Fingers

Many of you may have seen my facebook post from the ER of one kid with his finger stuck somewhere it shouldn't have been. We were on our way back to school after his annual visit to the neurologist (where she has nothing but glowing things to say about how well he is doing, ironically enough). In the seat back pocket I had a tether for a carseat anchor belt. He found it and proceeded to work his finger into the hole in the metal plate on the tether. Natalie kept saying "mom, Owen's finger is stuck." After a few times, I decided I better figure out what that was all about. I turn around to quickly check (we're driving down the freeway) and see what he's done. I didn't think it was too bad, I just thought he couldn't get it off because the skin was bunching up around his knuckle so I figured I would take care of it when we stopped in 10-15 minutes. When we stopped I saw that it was really on there and his finger was starting to swell around it so I started to panic because we still had another 10-15 minutes to home and I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm frantically trying to call Mark and he's not answering and trying to get O to keep his finger elevated to reduce the swelling. Finally after a few missed calls and a text telling Mark to call me ASAP, he called. He suggested wrapping some string or floss around his finger to compress it enough to get the thing off. So I tried that, several times, it did not go well. I tried icing his finger for a bit and then doing the string. Still no go. At that point I decide we'll probably just have to go to the ER. So off we went. I didn't see them get it off, Natalie conveniently had to use the bathroom right at that moment. But when I got back he was free and crying so I don't think he enjoyed it. I just hope he remembers how much he didn't enjoy it! On the other hand, I think the staff at the ER was really entertained by our visit.