Not For the Faint of Heart
I’m using this time to give ample warning to those of you with a weak stomach, or those who simply have no desire to see blood, muscles, or human tissue. The following post entails both pictures and descriptions of all, so please feel free to skip past this post in its entirety. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Most Wednesdays will find us at my parents house, along with Christine and Elliana. Its Mom’s usual day off, the cousins love to play together, and afternoons are usually spent making baked goods. They’re low-key days spent talking and catching up, and corralling the kids while they play and fight like siblings. Yesterday was no different, with the exception that Devyn was now in kindergarten and needed to be picked up from school in the middle of the day. Mom and Christine offered to watch Reagan and Hudson for me while I picked her up.
Devyn and I were in mid-conversation about the best and worst parts of her day when my cell phone rang. It was Christine, extremely agitated and panicky, demanding to know where we were. As I tried telling her that we were less than a mile away from Mom and Dad’s, all I could get hear were the words “Emergency Room” “Call an ambulance” and “You won’t be here fast enough.” My initial thought was that something had happened to one of the kids but Christine finally clarified to hurry home, that Neighbor Diane, would take Mom to the ER. My heart raced as I drove the rest of the way home and pulled up, just as Diane and Mom took off for the hospital.
I got Devyn out of the car and ran inside the house, but not without first noticing the broken shards of glass all over the front porch, along with a trail of blood leading to the inside. Christine literally thrust the phone at me, telling me it was Dad, and that I had to get to the hospital. Dad asked that I call him once I had more information and if it was serious enough that he had to get off work and meet us there. I promised, and with an air kiss to the little ones, I was out the door.
I ran into Diane in the waiting room, thanked her profusely for getting Mom to the hospital, and was taken back to see her. I had no idea what to expect, I still didn’t even have a complete story as to what happened, and was concerned at my initial sight of the wound but not too worried. I stayed with her while they took her vitals, got the full story of what had happened, and waited for Mom’s instructions as to what she wanted me to do next. It looked like a nasty flesh wound that would require a number of stitches, but apparently hadn’t seen the full extent of her injury yet. When Mom sent me off to make some calls, she asked for her cell phone, which I denied seeing as how she was in no place to make calls or place texts.
I called Dad, told him to get to the hospital, and proceeded to share the story with my sisters, grandmas, and aunt. Mom still has some residual side affects from the Guillian-Barre syndrome she had during the winter of 2008-2009, there have been times when she has gone to take a step and her leg hasn’t moved the way she wanted and she’s stumbled. Until now, there hasn’t been any injuries due to her stumbling, just some bruised pride. This time, however, she was holding a ceramic pitcher to water her flowers and when her leg didn’t move like she wanted it to, she fell on top of the pitcher. While it broke her fall, it also put a huge gash in her arm. All Christine remembers about the gash is the amount of blood, the sight of skin and muscles hanging off her arm, and fearing that Mom was going to pass out on her. Poor Chris!
When I made my way back to Mom’s bedside, they were irrigating her wound, and I got my first glimpse of just how serious her injury was. Muscles had been torn away, you could see tendons, and there was a gaping hole in her arm. Needless to say, it was one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen in my entire life. As they tried to get Mom to flex her fingers and hand, it soon became apparent that she’d done some damage to some tendons and the doctor called me over to show me where the tendons had been cut. I was both too horrified and too awed to look away, and secretly pleased when they suggested we take pictures.
An x-ray was taken to make sure there was no more glass in the wound, the surgeon was called to make a decision about surgery, and when it was decided the cuts were too close to the muscles for surgery now, stitches were started. All in all, there were 20-25 stitches, both on the inside to sew her muscles back in place, and to close the gaping wound. Mom is on antibiotics and pain killers, and has an appointment with the surgeon this afternoon to see if she needs to have surgery on those tendons. 
All in all, an eventful afternoon in our family. And as everyone was joking with Mom, she never does anything halfway indeed!