"Glad You're Going To School"

As most of you know Derek hurt himself at work last Friday (9-12-08). He was at work using the table saw when a piece of wood kicked back and hit him in the stomach. That wasn't the part that hurt him though. Once the board hit him his hand grazed the blade on the saw.

I got a call from Derek's phone around 10:30 but it wasn't Derek. It was his boss John Beussink. My heart automatically went straight from my chest to my throat. He told me that Derek got hurt and they were on their way to St Francis Hospital. I dropped everything I was doing and left work. I got up there right around 11 since I'm all the way in Fruitland. I came in the door to see Lisa, Mona, Dale, and John Beussink in the waiting room, and Derek covered in blood and white as a ghost sitting in a wheel chair. Poor guy. John said he was going in and out of conscienceness on the way up there too. He let me see his hand and let me tell you it was NOT pretty. Proving the point that we can't go ANYWHERE without knowing at least one person, Mark Sprigg was the person who took care of Derek and cleaned him up, Dr Pancoast was the Dr that looked over him, and the nurse knew my mom from Bath & Body Works. As soon as they cleaned up Derek and got the nasty shop rags off his hand they wheeled him back into the waiting room so we could do 30 more minuets of filling out paperwork. YAY! Finally they wheeled him back into one of the rooms where they gave him a tetanus shot and an I.V. with some antibiotics and some MORPHINE! Derek was just happy to finally get some pain meds in his system since the initial shock was wearing off and the pain was setting in.

After about 20-30 minuets they wheeled him down the hall for x-rays to see if he hit the bone and how much damage he had REALLY done. After he got the x-rays they decided that he was going to need more than just a few stitches. He hadn't hit the bone but he had cut through the muscle, some tendons, and some nerves. The nerves are what they were really worried about so they drugged him up and sent us over to Dr Tobins office. As soon as we got to Dr Tobins office it was more paperwork.

After the paper work they looked at his hand and the x-rays and took him back to get him ready for surgery. We all got to go back and say something to him before he went into surgery and Dale's words were "Glad you're going to school." Which I was thinking the SAME THING! The surgery took about an hour or so and we had to wait about an hour after he woke up to take him home. He woke up at around 4 and was SO funny! He was so drunk from the anesthesia. I took him home, sat him on the couch, made him something to eat and gave him a bunch of water to help wake him up a little and get the anesthesia out of his system. I helped him back out of his work clothes that were COVERED in blood and got him into a t-shirt and pair of shorts. This is where he stayed pretty much all evening. They put him in a cloth splint that was down to the middle of his forearm and hard to do anything in but at least he still had his thumb. Thank God!

The Dr had to reattach his muscles back together, reattach his tendons with a pin, and reattach his nerves. They said he should have about 65% of the feeling back in his hand in about 6 months. It could be better it could be worse but they put everything back together the best they could. But again...at least he still has his thumb!

He went in yesterday (9-16-08) and got his bandages changed and got a new "user friendly" splint put on his hand that allows him to be able to move his wrist back and forth but not his thumb.

So, everything is good for now. We're still trying to unpack everything at the new house slowly but surely and my nesting has kicked in so at least the laundry is done and everything has been swept and wiped off. :)

I have another Dr apt this week on 9-18-08 where they again will check my cervix and hopefully put me on bed rest so my feet, ankles, and legs stop swelling as bad.

I'm 37 weeks as of yesterday and SO ready for my little guy to get here.