Thumb vs. Router

On Friday Dave and I had quite an exciting day. I got a call from Dave at about 11:30 a.m. He told me that he was using the Router on some wood and chopped off part of his thumb. At the time he called me he was a little bit in shock and I could hear the panic in his voice. I was about 10 minutes away and told him I would be there right away and we would go to the E.R. I was at Walmart at the time and thankfully I was already loading my things in the car. The entire way to Dave's work I was praying that he would be o.k. At the same time he prayed that he would be calm.When I arrived he was waiting outside for me and had paper towels wrapped around his thumb. He wasn't sure how bad it was, but was sure he hit the bone. We were not sure if we should go to an Instant Care or the E.R. We went to my apartment in Draper, which is 5 minutes from Dave's shop to look on the Internet for an Urgent Care that was close by. We were kind of trying to make the best decision as to where we should go. Should we go to Urgent Care in Draper? Should we go to the E.R.? Should we go to Orem or Salt Lake? Dave suggested that maybe we should go to the hospital in Murray (near Salt Lake). But then Dave said he knew where an Urgent Care was in Orem, and since he lives in Orem we thought that was the best place to go. Of course we are sitting there debating this as he is bleeding and I was totally stressed out. Dave was totally calm.

We get on the freeway and I am going about 80 -85 m.p.h. I have a tendency to speed anyway. It is just my "go get em" personality and I always just do things fast when they need to get done. I was driving Dave's car and I think my speed was stressing him more than the fact that he was missing part of his thumb!! Anyway, he told me not to speed and to just drive the speed limit. Normally, I would have wanted to argue about this, but since I was driving his car and he was the one injured I kept my mouth shut.

We arrived at the Orem Urgent Care and of course we had to wait and wait and wait. They took us back and when they took off the paper towel that Dave had wrapped around his thumb, blood squirted out and hit the wall which was about 3 feet away. Blood was dripping down his had and into a bowl they had there and I thought I was going to be sick. I seriously couldn't believe it was still bleeding so much. By now it had been a few hours since the accident happened. The Doctor said that there is an artery at the end of the thumb and that is what he hit, so the moment you take pressure off of it, it will start to bleed again. They gave him a Tetanus shot and a shot of Morphine for the pain. They took an x-ray and sure enough Dave had taken off about 1/4" of the bone. At that time we were informed by the Doctor that they wouldn't be able to handle the injury at Urgent Care and they would need to send us to the E.R. So off we went to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo.

I thought we had to wait a long time at the Urgent Care. That was nothing in comparison to the E.R. We waited a very long time in the waiting room, then they took us back in a room and we waited even longer to see the Doctor. Dave was still bleeding and I couldn't believe that they weren't stopping the bleeding. Once again when the Doctor took off the bandage the blood was unbelievable. They gave him a few shots of Lidacaine in his thumbs so the Doctor could examine it and not cause him a great deal of pain. After a few hours, the Doctor concluded that Dave would need to see a Hand Specialist and that he may need surgery. She tried to get a hold of a few but since it was a Friday night, no one wanted to come in. So she said that she called the hospital in Murray and that she was transferring us up there. I couldn't believe it. That is where Dave mentioned going in the first place!

We drove up to Murray and arrived at the E.R. and told them who we were. They were expecting us and got us right back. It was wonderful. Hardly any waiting before we saw a Doctor. She examined it and called the Hand Specialist. After speaking to him, he suggested to trim of the excessive skin, stitch what was remaining and for Dave to see him first thing Monday morning. So Dave got some more shots, got his thumb cleaned out, and got stitches. I looked at his thumb after it was cleaned out and I will spare you the gory details, but it was really bad. I even looked a few times when the Doctor was stitching him up and even though I felt like I may pass out I still looked.

It was a long day. It happened at about 11:30 a.m. and we didn't get home until 11:30 p.m. Dave was such a trooper. I can't believe how tolerant he has been with the pain. He has been very strong and I am so proud of him. I know I would have been a wimp.