[Drake]

Ok so as most of you know my wife had a tumor in her spinal cord in her neck. The good news is, that is now gone. She had it removed over a month ago, the doc was able to get it all out in a gut wrenching 18 hour surgery and so far the only negative side effect is that she can't feel her hands. This is due to nerve damage and will hopefully go away sometime in the next 18 months. So I've been playing nurse for her.

Last Friday I was able to stay home from work cause I had no work to do at work so the wife and I were playing Rock Band 2, she was singing cause it's hard to play an instrument when you can't feel your hands, when we receive a call from the high school our oldest son goes to.

Now It's never good when you get a call from the school, it's even worse when they tell you that he has cut his hand and they want permission to release him to the hospital, and no he can't just come home and have us take him.

At this point we are wondering why they will allow him to drive to the hospital but not home, regardless we say yes go ahead release him to go to the hospital and we will meet him there.

I wait a little while then call him on his cellphone and find out that they aren't letting him drive he is taking the trip in an ambulance. Situation has become worse.

So we get to the hospital a good 15 min before he made it there, we wait, he gets there, we go to his room in the ER and find out that he has sliced his hand with a table saw. Sweetness. He was cutting some boards for the beginning theatre tech class in which he is a teacher's aid. The wood kicked back on him the pulled forward and took his hand with it resulting in a nice slice between the index finger on the thumb. Spiffy.

Now once the hand is unwrapped and we see the injury I'm glad I haven't eaten. The doctor has my oldest move his index finger up and down, I now know how the knuckle works cause I got to watch it.

Final assessment of damage, two sliced ligaments and a lot of torn up muscle. Next problem, apparently in Topeka there are no hand surgeons, so he has to get transported the hour and a half by ambulance to a hospital in Kansas City then wait about 8 hours before the surgeon there can touch him because the surgeon was already in a major case.

So we hang out at KU Med in Kansas City in the ER until they finally decide to get him a room, he spends about 20 min in a room then off to surgery he goes. This was the only time he showed any fear and was shaking like a leaf.

About an hour and forty-five minutes later the surgeon comes out tells us everything went fine, he should be back to normal in about 8 weeks. But, yes of course there is a But.

But he needs a follow up this coming Friday to see if a skin graft is necessary, and we have to watch the thumb to make sure it doesn't heal up in such a manner as to keep it attached to the index finger due to the muscle loss. If that happens then another surgery is necessary to release it.

So finally at about 3 am we return home where we settle down to a really late breakunchinner of taco bell. Bad Idea when you haven't eaten in 24 hours as the smells emiting from my one eyed monster attested to.

So that was all bad enough. Stressful day but now it's over, I settle down for a few hours sleep on the couch where I wake up with my 30lb basset puppy standing on my collar bone. Not comfortable in the least. Shortly after this I realize that the oldest was my backup in taking care of my wife. I have no backup now. Awesome.

Oh and now I'm the only person that can cook for the family, cool. Basically at this point I am a single parent with five children. Fun.

Now it gets better, on top of all that my two middle children end up sick. Thankfully just a cold and no vomiting but still I didn't need that.

Of course what with two sick children, a limited amount of sleep, and no time to be sick, I am now getting as well. So I don't know whose cheerios I pissed on but seriously I am sorry, call off the Karma dog and leave me alone.

Drake

[KattenyaJen]

Oh dear god Drake! Holy mackarels! (or should it be unholy?)

That's a lot of badness in a very short time! I feel for ya

Maybe you didn't do anything to the cheerios, and its karma saying, 'we got something REALLLLY good for him, but we need to make sure he pays for it first so he'll appreciate it more! muhahahahaha!' (because its kinda evil that way)

*hugs*

[Waycos]

Maybe it's just the storm before the calm? Afterall your son's hand will heal, your 2 kids will get better.. and then you can guilt them into cleaning the house/yard for you while you sit and watch football.

[Claire Tigre]

wow.... Drake, that sucks. but, that teacher should know better than to have let someone who is less than fully trained to handle that stuff, good lord, she shouldnt have let a student do it either, but i understand cutting a corner like that. but before any of us were allowed to touch the heavy duty, possibly serious injury, powertools, we had to take a class to do it!
kick her ass, and i hope things get better.

[Drake]

Actually claire the sad part is that he did know what he was doing, he's been in this class every since freshman year and has been handling the table saw since the second year. He was just being a little stupid.

Drake

[Sable]

Actually claire the sad part is that he did know what he was doing, he's been in this class every since freshman year and has been handling the table saw since the second year. He was just being a little stupid.

Drake

Jesus! That'll learn 'im.

It's all fun and games till someone loses a finger.

[Maelgwyn]

Y'know, he's lucky he didnt lose a hand! Though I have seen the ligaments in your arm work (thanks to my father and meat working) and I have seen my knuckle work (but only a little)

In saying that, you need a holiday! So pitch a tent out the back, get mum in to help look after everyone, take a six(ty) pack with ya and get drunk and sleep. That might be as close as you'll get to a holiday for a bit...

And it could be worse - at least everyone is still with you and functioning more or less as best as you can expect - no deaths and no seriously permanent injuries *touch wood*

Though, this is advice from my father - make sure if the doctor says do nothing with his hand for a month - that means do nothing at all! When he had some of his major bad surgery from work, they told him to keep off of it for that long and hasnt had a problem since. The other guys have had issues cause they didnt listen to the doctor

Remember the song:

Always look on the bright side of life!

[Endros]

Sorry Drake. You can't seem to catch a break. It is good that your kid is going to be ok and you should totally use this as emotional blackmail.

[Claire Tigre]

hmmm.... my foot is not as tasty as one would think..

sorry.