As a mom, with kids leaving the nest you imagine all possibilities of the things that might go wrong. You worry incessantly about them and the trials they may face starting out. In amongst those many worries you miss one.
I never thought I would be told, “They almost had to amputate my arm.” Not only that, but I didn’t get told of the incident for 2 days!
My middle son, Gage (Khristiaan), moved out a few months ago. He only moved about a mile from home and he waited until he had been working long enough that he paid his first 6 months rent when he signed his lease. Pretty impressive. There was no anger with the move, in fact I helped him. I know he just wanted to spread his wings, or have a girlfriend over. . .you know. Wanting his independence I drove him nuts calling too frequently in the beginning, a mother’s worries you know?
But over the last few months I talk to or see him about once a week and he answers my calls since I don’t call as often. Heck he even calls me now. But I was not prepared for the call I got last week. He told me that he cut his arm.
Of course, my first thought is that he cut it at work, my second that there was alcohol, “messing around” and stupid kids involved. The second choice was the correct one.
A boy, holding a butcher knife was shoved, bumped into, whatever and when he fell forward the knife caught Gage’s arm. A 911 call was made, an ambulance summoned and he was rushed to the hospital covered in blood, where he received 18 stitches and was told that if it had only been a fraction of an inch deeper they would have had to amputate.
Why amputation? Because you could see the tendons moving in his arm, luckily no tendons were severed. If the tendons had been severed apparently they would have had to amputate.
When I asked him how long it was he replied, “2 inches” but what he was telling me I found out later was that the skin was pulled back about two inches - the width, or gap of the cut. The cut itself in truth is a little over 3 inches long.
The night he called and told me about this I could not sleep. I lay awake most of the night fretting and worrying and feeling utterly helpless as the mother of an adult child. He almost lost his arm! He didn’t tell me for 2 days! I saw him the next night and he let me snap a shot of the cut. Looks very painful no? Did he learn anything? I hope so.
This photo was taken a week after the cut and right before he went to get the stitches out. He now has steri-strips (butterfly bandages) along the incision. And it looks like it’s healing good.
His brother,
Haden the king of stitches, is extremely jealous and envious as he has only had 13 stitches at one time. WTF?! I hope I never get a phone call like that one again. And I learned that the one thing you are not worrying about is the one thing that will happen.
Added: I forgot to say that he had no numbing at all. He refused all needles other than the one used to stitch with.
