My Injury

A couple of weeks ago I went to Florida for General Mills' annual National Sales meeting. The weekend started off wonderfully, as I flew down early with some friends to have a day of relaxation before the meetings began. Little did I know that I'd be flying back home in a few days with an injury that caused quite a commotion in our lives.

While at our dinner reception on Tuesday night, I was talking with some friends and just having a good time. The night was early, so I'd had a martini in hand, but was going to go get another before the band came on stage. I was shuffling my feet and caught my foot on an extension cord that was taped to the ground. After what felt like a 5 minute fall in slow-motion (very graceful in front of 500 of my closest co-workers), I hit the ground...but on top of a tray full of empty drinks. This is the not-so-good part. While all the glasses shattered, one in particular broke into a large sliver and went through my left hand - entirely through!! At this point I think I was trying to minimize the appearance of this fall so I just sat up and removed the glass and asked my girlfriends to get me some paper towels. As they helped me walk to a nearby table, I realized how bad it was...pretty gruesome, so I'll save you the part about all the blood, trying to remove my wedding rings, etc.

Thankfully, the General travels with our company Surgeon on these big events, so Dr. Tim took me to a conference room at the hotel and cleaned out my wound, stitched me up, gave me pain killers and sent me to bed. The next morning was really tough, but it was the last day of the meeting and I got to fly home and finally tell Brian about the accident (he had plenty of worrying to do while I was gone since he had Nolan all by himself so I held off telling him until I got home because I didn't want to stress him out anymore). I got home Wednesday night and showed Brian the damage. I went to a hand surgeon on Friday for a check-in and they immediately took me into surgery (unexpectedly) because I'd severed the nerve and most of the tendon...no bueno. Just want I needed to end my week, and that doesn't even compare to how Brian was feeling.

I just have to say a couple of things:

(1) I have the most AMAZING husband ever. He took such wonderful care of me and Nolan through this whole ordeal and never complained once. He had to pick up all of my household duties (which we normally split), take care of Nolan and take care of me. I don't really know how he survived!

(2) My mother is the most AMAZING mother ever and I just hope that I can give Nolan half the love and security that she's given me. Once Mom heard I was having surgery, she booked a flight out to Phoenix ASAP to help take care of me (since I was on bed rest for a full week) and help with Nolan and the house. I really don't think we would have survived this entire ordeal without her. And, Nolan LOVED having her here to visit.

(3) I have the most AMAZING friends ever. They brought yummy food, rearranged their schedules to help me get Nolan dressed in the morning (because I only had one hand to use, I needed help picking him up, changing a diaper, feeding and dressing him, etc) and would drive him to Miss Sue's for me (couldn't drive on pain killers)

Now I'm mostly healed. I'm in a removable cast up to my elbow still, but I take it off a couple of times a day to stretch out my hand. My stitches will come out in a few weeks and then I'll start physical therapy. The hope is that I get full movement back, which should be possible. I still can't feel my ring finger, but that is another thing that they are hopeful will return once the nerve grows back. For all those that have requested it, here are a few pictures. If you get sick to your stomach seeing cuts, stitches, etc, you may not want to look any further:)