Yesterday afternoon, I was just getting set to leave from work, and my wife called. I could hear my 4 year old son crying very loudly in the background as my wife asked if I was on my way home yet. She told me that he had injured his finger pretty badly on his bike somehow, and wanted me to meet her at the emergency room. I wasn't sure if insurance would cover the one we wanted to go to, so I had to call my agency to find out if it would and call her back (it did, so we were okay).

It sounded like he had really injured the tip of his pinkie. While on the way there, she told me that she had put a washcloth over the finger, but when she had pulled it off to look at it, she had seen something come off of the tip. She wasn't sure if it was just skin or if it was more, but he wouldn't let her keep the washcloth off long enough to see (plus, she was too squeamish to look for too long). She asked if she could call an ambulance, but I said no way. When I was doing my ER stint while I was getting my EMT-B, AMR brought in a kid who had sliced his finger, and the paramedics had made a comment about how there was no way that required an ambulance. Plus, as an EMT and firefighter, I've taken waaaay too many people to the ER who didn't need an ambulance, and I knew one wasn't needed this time.

When I got to the ER, he was calmed down considerably. After four hours and some X-rays, it turned out not to be too bad. Somehow he had managed to slice the top layer of skin off down to the base as well as take the entire fingernail off. He was great through the whole process. He had to sit on my lap while they took the X-rays (my hand was actually in some of them so I could hold his hand in the right position - there's some great pics for the family photo album), and he barely made a sound when they cut all the skin and the nail off and bandaged it. I had asked my wife if she brought the camera when she was on the way, but she didn't think that was very funny.   I got a picture of it on my camera phone, though.

Knowing my son and how he bounces off the walls most of the time, I'm fairly certain that this won't be the first time we'll be visiting the ER for him. I remember one of the jokes on the TV show "Home Improvement" was how well the ER staff at their local hospital new Tim so well, and I can see that happening with my son. Believe it or not, it was actually sort of fun. I guess you could say it was a bonding experience. My wife, my son, and I got to spend four hours together (although I can think of better places than an ER with a lot of sick people, including at least one barfing) while my daughter spent some time with her grandma making Valentines. Fortunately it wasn't serious, so it's one of those things we'll be able to look back on and laugh about for a long time.