A Special Visit

Faith loves playing outside.  We have a perfect-sized fenced in yard for a two year old.  After dinner yesterday, as Jeff was pulling her coat over her left hand, the bandage pulled off... and he saw her finger.  He immediately called me to look at it.

I've learned how valuable it is to keep a calm tone in my voice, so although my stomach dropped and adrenaline dumped into my system, my voice stayed calm since Faith was panicking.  "Jeff, please go get my phone and the blue folder with the Children's ER number in it."  Something was very wrong with her finger.

I was told by a nurse to call the on-call Orthopaedic Surgeon from the office we've been going to.  The doctor said the blisters filled with fluid (eww, sorry to gross you out) were a normal condition, but to come in tomorrow for the nurses to change her bandage properly.

Faith and I were waiting in the back waiting room when we happened to see Dr. Powell walk by.  He glanced at us, glanced away, glanced back and smiled and asked how we were doing.  I explained that she had the blisters and her finger didn't look right, and he said "Let me look at it- since you are here.  We'll change your appointment to a full-out visit rather than a nurse visit."

And good thing we did.  When he saw her finger, he excused himself and about 2 minutes later brought a colleague in for a second opinion.  Her finger was double/triple the size it should have been and they concurred that it was out of their area of expertise.  They called over to the plastic surgeon (who is also a hand specialist) and got us an appointment in a few hours.  They thought she might be having an allergic reaction to the bandage or dermabond or something, but she needed to be seen. 

So we went at 3pm, and he was great.  He drained her blisters (ew again) and cleaned the wound.  He rebandaged her finger (the best wrapper yet!) and gave me the supplies to change it every day.  I was glad about this, because, Faith is 2 and it gets dirty!  Even though we take excellent care of it, she is still two.

We have another appointment on Wednesday (two days) so hopefully the swelling will have gone down and she will FINALLY be on the road to recovery.   He doesn't know if it is an allergic reaction, but he is sure it isn't infected.  He said her finger should heal well and that people might never know a difference unless they compare her fingers side by side!  I am trying not to give into vanity, but I know kids get teased about anything, so I am fearful of elementary school meanness towards a finger that is misshapen. 

Faith at the Hand Specialist's office!

Pray for my little sweet girl.  Pray for Jeff and I to continue to talk about our feelings (things like this put strain on a marriage) so pray that we would express frustrations in a loving manner, be quick to forgive, be slow to anger, and would show an abundance of grace toward each other!  Thank you!
Oh, and I realized when I got home I had spent the whole day in jeans that had poop on the leg from a diaper change gone wrong this morning.  Sigh...