About Me

Alberta, Canada
What's My Deal? - - - There is so much to say, but I will give you the basics in regards to this blog. I am a Canadian 20 something woman married to a wonderful man, and we are the parents to our wondeful son who was born in the fall of 2010. As you will read, I am a supporter of breastfeeding, baby wearing, co-sleeping, cloth diapering, and so much more, but mostly learning about babies! Oh, and I also love reading blogs and playing jigsaw online!!! I blog to share things that I have learned, read, heard and experienced.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A Night at Emerg, and Not for a Baby!

So, it's been 3 days since I have been on maternity leave now.  Busy and lazy days all at once.
Tonight was a doozy though....Alan came home from work at around 10pm, this is when I woke up from my nap.  Actually, Kobe had woken me up a little earlier, than I was having some pre-labour cramping.  All was fine though, of course I thought I was in labour, but that wasn't the case...as it's usually not.

Anyway, from bed, I asked Alan to put my ring away for me, that's when I went to take it off, and it was stuck.  This wasn't anything but new for me. I don't normally wear my rings though because my knuckles are huge and sometimes I loose layers of skin when removing them. (They are sautered together), but I had a lunch date, and wanted to wear them!  Good enough reason don't you think?

After trying it wouldn't come off, no way was it coming off.  I started freaking out....naturally.  Alan and I googled some tips, and we tried, ice, soap, elevating the hand, Windex, etc.  I then asked him to cut if off, and he said he didn't have anything here.
He suggested we go to the fire department as it would be better than emerg, at the inter-city hospital (closest).  So, we loaded up Kobe (not sure why...) and headed to the fire department.  Turns out we didn't know where it was.  There was an accident on the road we were travelling on, and I suggested we ask the firemen there where the fire station was, as surely they would know...wouldn't they.  Turns out they did.  The one guy came across to my side of the car, and felt the ring and my finger and says "That is really stuck, and your finger is really swollen"  Ya, no shit!  hahaha  Good thing, he wasn't too hard to look at.  They were wrapping things up on the accident scene, so 2 of them went back to the station, and Alan, Kobe and I followed.  We went in, and they tried, literally for an hour to do what they could.  They mainly tried the dental floss trick.  My finger got worse and worse, and they asked what the "trauma" was from.  I guess my finger looked bruised, although it wasn't.  The rest of the guys came back, and all agreed that they wouldn't be able to help me, as they couldn't get their tool under the ring and on my skin, so they said I would have to go to the hospital.  The entire time I was there, I was shaking, my entire body, and I wasn't cold, I think I was just freaking out a little.  Alan was sweet though, he was still in his work clothes, and had his Gerber on him which did help to string the dental floss through, and he rubbed my shoulder the whole time.

So, off to emerg, with a quick back track home to drop Bitey off.

We went to triage, (after both of us going mental trying to find a way into the hospital, at night, in the inter-city, with sick people everywhere.  It was really scary!)  So, she tells me to have a seat, but also asks if I want my finger looked at.  I said no, I just want the damn ring cut off.  She then asked about the trauma.....WHAT TRAUMA!!!!  So, "Cory" the RN comes over, and looks at it, and doesn't even know if he will be able to get his tool under the ring to cut it off.  Eventually he does, and it hurt like a MoFo let me tell you.  It was a great opportunity to breathe through the pain and try to relax.  hahaha.  He cuts out a piece, and then it still doesn't come off, I now have 2 sharp pieces of gold slicing through me, so he cuts another, and nothing.  Alan suggests a better place to cut it.  By this time, I was so annoyed, and his tool had cut part of my palm as well.  So, he does what Alan says, and I am DYING of pain, the ring was slicing into my finger cutting it, and I also had no feeling in my finger.  My circulation was getting real low.  Then, all of a sudden, my ring is flying across the room, both the wedding and engagement, and the other few pieces cut from it.  We gather it all up, and I am good to go.  I have a nice size cut on my finger from the sharp edge digging into me, and his tool slicing through my hand as well.

Immediately I felt relief and was so happy, then I cried because my ring is literally destroyed.  I am sure it can be fixed....but don't know if I will.  After all, I don't have a job anymore, and I don't think it will be cost cheap, and am terrified to ever put it on again!  I left the hospital with a biohazard bag of ice, and pee cup with ring remnants in it.

On the way home, I looked at Alan and said "Only me eh?"  He agreed!
I still can't bend my finger, it's still swollen, and Alan told me not to try, and of course I want to so much now!  I better go to bed.  It is times like tonight, when a nice drink would be lovely!!!

Check out the action.  I couldn't take any pics of the fire station or the hospital of course, but here is what I did get....


Here I am back in bed, thinking there is no way out of this without cutting off my finger!


Leaving the hospital, the swelling has SIGNIFICANTLY gone down at this point.  A side profile pic would make anyone sick, my knuckle is so swollen, and feels like if I pricked it, it would leak fluid.


My precious ring, in 5 pieces....The 3 little pieces are the underneath part of the band, and the other 2 are the engagement and wedding band.


4 comments:

  1. That sucks and looked quite painful. Mom would say the same thing to me. Only you Christine. Hope you and your finger feel better in the morning.
    If that were me Todd would have wanted to skip the hospital and use an angle grinder. I think the hospital was the right choice even if your ring ended up in 5 pieces.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear god!!!!! Um ya...based on that picture I think cutting it off was the best option! Your finger looked like death! Glad it came off...but sad how it happened!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chilete (Moms)November 12, 2010

    Good Lord Randi, only you! That is a hilarious and scary story at the same time.
    I guess you carted Kobe along just to get ready, soon you'll never be able to leave the house without a little package, it was good practice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ouch! Sucks about your ring, but at least you got to keep the finger. Better to have lost your ring to get a new one than to have lost your finger and not be able to wear a ring at all! Great blog by the way; you write well Randi. AL

    ReplyDelete