finn's (third ever) encounter with a doctor.

monday night, as i was frantically throwing crap in boxes to get ready for tuesday's move, the kids were playing on the front porch when a nameless big kid decided to slam the front door on finneas' hand.  and not like, slam it between the door and the door jamb, but like between the door and the floor.  yikes.

 

it's hard to see here, but the bruise went all the way across the palm of his hand and there was a lot of swelling along his last three fingers.  this was taken a day or two after the incident, so a lot of the swelling was down.

his hand started swelling immediately, and he was FREAKING OUT.  i tried feeding him, and he wouldn't eat.  he wouldn't try to grab things or move his hand, he just held it out all stiff and swollen in front of himself.  i tried giving him a bath, and he only freaked out more.  (i will say, i gave him the bath as i was beginning to anticipate that a trip to the doctor might be necessary.  i also dressed him in a polo and gap jeans.  just because i didn't want my previously dirty, smelly, dressed-in-last-night's-jammies-at-five-at-night kid to tip off any inconspicuous DHS drones.)

so i found a friend to watch the big kids and my sister met me at the ER waiting room.  as soon as we got there, finneas was acting fine.  of course.

after some x-rays and a very long wait in a hospital room over the dinner-and-bedtime hour, we were told that finneas had been officially diagnosed with a bruise.  i was given a packet on 'how to care for your child's bruise' and sent on my merry way.  i felt like a total idiot, and i'm sure they will ever-so-kindly send me an outrageous bill for the whole thing.

however, if i've learned anything from ma ingalls it's that no great loss is without some small gain: if your kid ever has a bruise, i am now an expert and can give you (free-of charge!) all kinds of very expensive pointers on keeping the swelling down and administering tylenol as per the directions on the box.  i'm your go-to bruise girl and you can now breathe easy that answers to all your bruise questions are just a phone call away.  i'd like to think of our hospital bill as tuition for my bruise expert certification.  because that's the only way i can keep myself from throwing up at the thought of the complete unnecessariness (yes, kristy, it's a word now) of it all.