less than an hour.

Due to the time and not being able to get a hold of Chuck's mom, we decided not to go to the Christmas dinner. Just as we turned on to our street, Caleb called and said that Mamaw was on her way to pick them up. Chuck and I took Gracie into the house.... she had chicken nuggets and was in a much better mood now... Chuck changed his clothes. I ran a brush through my hair, applied some blush and lipstick and out the door we went again.... to drive back to the city I work in for the 3rd time. (I say "city" but it barley qualifies. It's more like a large town)...

It was a nice dinner and I'm glad we went. The kids had a good time a Mamaw's. Gracie saw her finger without the nail on it. Mamaw said Gracie commented on how neat it looked... it wasn't very "neat" a few hours ago... We picked up the kids and got home just after 9. A hectic afternoon but a fairly nice evening.

Chuck put Gracie to bed. Gracie was quite chatty considering her exhausting day. She was talking to Chuck about being strapped down like it was no big deal. She commented about how she cried then she asked Chuck, "Did you awmoss cry, Daddy?" Chuck replied, "I did cry, Gracie" Gracie says, "But why did you cry, Daddy? You didn't have a boo boo. I did."