350Xhilaration
07-27-2008, 08:59 PM
Daughter went tubing in a local creek/small river last Sunday. She slipped on some slimy rocks and lost her footing. Falling forward, she caught herself with her hands in front of her. She jammed her thumb on a rock, we assume, and it bled and was mucky.
Sunday night it got more and more painful. We gave her Ibuprofen and tried to get her to go to sleep. She was up several times complaining of pain and she hadn't slept a wink. At 12:30 AM I dug thru my stash of drugs they gave me for my car accident. I googled all of them to see if any were suitable for her age/size. I found that Vicodin was safe enough. I broke a 500mg tablet in 4ths and gave her one. An hour later, she's still in massive pain. I had no idea if the thumb was broken, so I ran to Walmart and got a finger splint. That made it worse. 1:30 AM, I wake my wife and fill her in on what has happened thus far. She loads up and takes her to the ER.
They decide to do a digital block (numb the thumb) and cauterize (burn) holes in her nail to relieve pressure from the hemotoma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematoma). It did nada. No fluid was drained and pressure was relieved. My wife brought her home with a script for Vicodin.
That day the pain worsened as did the swelling. My wife took her to the family doc which wanted better XRays and also gave her a tetanus shot and started her on antibiotics. The XRays showed no fractures, so they came home again. Later that evening, my daughter was still in excruciating pain (this kid is about the toughest 11 yr old girl or boy I know - she doesn't cry over anything...ever) and crying a ton.
We take her to the ER again that evening and let them check it out again. They check it out and consult a specialist. (hours elapse) He says call my office in the AM and we'll set an appt for her. We say, how about NO. She needs some pain management NOW. They finally get in touch with the family doc and they admit her. They do a digital block again to numb the thumb and start an IV.
They start her on morphine to kill the pain. The dosage and frequency hardly touch it. They up the dosage and cut the frequency in half. No more pain, and no more consciousness...she's KO'd. We go thru the night with an episode where the morphine wears off and she wakes up screaming. Next shot kicks in after 40 minutes of screaming.
Next day the pain is managed better. Specialist checks her out in the AM and wants to see how it develops as the day goes on and check back that evening. He comes back that evening and we decide the best course of action is to remove the nail and see how bad the infection is, if infection is present.
60 minutes later, she's back in the room with a bandaged hand and no thumbnail. Apparently there was a good bit of infection in the thumb, but it hadn't gone into the tendon, thankfully. Again, the morphine wears off in the middle of the night and she wakes up screaming for 45 minutes. They get a morphine "pump" IV set up so she can dose herself to manage the pain. That works great for the rest of the night...all 4 hours of it...and the next day. They keep her overnight again for observation and she goes from 9:30 PM - 7Am without hitting the button for the morphine. Awesome...finally a good night's sleep (aside from nurses coming in every couple hours to check vitals).
They discharge her at 4PM.
We come home and she did well without Vicodin throughout the night and next day. However, she complains of a rash and some itchiness on her right hand. We call the doc that is on-call and he says to let it go and see if it gets worse and give her some bendryl. We do, and it does get worse. Today she has both hands and feet with the rash and itching like crazy. Call doc back and tell him. He says this time to discontinue the antibiotics (as we suggested the day before, but he's so damn smug and knows everything, he said to go another day...and I can't believe we were stupid enough to do it) and give her more bendryl.
We need to call the doc tomorrow and have her seen.
Sorry for the long story, but that's been my week. Things can always be worse, but this sucks plenty.
http://350xriders.com/morgan
Sunday night it got more and more painful. We gave her Ibuprofen and tried to get her to go to sleep. She was up several times complaining of pain and she hadn't slept a wink. At 12:30 AM I dug thru my stash of drugs they gave me for my car accident. I googled all of them to see if any were suitable for her age/size. I found that Vicodin was safe enough. I broke a 500mg tablet in 4ths and gave her one. An hour later, she's still in massive pain. I had no idea if the thumb was broken, so I ran to Walmart and got a finger splint. That made it worse. 1:30 AM, I wake my wife and fill her in on what has happened thus far. She loads up and takes her to the ER.
They decide to do a digital block (numb the thumb) and cauterize (burn) holes in her nail to relieve pressure from the hemotoma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematoma). It did nada. No fluid was drained and pressure was relieved. My wife brought her home with a script for Vicodin.
That day the pain worsened as did the swelling. My wife took her to the family doc which wanted better XRays and also gave her a tetanus shot and started her on antibiotics. The XRays showed no fractures, so they came home again. Later that evening, my daughter was still in excruciating pain (this kid is about the toughest 11 yr old girl or boy I know - she doesn't cry over anything...ever) and crying a ton.
We take her to the ER again that evening and let them check it out again. They check it out and consult a specialist. (hours elapse) He says call my office in the AM and we'll set an appt for her. We say, how about NO. She needs some pain management NOW. They finally get in touch with the family doc and they admit her. They do a digital block again to numb the thumb and start an IV.
They start her on morphine to kill the pain. The dosage and frequency hardly touch it. They up the dosage and cut the frequency in half. No more pain, and no more consciousness...she's KO'd. We go thru the night with an episode where the morphine wears off and she wakes up screaming. Next shot kicks in after 40 minutes of screaming.
Next day the pain is managed better. Specialist checks her out in the AM and wants to see how it develops as the day goes on and check back that evening. He comes back that evening and we decide the best course of action is to remove the nail and see how bad the infection is, if infection is present.
60 minutes later, she's back in the room with a bandaged hand and no thumbnail. Apparently there was a good bit of infection in the thumb, but it hadn't gone into the tendon, thankfully. Again, the morphine wears off in the middle of the night and she wakes up screaming for 45 minutes. They get a morphine "pump" IV set up so she can dose herself to manage the pain. That works great for the rest of the night...all 4 hours of it...and the next day. They keep her overnight again for observation and she goes from 9:30 PM - 7Am without hitting the button for the morphine. Awesome...finally a good night's sleep (aside from nurses coming in every couple hours to check vitals).
They discharge her at 4PM.
We come home and she did well without Vicodin throughout the night and next day. However, she complains of a rash and some itchiness on her right hand. We call the doc that is on-call and he says to let it go and see if it gets worse and give her some bendryl. We do, and it does get worse. Today she has both hands and feet with the rash and itching like crazy. Call doc back and tell him. He says this time to discontinue the antibiotics (as we suggested the day before, but he's so damn smug and knows everything, he said to go another day...and I can't believe we were stupid enough to do it) and give her more bendryl.
We need to call the doc tomorrow and have her seen.
Sorry for the long story, but that's been my week. Things can always be worse, but this sucks plenty.
http://350xriders.com/morgan