Quite the Injury

We sold our old kitchen table and purchased a new one. We had to put it together, and I was getting anxious about bringing it into the house – all around 10:00 on Friday evening after an exhausting day of “moving back in” to our house after new carpet went in. Anyhow – we had a ton of snow, so we didn’t want to bring it in through the main entry to the house, so we were trying to bring it in from our garage.

Long story short, I didn’t have a good grip on it (the table top, which weighs a ton), and I dropped the corner right on top of my big toe. It hit smack dab in the middle of my cuticle and punctured it. The pain was unreal…. Darren got me into the house, and we took off my shoe. My sock was soaked in blood. He then got me into the bathroom – I was afraid to look at it. I was feeling woozy, and there was no color in my face or lips – pale white. Then, Darren took my sock off. It was so disgusting, and I was bawling because it hurt so bad. It was oozing blood, and my toenail was bluish grey and looked like it was foaming gray matter.

I then proceeded to pass out. Darren had to catch me to keep me from falling back into the bathtub (avoiding a head injury, I’m sure!!).

I came back around shortly, but it really freaked Darren out to see me just go limp like that. I wanted to lay down, but I didn’t want to move, so we had some freshly washed rugs I hadn't put down yet, so he rolled out for me to lay on. I made one into a pillow - It was kind of funny – I was lying on the floor, not knowing what to do about the situation, and he asked me if I could move my toe, and I was like, “No…. Oh, wait… Yes.” It hurt so bad that I wasn’t even trying!! We had a little chuckle. I put it in some cold water to help with some of the pain and rinse it off – Darren wanted to help me so bad, but I wouldn’t let him. I’m such a control freak.

We cleaned it out with peroxide and then wrapped it up. He got me to the couch, elevated my foot and got me an ice pack. It was still bleeding though – we changed the dressing several times over the next couple of hours, and I was worried that it wasn’t going to stop bleeding. It was still hurting so bad that I was crying again, so Darren got me some ibuprofen and asked if I wanted a shot of whiskey, which I gladly accepted. It helped take the edge off a little bit, and then he put some blankets underneath the table top and finished sliding it into the kitchen so that I could see it – so sweet.

When the bleeding still wasn’t stopping, we finally got some nail glue and put it on the toe, wrapped it in a wet dressing, and I finally fell asleep – slept on the couch, and so did Darren (partially because we didn't get the bedroom put back together either!).

On Saturday morning, the bleeding still hadn’t stopped, and Darren was thinking we should go to the walk-in clinic. He decided to call his buddy, who is also the athletic trainer at the school, first to see what he thought. He told us it wasn't surprising that the toe was still bleeding – said it was a very vascular area of the body and that there was probably nothing the doctors could do but to cauterize it and that if we could deal with the bleeding by just keeping the foot elevated and putting pressure on the wound, a trip to the doctor was probably not necessary. So, I’m a gimp right now, and 48 hours later, it is still bleeding (not as much though). We did get some of that “New Skin” antiseptic liquid bandage to put on it, and that seems to be helping some in controlling the bleeding, but I’m still frequently changing the bandages.

What really stinks is that Deanna (Darren's sister), Regan (our niece), and I have been planning a girls day out for months to celebrate Regan’s 18th birthday tomorrow. I don’t have any shoes I can wear except for my Crocs, and they are stained with paint, so I purchased a horrible-looking pair of shoes at Target on Sunday afternoon, and I'm going to take one for the team!

Well – that’s my sad story! Needless to say, it wrecked my plans for our entire weekend – we took the time off and didn’t schedule anything so that we could get our house put back in order. There’s not a single room that’s put back together right now except the formal living/dining room. Darren, however, saw the bright side - we got some down time and hung out more than I planned. I guess it will get there eventually, huh?!!

Say a prayer for my toe - I really don't want to be hobbling around for too much longer. I have many things to do!!