Stuck!

Last week, Sophie got her finger stuck in our shower drain. So scary. Sophie really likes taking showers (a treat she doesn't get often and probably won't get for a long time now) with me. Since we both needed clean hair and Joe was going to the Reds game, I figured we might as well kill two birds with one stone. She was so excited and was trying to get her clothes off as she walked to our bathroom. So we got in the shower and she made me sit on the floor with her. We shampooed our hair and I stood up to get the hand held shower head down so we could rise. As soon as I stood up I heard a frantic, "STUCK! STUCK!" I look down and she had moved to the middle of the shower, right above the drain. Now, Sophie often thinks things are stuck on her, like her shoes, so I wasn't thinking it was anything serious at first. I grabbed her little hand and gave a small tug and sure enough, she was stuck. I felt sick to my stomach and panicked. I turned off the water and tried to think of what to do. Go get a screwdriver to unscrew the drain? Seriously, that was my first thought. I didn't think about the bottle of shampoo right next to her that could lube up her finger. (And what if I did get that screwdriver? Her finger would have still been stuck. Geez.) I just couldn't think straight. I went to try pulling out her finger again and I had no luck. Obviously I wasn't pulling hard enough, because my little She-Ra pulled her finger out on her own. I was so relieved that her finger was out until her cries of, "Stuck!" turned into a howl of agony. I looked at her newly released finger and saw it covered with blood. I grabbed her and took her over to the bathroom sink to wash off the blood so I could see the wound more clearly. It just kept bleeding and I couldn't gauge how bad things were. At this point Sophie is screaming so loud and shaking so hard that I started to panic even more. I looked around the bathroom to find something to wrap her finger up with. I had nothing but big bath towels, but I finally found a bandanna under the sink (a clean one for my hair). I wrapped her finger up, squeezed my hand around it and tried calling Joe. I knew that he would know what I should do (and he would have been able to calm me down), but there was no answer. I tried three more times, but apparently his phone didn't have reception or something. Then I try our pediatrician's office to talk to the on call doctor. I left a message for them explaining the situation and tried Joe again. Nothing. At this point I am a wreck and just don't know what to do. I wasn't sure if Sophie needed stitches or what. I kept thinking that I needed to take her to the ER; I really didn't know how bad things were and I wanted to play it safe. All I knew was there was a lot of blood and she was screaming and shaking with pain. I wasn't sure about how to actually get her to the hospital. I doubted she would let me strap her into her car seat. Even if she did, I wasn't sure how I was going to drive while still holding her finger to put pressure on it. Again, I am not thinking clearly. I completely didn't think about any of the medical supplies we have, including tape to wrap up her finger. *sigh* I didn't know what else to do, so for the second time in my life, and the second time this summer, I called 911 (the first was when Sophie was locked in the car.) The dispatcher said that they would an ambulance out to our house so the EMTs could assess the situation. (I felt very stupid about this, by the way-having an ambulance come out for a finger injury seemed so dumb. Still, I had no other ideas as to what to do and I was worried for Sophie. It is extremely obvious that you don't want me by your side in an emergency.) While waiting for the ambulance (about 7-10 minutes), I had enough time to quickly rinse the shampoo out of our hair (yup, it was still in there), get us dressed, talk to the on call nurse from the pediatrician's office (she was no help so I'm glad the EMTs were on their way), give Sophie some medicine, and go outside to wait. The EMTs were great. They looked at the finger and said that she just pulled off a layer of skin from her finger (apparently finger just bleed a lot). There was no need for stitches or to go to the hospital. They wrapped it up in gauze, taped it up, and gave Sophie a high five. Seriously, why couldn't I have done this? Oh well, at least she was going to be okay.

I took Sophie to see her doctor the next day. He confirmed what the EMTs had said. He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic cream and told me to change her bandages twice a day for about two weeks. Sophie did not like that plan though. See, my child is small but mighty. Even with me holding her body and trying to keep her arm still, it is very difficult for Joe to change her bandage. I tried to do it once on my own and she wouldn't even let me take off the bandage. So we only change it once a day. We also have only been dressing her in dresses that button on the shoulders because she doesn't want to put her arm through sleeves (she just steps into these dresses and doesn't have to have anything happen to her arms). She is getting better with this now though. For a few days she even refused to let us put her arm with the hurt finger through the strap on her car seat. Poor kid!

Sophie is feeling a lot better, but her finger still hurts. She definitely doesn't want anyone to touch her finger or mention it. If you do mention it, she will automatically lay her head on your shoulder and hug onto you. Poor thing. It is nice to have her so snugly, but I hate why. I just feel so awful about the whole thing. I couldn't sleep those first two nights because I kept replaying the whole thing in my head. It is hard to hear or see your child in pain and it isn't something you forget easily. Plus I couldn't stop kicking myself over how badly I handled the situation. Poor Sophie had to have this happen with me, the person with no medical expertise at all and who obviously doesn't do well in a crisis. Her dad is a physician assistant who would have been great in this situation. Not only would he have know what to do, but he would have done it calmly and efficiently. (Ending my pity party now.) Rotten luck for Sophie all around.

The drain. I guess those little holes looked like fun. 

After the EMTs wrapped the finger.

I've included a picture of her finger without a bandage after the jump. Kinda gross, but it is blurry enough that you shouldn't want to hurl.

Her finger tonight after we unwrapped it (I was impressed that she actually held still so I could take a picture). The pinkish part is the wound, which is looking a lot better (it didn't even bleed today). The dark brown part is the skin that she pulled off when she pulled her finger out of the drain. Hopefully it will just fall off one day, because I seriously doubt she will let us cut it off.