Klutzy Tendon-cies

Last night we had LOGOS. And you all know how much I love LOGOS nights :) After supper I was talking with some friends and Dave was helping to put away tables. All of a sudden I heard Dave yelling, "ow! Ow! OW OW OW!!!" and people were rushing towards him. It turned out that the table started to fall and Dave tried to catch it. The table fought back by cutting his hand, near the base of his thumb, quite badly.

We are so thankful that there were nurses and people trained in first aid around and Dave was in good hands. Given the seriousness, and placement, of the cut, the decision was made to call an ambulance to transfer Dave to the hospital. I was glad I didn't have to drive him. I was also thankful for the people who watched our kids and made sure they didn't see Dave being taken away in an ambulance.

It turned out that the cut was very serious but not life-threatening. He had not cut an artery (Thank you God!). Margaret, a friend from church, and my cousin Tanya showed up to keep us company. I was very thankful that they came to distract Dave and to support me. Due to pain and shock, Dave almost fainted a few times, which was quite scary for me, and I was glad I had friends to help me help Dave and keep me from freaking out.

Our vows of "in sickness and in health" have really been put to the test these past twenty-four hours, and I realize this could have been so much worse.

The doctor on call did a quick stitch job and gave Dave a partial cast as she suspected he had severed a tendon (or rather the table did!), and referred Dave to a plastic surgeon. So we were discharged at 2:15am after about seven hours in emerg.

Thankfully Dave's mom had come to stay with the kids and they were sound asleep. Due to stress and adrenaline, we only got a couple of hours of sleep last night. This morning we were thankful for neighbours who were willing to watch Rachel while I went to pick up some prescriptions for Dave. Rachel was half scared of Dave's cast and half wanting to poke at it so it was easier to have her out of the house since I couldn't be around to distract her.

The plastic surgeon saw Dave this afternoon at 1:30 and spent two hours checking him out, stitching everything up, and providing a new cast which Dave will have for the next week to week and a half. He had severed one (of six!) tendons in his thumb and a little bit of one muscle but the surgeon expects he will make a full recovery. The best part was I got to be in the room, holding Dave's other hand, and trying not to look at more of Dave's injured hand than I ever wanted to see. (I'll just leave it at that. You're welcome.)

After his current cast, Dave will receive a waterproof cast to wear for about three weeks and then will need a few weeks of physio therapy to regain strength in his thumb and wrist. We were a little (a lot!) concerned about how this injury might affect our trip to New Zealand. However the surgeon is confident Dave's stitches can come out before our trip, although Dave has to resign himself to no kayaking :)

One of our pastors sent us an e-mail this morning saying, "I held you in prayer and sent angels to surround you." Dave and I have definitely felt the angels in our community surrounding us from watching our kids, to bringing us food, flowers, and Dave's favourite, croissants, and to being with us in the ER.

So if you see pictures of Dave with a cast over the next few weeks, now you know what happened. You can pray for quick healing and little pain for Dave, and for him to learn how to graciously accept help from others. Sadly, it is his dominant hand which is injured so life will be a little interesting for him to say the least. And you can pray for strength and patience for me as I will be doing all the dishes, bathing of kids (and Dave!), garbage, and the myriad of daily things which Dave does when he has two able hands.

ps. The title of this post was Dave's idea. I wanted to go with the more boring option of "Dave Versus The Table."

pps. You will notice there are no pictures. While I did get a few "Project 364" opportunities, I will save those to share on Sunday. Being the gracious husband he is, as they were loading him into the ambulance, Dave commented, "You can take a picture of me now if you want." Given that my hands were still shaking, and I didn't want to look like the most insensitive wife ever, I chose not to :)