Perspective

Wow!  It's been crazy around here!  We had some trauma in our family yesterday, and I'll tell the story in a minute, but first, here's some real life:

Cinderella didn't quite make it to the Ball:

This last weekend, a stomach bug made our home their home.  They weren't really welcome guests, but they made themselves at home regardless.  It moved through all of us, so we've been washing lots of blankets, and sipping lots of liquids.  It hasn't been too fun.  Maren and Lu are tied for first place for "the best pukers."  They made it to the potty every time.  Here's Ellie enjoying some lego time on her sick day:

Daisy's version of peek-a-boo.  Sometimes she actually makes it up to cover her eyes:

And Everett comes to me with a pair of socks and says, "Can you put on my ear muffs?"  Ok...

Funny kid.

And now on to the really good stuff.  Yesterday I was dropping off kids at school and Ellie got her finger smashed in the car door.  As she was getting out of the back, she had reached her right hand around, meanwhile our carpool buddy didn't realize her hand was there and shut the front passenger door right on her hand.  Ellie started wimpering/crying/screaming and one look at her finger, I knew it wasn't good.  The tip of her right ring finger had been completely severed, and I could see bone.  Gross.  I called Nick, called a neighbor to keep the littles, put on clothes and rushed Ellie to the Emergency Room.  Thankfully, Nick was able to join me there shortly.  I really don't have the stomach for this kind of stuff.  And poor Ellie doesn't either.  She wouldn't look when her wound was uncovered.

Here she is, looking sad and in pain before her numbing shots:

This is after her numbing shots, so she was feeling better, although everyone looks entirely too happy in this photo.  If you are brave and want to zoom in, you can see her missing finger tip.  By the way, we did take photos, but for documenting only.  I hope I never see them again.  The memory is enough to give me nightmares.

So, I had a few people ask if I was able to recover the tip of her finger, and I said no, I didn't think of it at the time, but the car was there, and there was a chance it could be in the latch of the door.  At this time, the doctor was poking around on her finger which was grossing me out, so I walked out to the car, kind of hoping, and definitely expecting nothing would be there, but I had to check all the same.  I was surprised to open the door and see fingernail and flesh hanging right on the door latch.  It was truly a miracle it was still there, especially because the door had been closed and opened again.  And now, you can have nightmares too.  I put on a glove, quickly slipped it into a baggy and gave it to the hospital staff.  Ellie didn't even want to see it, and I don't blame her.  They weren't sure if it would be helpful or not, but they put it in some saline to freshen it up.  Gross.  Body parts are supposed to be on bodies.

Meanwhile, I had babies at home and my neighbor had to leave, so after making sure Ellie didn't need me there, I left Nick in charge of the stomach-turning stuff and headed home.  I did fine, getting updates occassionally, until a bit later, when I really wanted to be with Ellie.  My dear sister-in-law came over to be with the kids so I could be there for the last couple hours.

Ok, back to Ellie.  The ER doc looked at her finger and knew it was above his realm, so he passed her on to a hand surgeon.  She got x-rays, where we learned that the tip of her bone had also been cut off.  They tried to do an IV, was unsuccessful and had to give her laughing gas to get her to calm down so they could do one in her hand.  And then, they put her under anesthesia to reconstruct her finger.  It turned out they were able to use what I had recovered from the car latch.  They rebuilt the flesh around the bone and reattached the fingernail (apparently this helps the nail bed in it's quest to grow).  Her finger will certainly never be the same.  I imagine it'll have a serious scar and may never grow.  They say she should have a fingernail, so that's a good thing.  The surgery was successful, and went as they had hoped and expected.

Here she is in the recovery room, smiling again:

And now, she's home recovering.  She's on pain meds, antibiotics, and has to have her hand elevated and on ice until tomorrow.  She has moments where she's feeling awesome, and moments where she's not.  She's a trooper, though. 

This is one of those experiences you never want to go through, that you try to protect your kids from, but which brings you right back to what is truly important.  At the end of the day, Ellie was saying our family prayers and she was grateful for this "good day".  After, I asked her, "Was it really a good day?"  And she had to agree that it was, mostly, a good day.  We felt so blessed through all of it.  So grateful it wasn't worse than what it was.  So grateful for friends and family who stepped up to help and comfort.  So grateful for wonderful hospital staff who took good care of our baby.  So grateful for the Comforter, who was constantly with us.  And, we definitely could not deny the tender mercies sent from a loving Heavenly Father.  Hopefully our future lessons on perspective aren't quite so traumatic.