Whew... what a week!

Warning: bloody finger pictures

I went to Logan last Tuesday with my mom to visit my sister Jenny and attend her choir concert, this should be its own post... but alas, I have much more to write about! That evening Nic finished priming our basement then proceeded to clean out the paint sprayer. There are two settings, one for spraying and then a jet stream for cleaning it out. While on the jet stream setting, Nic accidentally hit the trigger and, from the pressure, shot a bebe sized hole into his right, middle finger. He didn't worry about it too much that night, scrubbed it, cleaned it with alcohol, wrapped it in a band aid and went to bed. (I got home late that night.)

The next morning (while I'm half asleep) Nic said he was going to go the doctor to get it looked at. His finger had become very red and swollen. (To shorten the story somewhat, I'll try to make these details quick.) At the IHC Insta-Care place they put a call into Poison Control, weren't too worried about it and sent Nic away with an antibiotic. Nic then went to his boss' dad's house (who is a retired doctor) who was ready to open him up right there on the kitchen table. Later the Insta-Care place called back saying Poison Control had called them back and Nic needed to go to the emergency room right away and have a plastic surgeon take a look at it! He ended up going to Timpanogos' ER and Utah Valley's ER... but no body would do anything. (Surgeons out of town, too busy, or just didn't want to mess with it.) They did get a hold of a plastic surgeon who said Nic had a 6 hour window to have it taken care of or may lose his finger... of course we were way pasted that window by now! Through all of this I was home with Hannah, getting updates only by phone, going crazy with worry and wonder. But Nic had his dad, Clyde, with him! Clyde took work off and got out of a staff meeting to be with Nic and help him through. That was such a blessing!

Finally around 2pm a plastic surgeon was tracked down up in Salt Lake. I was supposed to be having a Relief Society gardening group at our house that night. Luckily I had assigned out who would be teaching, but I was still in charge, and providing the location and dessert. I frantically called one of the people teaching, in tears, and asked if the gardening group could be at her house, who graciously accepted. I put a note on my door about the change in location. Marj, my mother-in-law, came and got Hannah and I was off to go with Nic and Clyde up to SL.

At 6:30 a nurse picked up Nic for surgery up in the OR. We were told it would be about an hour. Clyde and I didn't get a chance to talk to the doctor beforehand, but in forsight that is probably good. Nic said the first thing the doctor said to him was "I don't think we'll have to cut your finger off." Nic kind of chuckled and the doctor said he wasn't kidding. The doctor also told Nic he would keep on cutting until he stopped finding paint, which could be up his arm. It was probably about 9:30 when the doctor finally came down to talk to us. He said "This is a very serious and possibly devastating injury!" Oh, great! That's comforting! He said Nic was doing fine and was waking up now.

So what did the surgeon do? He opened up Nic's finger (but only the finger!). He cleaned out as much paint as possible. There are two arteries and two main nerves that run up each finger. One of the arteries was totally destroyed and dead; the doctor removed it. One of the nerves was extremely damaged, but they left it in, in hopes that it may recover; however if it does heal it could take up to a year. He cleaned out as much paint as possible but said we needed to come back in the morning to have Nic's figure looked at and they may need to do another surgery to remove more. A lot of the tissue was destroyed by the paint and had to be cut out. Because of the lack of tissue now, the doctor was worried that the skin wouldn't survive. If that was the case they would need to do a tissue and skin graft. The doctor explained that we weren't out of the woods yet and there was still a possibility he may lose his finger. He also said even without all that, Nic shouldn't really use his hand for 4-8 weeks and would need physical therapy. Boy, oh, boy.

We ended up home around 2:30 am and were back up in Salt Lake by 9:30. Hannah slept at Clyde and Marj's. We picked her up on our way up and dropped her off with the other grandma, my mom. Now I've told you all that could have happened, but we have been so blessed. We had to have Nic's finger checked on Thursday, again on Friday, and again on Monday... but each time the surgeon has been so impressed at how well the finger is healing. It looks like we are finally "out of the woods" and Nic didn't need additional surgeries! He will start physical therapy this week, get stitches out the beginning of May, and then see the surgeon again the second week of May. How grateful I am for the power of prayer! I know things have gone so well because of all the prayers that have been said in our behalf. Thank you. We have received so much help, love, and support through this. We can't express how grateful we are.

Nic's finger before surgery. It really doesn't look all that bad does it?!This is in the SL hospital ER, waiting to go into surgery, hooked up to IVs. Waiting, waiting, waiting. I wish I would have gotten a picture of him after surgery. Here's after the surgery: