*New And Improved!!*

Well, it's been quite the busy past few days!! Friday evening Scott took Tanner and Thomas out in the shop to work on their pinewood derby cars for Cub Scouts. Everything was going well until a very unfortunate accident.

Scott had just got Thomas set up to use the belt sander on his car. He was wearing all of his protective gear. Scott turned to help Tanner with whatever he was doing when he heard an ear piercing scream! "Dad, it's stuck on my finger!!!" He turned back to see that the belt sander had somehow sucked Thomas' finger in it and was chewing it down to nothing.

Scott grabbed his hand and yanked the machine off while Tanner hurried to unplug it.

They came running into the house. Thomas screaming and Scott yelling that we needed to go to the hospital now!!!!

I drove while Scott held Thomas in the back seat. When we got there, it took over an hour for them to pull us back to a room. Thomas sat out in the waiting area, crying and going in and out of shock while we waited. It took over two hours for them to administer any pain meds!!!

They took some x-rays, washed it, bandaged it and sent us on our way to see a hand specialist on Sunday. They determined that he had lost the first section of bone in his finger and possibly the joint as well.

I won't go into all the details of the next two days, they were brutal! Another visit to the OHSU emergency room, a visit with a hand specialist and 5 million phone calls to our insurance company to determine who, what, where and when to do surgery.

Yesterday at 3 pm, we got the call to head to Dornbecher Hospital in Portland. We were there for about 5 hours. The surgery took a little longer than they anticipated. There was some dead tissue and a little more bone that had to be removed. They said he was in quite a bit of pain during the surgery and so by the time we got to see him, he was doped up on quite a bit of morphine.

Had a great ride home! He lost all the fluids in his stomach, including a few ounces of strawberry milkshake that he was begging for, in the back seat of Scott's car! And missed the bag that they had given us for just such an occasion but it's all good. Thankfully it was in the parking lot at the pharmacy so Scott ran in and bought paper towels!

By the time we got home, he was exhausted and ready for bed. We'll go back to the Doctor next week for a check up and they will take off the soft cast and take a look at his finger.

He has been so brave throughout this whole process. We are so proud of him. Now to heal!!!

Warning: The first picture below is graphic. Just scroll quickly if you are not interested in seeing his finger pre-surgery! I still haven't looked at that picture too closely! Can't do it!

This was taken Friday night at the emergency room. The flap of skin that is covering the top is actually doing us all a favor. No one really wanted to see what it looked like underneath!

Last night after surgery. His fingerprint on the inside of his hand has now been flipped over the top and is on the tip and back of his hand! Cool huh??

Trying to wake up from a morphine induced sleep! Soooo tired!

This was his best smile! I was surprised he even tried! I would have probably growled at the camera if I felt as bad as he did!!