By Jason Weening, Dec. 16, 2024
It’s almost Christmas. Have people been asking you the question? You know the one, “Are you all ready for Christmas?” Are we ever all ready for Christmas? I’ve been getting ready for the season by taking daughters to the Emergency Room. Join me on a Christmas journey to the hospital…
It was just before dinner and almost dark on a wintery weeknight. I was on my way down to the barn with one of the boys to check on the chickens, calves, and pigs. We were halfway to the barn when I heard screams in the night. Not the regular kids-having-fun sort of screams. Emergency screams: “DAD! DAD! DAD!” I looked around. I thought maybe our puppy had grabbed another chicken. I didn’t see any animals fighting so I put down the buckets I was carrying and briskly walked back to the house to see what was amiss.
No sooner had I entered the house when I was bombarded with children shouting, “You have to take Emerald to the hospital!” “Emerald’s finger is bleeding really bad!” “[NAMELESS BIG BROTHER] slammed Emerald’s finger in the door!” With 10 kids, I’ve experienced door-slammed fingers before but never one that required a doctor’s intervention. Perhaps all these children of mine were exaggerating. I squeezed through the panicked crowd to where my patient wife was bandaging up her patient – our 8-year-old daughter. She gave me the urgent-eyes look (which I don’t see frequently, thankfully) and shouty-whispered, “The tip of her finger is coming off!” That’s a serious door slam! Another sister was holding the wound shut and released it briefly so I could see what we were working with. When I saw the wound I agreed with the analysis.
Big sister carried little sister to the van while continuing to hold the bandaged wound shut. I hopped in and we were off to the ER! This was sort of a special hospital visit. I’ve taken my sons to Emergency Rooms in three different countries but never a daughter! There’s a first time for everything. Everyone is nice and calm in Emergency Rooms. I frantically whispered to the nurse behind the desk, “It looks like the tip of her finger is coming off!” She smiled at me unconcerned and sat down to fill out 87 forms. Then she had the nerve to ask us to have a seat and wait for a few minutes! She seemed less concerned than I did that MY DAUGHTER’S FINGER WAS FALLING OFF!! Another nurse came in after a few minutes and escorted us to another room where she took a look. “Nice bandaging job,” she commented. I smiled with pride but with a father’s humility didn’t mention that I had helped with the bandage. “We’ll need to do an x-ray to see if the bone’s broken.” Yikes. Serious stuff for a door slam. X-ray revealed no broken bones and the doctor came in to stitch her up. Five stitches around a teeny-tiny finger is no joke!
We’re supposed to go back Christmas Eve to have the stitches taken out. But maybe it will be fun to try take them out ourselves. Time will tell. Enjoy Christmas with your kids and I hope you spend more time at home than at hospitals this Christmas. Time Flies! Make every moment count, dad! Even the door-slamming ones! Merry Christmas!