baby broke a finger

With Simon's big 6th birthday party on the weekend, I took advantage of my mom being in town to run some last minute errands. While she stayed home doing math and reading with the older two boys (substitute teacher!), I took Eloise and Andrew with me to Bulk Barn and Michael's craft store.

All was going well. We'd breezed through Bulk Barn, getting some discounted Halloween candy and the thing we needed for some of the birthday fare. My main reason for going to Michael's was to see if they had any of their fun Halloween paper plates left. We picked up a couple packages of plates (at 70% off!), some fun black and purple striped napkins, and a big rubber spider to finish off the web I'd made in the dining room.

The cashier rang everything through and I turned to insert my credit card into the little machine (which was on the other side of the counter), when I heard a loud crash. I'd only turned my back for the time it took to insert my card (hadn't punched in my pin!), and in that time Andrew had decided to try to climb into the much-smaller-than-average shopping cart. Eloise was strapped into the baby seat so she went right over when the thing tipped.

She was screaming as I rushed to undo the seat belt buckle and pull her out. And as I pulled her into my lap, I saw all the blood. ALL. THE. BLOOD. I frantically searched her head, mouth, nose... the places you'd expect to bleed that profusely. 

But it was her finger.

When the shopping cart tipped over, her hand must've been holding onto the side of the basket and gotten crushed under the edge. After waiting what seemed like forever for them to bring a First Aid kit, we got her hand wrapped up and covered in a sock so I could get the sobbing Eloise, the now-much-quieter-than-normal Andrew and our purchases loaded into the van.

After quickly dropping Andrew off back at home with my mom, I took Eloise to the Children's Hospital in Ottawa. I knew it wasn't a life-threatening injury, but was worried that I wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding from the gash on her wee finger.

taken after being re-bandaged in triage at the Children's Hospital

After a dose of Advil, some freezing gel (in preparation for the stitches) and a much more professional wrap job, she really was in a good mood for the most part. At one point a porter came into the waiting room with BUBBLES. Huge hit.

The doctor decided to x-ray her hand in addition to stitching up her finger. Turns out there was a small fracture to the last knuckle of her index finger. Poor baby. The cart really must've crushed it for it to break the bone AND rip it open like that.

Saturday, I had to change the dressing on her hand just before the Simon's birthday party started. Peter helped while one of the boys -Andrew maybe?- took some pictures with my phone. What you can't really see from the pictures is how blue it is. Her whole finger, even into the first knuckle (which is more of a pudgy little blue/purple dimple now).

She'll live, of course. She was quite tentative to use her left hand all weekend, and insisted on having a sock on it at all times. By yesterday, though, she'd abandoned all wrappings other than a Bandaid, which serves mostly to remind us all to be careful with her hand. 

We went through triage, ambulatory care, three waiting rooms, assessments, bandages, treatment, stitches, three x-rays, and almost five hours later we left with extra bandages... and without paying a penny. It's times like this that make me thankful for Canada's great health care.

I'm also thankful that baby bones heal so quickly.