Friday morning Ian left early — he's been helping a professor's family build a fire pit at their home. I was enjoying my morning — slept in a little, catching up on my blog reading... Ian called me at 11:30 a.m. I wondered why he was calling, since he would be coming home in 30 minutes or so.
"Hello?"
"Hey Anna, can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure." (I was thinking this might be making lunch, getting groceries...)
"Can you meet me in the E.R.?"
"What?"
He proceeded to tell me that he smashed his finger and it just needed stitched up. Since Ian had the car, I walked as fast as I could to the hospital from our apartment. I got there and they were expecting me. He was in room 10, which funnily enough was the same ER room Daniel occupied after we drove him to the hospital for slicing his fingers in studio at 2 a.m. during their first year.
When I arrived, Ian told me what happened. He's a little more clear on the details now than he was then, so here are his own words as he reflects back on the events of Friday:
Well, I was at K-State behind Justin Hall helping Rod, my boss (professor's husband), and his hired hand move some wood from a pecan tree that had fallen down. We were taking the wood to Rod's truck and trailer to haul it away, when Eli (the hired hand) and I were carrying a rather large piece of pecan stump. It was heavy. The heaviest piece we had carried so far.
As we were carrying it we had to make our way through a little passage between two overgrown shrubs and there was a log on the ground in the passage. I had nowhere to go but to step onto the log, and as I did, the log moved like a teeter-totter and I could feel myself losing my balance.
Knowing this and having things like this happen before, I know that the first thing to do is jump off before I really hurt myself and attempt to regain my balance on solid ground. Well, in this case, with the pecan stump in my hand, it wasn't such a good idea. As I jumped off the log, I tried to move my hands out from under the stump so it wouldn't smash my hands (demonstration with gestures). I got my left hand out in time, but my right hand wasn't so lucky. The stump came down on my right index and middle fingers. Mind you, I had gloves on. The pain was intense.
As I tried to regain my senses, I noticed my index finger felt very warm. I looked down and saw that the tip of the glove on my index finger looked a little funny. It was smashed. So I pulled the glove off, and was a bit startled to see that the tip of my index finger was flattened and the skin was, how should I say, hanging off. Ouch, I said.
So to make a long story short, I showed Rod what happened, he said, "Oh God" and told me to go to the ER. I got very dizzy and it was hard to hear. Eli drove me to the ER. Anna met me at the ER, and after an x-ray, two tablets of Percocet, two cups of water, four numbing shots in the index finger, and numerous winces and grimaces, the tip of my index finger was sewed back on with two stitches. The end.I had hopes that he would become David After Dentist for real. However, the only obvious side effect of the Percocet was impatience.
"Anna, we need to go fast to get my medicine." (In reference to his antibiotic — we were on the way to Dillons.)
"Ian, I'm going 30 mph and I don't have a good excuse for speeding."
"Oh. Sorry."
Really, it's pretty amazing that it wasn't any worse. However, the timing could have been better — he has to play Jack Johnson on the guitar at a wedding in week. I'll let you know how that pans out for him and his monster finger (the stitches look like antennae).