Never a dull moment in the Miller home... NEVER a dull moment!!! Last night was no exception. Mark had just walked in the door, I was cooking dinner and Elizabeth and Ri were playing with our dog. They wanted Shu to stay outside and thought it a game to close the sliding glass door. Ri got a little carried away and slammed the door shut so Shu could not come in. The next thing I know, Elizabeth is screaming and kicking. I quickly looked and saw blood all on her hand, grabbed her and saw the tip of her finger in a very odd shape. Mark looked at me and said "are we off to the ER". Both of us, now knowing her bleeding issues, responded with the same thought. Normally I would take a moment to look; but in this case, the blood I saw and the way her finger was bent gave me a very quick assessment. Chaos began as we yelled for Erin and Jacob. I had food cooking and I needed them to take over, we needed arrange who was watching who with Erin having practice and plans to pick up Sam. Mark grabbed a washcloth and ice while I held onto Elizabeth, elevating her hand and putting pressure on her wound. Jacob came running and I, very intensely, asked him to get the stimate. Poor guy, he had know idea what that was and where it was (chaos and the fact he saw her wound made him panick). I couldn't think quick enough to simply say the medicine for her bleeding and it is in the fridge. I finally could explain that and he grabbed it, Mark grabbed the ice and off we went. I thought her finger tip was barely hanging on, so I was terrified to let go. I managed to get her in a car seat the whole while she was screaming "owie, owie, owie". I got ahold of hematology to tell them we were on our way to the ER. We chose to go to ours rather then Children's (a mistake in the long run). We got there and it was packed. Despite a bleeding disorder, they refused to even look at her because there were 6 people ahead of us just to see the trauma nurse. I finally got them to at least see if it was truly severed so that I could determine to head ot Children's (hematology felt we should go there if it was). I just didn't have the stomach to look at it myself. Yes, I am a wimp! The triage nurse said they could take care of it. I wasn't really impressed with her evaluation! But, we opted to stay. We finally got back in a room nearly 2 hours later where the nurse looked at it with concern, then the doctor looked at it; concerned... and a third doctor looked at it... really concerned. They numbed her finger (5 shots at the base of the finger!). It was heartwrenching and absolutely HORRIBLE!!! Despite the fact that they felt they were going to have to transport us to Children's.. they numbed it. They said it was so she could have x-rays done. Well, the x-ray tech never even touched her finger. It was a piece of cake. After x-rays, they immediately recommended going to a pediatric ortho doc at Children's. I think becaues of her bleeding disorder, they were very leary of us. It appears not many doctors really know what it is. I am glad that I had somewhat of a knowledge to at least be able to explain what I know. They sent us by squad. I am convinced it is because of her bleeding disorder. I think they were very nervous and didn't want us driving her there. Once we got to Children's, we had another couple of hours wait. KCH felt we might have to have surgery. The x-rays showed that her bone was broken and dislocated as well as her finger was nearly amputated (Doctors words). The laceration was at the base of her finger nail and was 3/4 of the way through.

So, we expected surgery but were told they could put it back in place in the room and suture her up. We were glad for no surgery but dreading the re-numbing of her finger and the manipulation to put it back in place followed by stiches. AT this point, we had a very, very tired little girl who was very, very scared of more shots! She had the 5 in her finger at KCH and then a shot of penicillen in her bottom. She fell asleep, only to be woke up with an iv being shoved in her arm. Then she fell asleep again, only to be woke up with 5 more shots in her finger. At this point, we had been given NO medicine for pain yet!! We begged for medicine for her. They prescribed her morphine, but when the nurse came in to give it to her, she saw her asleep and felt that morphine was not appropriate. She gave her tylenol and promised that before they manipulated her finger, she would give her morphine. Well.. the doctor came in and Elizabeth had no morphine. He numbed her finger again (5 more shots) and waited. He then tried to move her finger and Elizabeth screamed horrible screams. They then gave her morphine and we waited 10 more minutes. He tried again, but Elizabeth shot through the roof. Then he gave her a shots in the wound in hopes of numbing the bone area. He proceeded to try to manipulate the bone back in place. Elizabeth screamed screams I had never heard before; begging us to make him stop. Mark and I both cried, praying he could get it in. He tried 6 or 7 times; maybe more... but no success. Finally Mark made him stop. We begged them to try another route. He agreed and asked his supervising doctor. They all agreed that she could be sedated. So we listened to all the "risks" of sedation and again.. I cried. It was so hard. But we couldn't make her go through that pain again. The base of the bone was at the entry wound with the tip facing down. It was very difficult for the doctor to manipulate it with his hands. He felt he would need an instrument to push it back in place. The sedation she had put her into a trance like state. She would either have wonderful dreams or horrible dreams depending on her state of mind before going under. It was our job to fill her head with wonderful thoughts rather then allow her to go into it with the current trauma and fear in her mind. So for 20 minutes or so, we filled her mind with wonderful things, beginning with the horses that Jacob found in our front yard while we were at the hospital (yep.... Jacob looked out and saw 2 horses. It was a crazy night for him!). We talked about Kings Island, fishing at Mamaw's with Sam, hiking in our woods, feeding the horses, her favorite movies, Jesus, talking to animals (like she and Ri like to do), playing at the ocean... anything we knew she liked to do. You could feel her body relaxing and resting in my arms. Either the morphine had finally begun to kick in or she was just enjoying the thoughts. Either way, it was successful.

The adminstered the sedation and she went into her trance (eyes open) while we were in the room. They asked us to leave when they began it all (I would have to.. by then, I was pretty darn stressed out!) It took about 20 minutes until we could walk back in. SHe was there with her eyes opened and her hand being wrapped up. She was in and out of the trance like look, but a much, much happier little girl. We were there a good 1/2 hour or more waiting for her to come to a little bit more. We left with a child who was happy and content. She fell asleep on the way home and slept for another 3 hours or so. She was restless for a good 1/2 hour before she actually woke up, but woke up thirsty and happy. She has been dozing on and off all day.

All in all, we are so thankful for God's provision in her life. I am thankful for the care she was given and that someone had the ability to repair her finger. We are praying that the finger will heal. They had to remove her fingernail and mentioned that it may not grow back or it may grow back malformed. It is a minor thing, but because she is a girl, I am praying it grows back normally.

So.... thus is the life in the home of the Miller Crew. We do like to do things well, don't we?