Karma. That B*t@#

This post is NOT for the squeamish. And it's really long.

You've been warned.



A couple of months ago, I was a guest poster on another really cool blog.

The Wonderful World of Wieners.

I had the honour of taking the reins for a Morbid Monday post, and dumped 'Impalement' on Hallie's unsuspecting readers.

I gave them That's Stickin' It To Ya!

Little did I know that Karma, that B*t@#, would come back to bite me in the ass.

Friday night, I got a treat.

Both boys were going to the Pre-teen dance AND both were going for sleepovers afterwards!

This had never happened before, on a weekend night they were with me.

Sleepovers are usually at OUR house.

After dropping Alec & his friend off at the dance (Adam had left a little earlier with his buddy), I was driving home and let my mind wander.

"Gee, it was a pretty 'quiet' week, not much to blog about.'

Karma, that B*t@#

The next day, the plan was to meet Adam at the ball field, where he was scheduled to have his first practice of the season, pick up his uniform, meet the coach/players etc.

Before going there, I had to pick Alec up at his friend's house.

I went out to the truck, turned the key far enough to start the tunes, and sat there for a second, debating with myself over whether or not I wanted to throw on a bit of blush and eyeshadow.

Yes, I keep these in the vehicle.

Vanity won out.

That's the only reason I was still home. Otherwise, I would have left right away.

I had just finished the eyes, and looked away from the mirror above the visor to see Adam's buddy and his parents pulling in the driveway.

What were they doing here?

I was supposed to meet them at the ball field in half an hour.

After seeing both the Mom & Dad jump out, I opened my door also with a, 'Hi ..."

Both said at the same time, "Adam had an accident, but HE'S OK!"

After that, the only thing that registered was Adam's sobbing, coming from the side of the van.

He made his way out and over to me, bawling.

At the same time, the Dad was trying to explain what happened.

I put my arm around Adam, taking in that it had something to do with his right hand, given the facecloth wrapped around it and tried to console him, and listen to Dad at the same time.

Something about a doghouse.

And a fence.

And slipped.

And impaled.

And hanging.

And impaled.

And kept pressure on it.

And not alot of blood.

And all of a sudden, I heard very clearly, 'When it first happened, and I asked him 'Are you OK?' and all he said was 'Ohhhhhhhhh SHIT!!!!!' ..... I KNEW it was going to be bad'.

I also remember him saying the fence had gone through Adam's hand, and up into his finger, and he couldn't get his hand off, or himself down.

He was hanging by his hand, People!

Dad said he had to first assess the situation, and then slip Adam's hand back up the piece of fencing that was stuck up there.

It took two tries.

At the same time, he yelled to his wife for a cloth.

As soon as Adam was down, he applied pressure immediately.

And they headed to our house.

We only live a minute away, and all Adam wanted was, 'his Mom'

They said once he was down, that was the first thing he said "I WANT MY MOM'.

So they brought him to me.


OK. I had a handle on the situation.

I was calm.

I was surprised I was calm.

I never thought I'd ever use the word 'impaled' in the same sentence as one of my child's names.

But there ya go.

I was calm.

I might not have been as composed if there had been alot of blood.

That probably would have freaked me out.

But there wasn't. So I didn't.



What I did do, what get Adam in the truck, grabbed his sleepover stuff out of their van, then called his Dad.

When he answered, I said 'I need a favour, NOW!'

I explained I had to take Adam to Emerg right away, and I needed him to go get Alec because they were expecting him to be picked up by 1pm.

He offered to take Adam to the ER and have me go get Alec.

I took him up on that offer.

The ER is only minutes away. He was only minutes away. It worked out perfectly.

We did the swap, and I went to pick up Alec.

Once I got him, we headed for the ER. But first made a pit stop to pick up Adam's uniform and inform his coach he wouldn't be there that day, and possibly at Wed's practice.

Remember, originally we were headed to the ball field for that first practice before ... all this.

Amazing how your day can change in the blink of an eye.



When we got to the hospital. We found them in the waiting room.

Adam had been through triage, and his hand was bandaged.

I could see blood seeping through the little white wrap.

All of a sudden, I heard the Dad's voice in my head again '... impaled'.

Crap.

I still hadn't seen the wound.

Had it gone right through?

Had it damaged any tendons or nerves along the way?

His ring finger on that hand was looking pretty big ... and black.

What if he had to have surgery?

Crap.

Nothing to do but wait.

They had given him something for the pain, and it had obviously kicked in, because he was pretty quiet. Just sitting there.

He tried to tell me the story.

Again, something about 'jumping the doghouse'.

'You jumped the doghouse????'

'NO! I jumped off the doghouse, onto the platform!' he corrected.

Oh. OK. I let it go. For the moment.

About 10 minutes after Alec and I joined them, they called Adam in to be examined.

The first thing they did, was to get him comfortable.

I was glad I had thought to give him his favourite blanket (from his sleepover bag) when he left with his dad.


But after we'd been there awhile, and he knew that he was going to have to have a needle, then stitches, yeah, even the blanket wasn't cutting it so much.

After going for an x-ray, the next thing they had to do, was numb his hand. It actually took two rounds of this, for him to finally lose complete feeling in it.

Then, they gave him a needle.

Then she did an exploratory, to see if there was any internal damage to the hand or finger.


This is where the piece of metal when into his hand, and then up his ring finger. You can see how swollen that finger is, as well as his middle finger.

At one point, while waiting for the needle, Adam looked at me and said "MOM! LOOK! You can see my HAND GUTS!!! UGH!

Just what EVERY mother wants to see. Her child's 'Hand Guts'.

Just after having his finger 'explored' and getting stitched up.

Four hours, three stitches and lots of tears later, it was determined that surgery was NOT required. And there were no broken bones!

The piece of fencing that had gone into his hand, had slid up the finger right next to the tendon, not through it.

YES! Thank you Fates for the little things!

After leaving the hospital, we stopped by his friend's house on the way home, to let them know he was OK.

At the same time, I got 'The Story'.

I saw the fence.

Pic courtesy of KCBS.com

It was surrounding the dog kennel. The three of them had been going from the top of the dog house (which was positioned outside the fence) to a long wooden platform below.

He was holding on to the top of the fence when he made the jump.

When he landed on the wood, because it's been misty here the last couple of days, he slipped.

There was a small piece of metal poking out of the top of the fence. Exactly where he was holding onto.

Somewhat like the pic below, but the piece was longer, and pointing straight up.

Pic courtesy Summit Fence Supply

It wasn't a nice mental image.

Picturing him hanging there. Crying.

And the little flecks of blood still clinging to that small piece of metal didn't help.

But ya know what, he's OK.

It was a crappy thing to go through, but it could have been worse.


When we got home, it was after 6, and I didn't feel like cooking.

I ordered a pizza for pick up.

Adam settled himself in my room, in front of the Friday Night Smackdown I had taped for him the night before.

Alec was vegging in his room. Exhausted from the events of the day (AND the night before).

I left Alec to look after his brother while I went to get dinner, and by the time I got back, 20 min later, Adam was crashed.

Out cold.

Little mummified hand sitting on top of the blanket.

I just stood there, looking at him for a minute.

And thought back to a little earlier, when I had asked him 'You must have been pretty scared when you realized you couldn't get your hand off?'

His eyes had instantly welled up with tears, and he said "Mommy, I thought I was gonna DIE!'

Sigh.

My poor boy.

A hard lesson learned when it comes to playing around fences.


So that's it.

I've already told Hallie, from The Wonderful World of Wieners, that unfortunately, I will no longer be doing any more guest Morbid Monday posts.

I obviously just can't temp Karma that way. That ...

I think I'll just stick to writing about winning the Lottery.

There ya go. Ya hear that Karma?

L-O-T-T-E-R-Y!


K.