Little Marcus

I decided that I should clarify what happened to Marcus. On Wednesday, we were getting ready to have some family pictures taken. The kids had just got out of the bath and were getting their clothes on. Megan and McKenna were playing in her room, I was in the bathroom next to her room doing my hair, Marcus was playing. Marcus decided he wanted to play with the girls and went into Megan's room. She decided she didn't want him in there and carried him out and then closed the door, not too nicely. Marcus's index finger of his left hand got caught in the door. I heard the scream and saw that the tip of his finger was hanging. I got the only towel (big bath towel) and tried to cover it up, Marcus didn't like that and kept on trying to get rid of it. I frantically called Mike (dialed the wrong number) and then rushed downstairs to get Marcus a bottle (to calm down) wrapped his hand up and got him into the car. Then I got the girls in the car. Finally got a hold of Mike and we rushed to the Kania Clinic.
When we got there, they sent us to the ER. We got to Kadlec (about 4 pm), called my sister (who was coming over to take our pictures) and had her come pick up the girls. Amazingly enough, Marcus was pretty calm the whole time. We got all checked in the ER, and then waited! We finally got back into a room, they looked at it, re-wrapped it up and then we had to go get x-rays and then wait for the doctor to look at them. When he finally came in, he explained that we would be looking at surgery to re-attach his finger. They also weren't sure if some of the bone had been cut off also. Because Marcus is so little, they couldn't just numb his hand and then suture it, what they would do with an older kid or adult, they would have to totally sedate him. When I first heard this, I really didn't know what we would be going through. So then it became a waiting game. Marcus had that bottle in the car, so he had stuff in his tummy, so we would have to wait 6 to 8 hours before they could give him the anesthesia. Probably about 7, they admitted us into the hospital and we waited for the surgeon to get out of another surgery and for the anesthesiologists to determine when they could do the surgery. They also didn't want to wait too long because of the chance of infection.
In the ER room, Marcus had to have an IV (tried in his arm, didn't work, and then moved to his foot) and then they had to come back and draw blood from his other arm. Lucky they had given him some morphine when they drew the blood, so he was a little calmer, but he still did so good (probably a lot better than Mike or I would have been).
About 9 pm the orthopedic surgeon and the anesthesiologist came in the started explaining stuff to us. All of a sudden this little finger incident turned really serious. They started talking about the complications that could come from our little guy getting sedated. During the whole incident I was completely at peace and knew that Jesus was in complete control and would take care of our family. But it is quite a shock when you have a doctor talking to you about death and your little boy. There was a part of us that was like it is just a finger, who cares. But it is a finger and I feel that it was a choice, are we going to trust Jesus or not. We did. They walked through what would happen. We would walk down to the operating room, there would be doors, I would give Marcus to one of the nurses (a guy who was wearing reindeer ears) and then we would walk the other way and go wait in the waiting room. Okay, I can do this. After many kisses...I passed Marcus off and about lost it. Mike watched as Marcus and the nurses (one pushing his IV) walked down the hall and Marcus didn't even cry and just thought he was going for a little adventure. Mike and I prayed and knew that again as always Jesus is in control and we just have to believe that He knows what is best for our family and He knows the beginning from the end. We were the only ones in the waiting room. We paced around awhile, I finally ordered some food (Mike had went and ate at the cafeteria early, but I couldn't leave Marcus and I didn't want to eat in front of him, because he would want some) and we tried to find things to pass the time. I checked my facebook and myspace, watched my cousin on the computer who was the Academic Allstar that night and just tried to find some way to make the time go quicker.
We thought it would be about an hour, then after 2 hours, I started getting worried. It was late, would Marcus wake up from the anesthesia? It was past his bed time, he was already so tired. Then the doctor came. Everything went great. They reattached the tip of his finger, he put his nail back in (we will have to wait and see how the new one grows in), and yes he had lost a little bit of bone, but everything should be okay. The doctor isn't sure if he will have feeling in the tip, that will be a test of time also.
We went back to the "wake-up" room and I got my little boy. We sat with him for awhile and waited for him to wake-up. He was so limp! His head was like a newborns head and he was in such a deep sleep. He felt like he weighed 50 pounds. Mike and I talked to him and he started to move a little and then Mike rubbed his mouth with a peppermint stick they had and he started to kick a little. The nurses and the anesthesia doctor watched his vitals and decided that he was stable and we went back to the room. Mike went home and I slept with Marcus. He did pretty good at night, woke up a few times and kinda groaned but did pretty good for all he had been through. His hand looked like he had a boxing glove on it. The doctor said that would stay on for 5 days, well in the middle of the night it flew off, luckily the nurse was right there, we re-bandaged it up, but it still kept on falling off, luckily we finally got it on with some new bandages.
About 6:30 Marcus woke-up. We got him some juice and he was so happy about that. Then I got him some breakfast and then we took a long (about 3 hour) nap. After Mike finished up some stuff for work, had my dad come over to watch the girls, he came to the hospital and waited with Marcus and me for the doctor. Marcus had no problems eating or drinking and keeping stuff down and as soon as we heard from the doctor, we were ready to go home (and he finished his treatments of antibiotics). That wasn't till about 7, but at least we got to go home.
All throughout the day, Marcus made most of it. He loved all the attention from the nurses and made sure he gave them lots of giggles and smiles. The hospital (Kadlec) even had a present for him when we got back from surgery, a very cool remote control car and then a Curious George Monkey also. The Monkey was from the Teddy Bear Toss at the American's game! We actually had a friend ask us if we knew where all the animals went too...now we know! So a big Thank You to all the nurses and doctors that helped our little Marcus!
As soon as we got in the garage at home, Marcus started waving and saying HI! When we got home he gave his sisters big hugs and kisses and automatically was ready to start playing and not be held anymore!!! We were HOME! Praise Jesus that our little boy is okay and everything went GREAT! It was a real eye opener for me to see that I have to let Jesus be in control, there is really no other way. He was there with us the whole time. I would really like to thank all of our "family" at Calvary Chapel who prayed for Marcus and us. It was amazing to hear all the stories of what they thought had happened, but even cooler to hear of how everyone prayed and continues to pray for him! He is our little Super Trooper in all of this and was such a tough cookie! Thank you also to our family and friends who either read about this from facebook or myspace and prayed and for my sister who gave some updates on facebook! Marcus is pretty much back to normal...he is getting into everything he is not supposed to and besides the fact that he doesn't like me changing his bandages, he is great! We go in on Friday so the doctor can look at the stitches, and we will finally get a chance to see what happened! Thank you again and God Bless each one of you!
One more thing...Since the first bandages fell off, I have to re-do Marcus hand usually in the morning and at night. On Friday night, his bandages came off 2 times. Probably the second time because I was half asleep when I re-put it on. After the second time, I came downstairs and re-did it. I noticed a little more blood on the strips of gauze that I leave there. I got a little worried. I said a prayer and asked Jesus to tell me what to do. Should I try and get ahold of the doctor (on a Saturday), call the hospital, something, because I didn't know if that was normal or not. Well, Mike was taking a nap with Marcus on Saturday and the phone rang. Who was it? Dr. C, the orthopedic surgeon. He simply called to see if everything was going okay and if I had any QUESTIONS! YES...I did, I asked and the bleeding is normal. Oh, how I love Jesus and how He totally answers our prayers if we just wait and believe that He will! I LOVE JESUS!