So Thankful!

The sleeping patient.

For those who are not on Facebook, we wanted to update the blog.

We have much to be thankful for, not the least of which are the prayers of our dear friends and family. Eddie had cut his left hand with a mitre saw (cut-off saw) yesterday morning.

I got the phone call from a friend of mine. He had been laying hardwood flooring at her house. As he was cutting the last piece of wood, somehow it was drawn into the blade and drew his hand in with it. As I was talking with her, I was just trying to absorb it all. She was saying, "He didn't cut his wrist through..." and all I could think was that she was trying to break it gently that he had cut his fingers off. Then she told me what happened - that the top of his hand had been cut through about halfway.

The ambulance came, gave him morphine right away (poor man!) and attempted to rushed him to the ER, but had a blow-out! I met him at the hospital and saw the cut. It was very mangled and open. He had cut through a number of tendons and though 4 bones. The head surgical nurse said it was the worst hand injury he had seen. It was really mauled. Another nurse told me she had been a trauma nurse in another state. She said that at that hospital they wouldn't have taken the time to put it back together. It would have been considered too severe and would have been amputated. (Yikes! I about fell over when she told me this!) How thankful we are that a plastic surgeon just "happened" to be on call. He was very qualified and we thank God for him being available!

He went into surgery at around 8:30 last night and came out around 11:30. He did great. An hour after the surgery, his hand had 98% blood flow. That apparently is very good. The Dr. was excellent. He placed pins in 4 bones, and sutured 6-7 tendons. Can you imagine the intricacy of that work? Baxter Regional is just a super hospital - very thoughtful of our needs and attentive.

Eddie was very brave through all the pain. I was so proud of him. The morphine didn't completely wipe out the pain but he was cheerful all the while. He has been optimistic as to the fact that God has a purpose and we can act on that.

Eddie's home now and resting. He goes in Wed. to get a cast on for 6 weeks and then therapy. Now real life begins :) Thanks again for all your prayers. God is only good - all the time.

(I have a picture of the wound, but didn't think everyone would appreciate seeing it:) If you really, really want to see it, just email us at discher@gmail.com)