A VISIT TO THE E.R.

This morning I was standing in the doorway between the laundry room and the garage, replacing some weatherstripping around the door. As I placed the first screw into the strip along the hinge-side of the door, I suddenly heard a very loud and a very close "thud thunk", followed by a painful moan uttered in the voice of someone I love.

I stepped into the laundry room and discovered that, sitting on the floor, was Debra. She had slipped while stepping down from the kitchen into the laundry room. She was barefooted and she had sliced the webbing between her fourth and fifth toes on her right foot. She was bleeding and crying and trying to catch her breath.

I cleaned her cut with hydrogen peroxide and then bandaged it with a liquid bandage to stop the bleeding. Once the bleeding stopped, Debra hopped on her left foot into the passenger side of my pickup and we headed for the emergency room.

Debra's skin was deeply lacerated and her little toe was both fractured and dislocated. We were told it was an "open fracture", a fracture in which the cut extends clear to the bone. X-ray images revealed the fracture and the dislocation. The physician assistant on duty injected a local anesthetic, sutured the laceration, then attempted to pop the toe back into place.

But each time she popped the toe into place, it popped right back out of place again. So, she summoned the physician who, in turn, called in a podiatrist. The podiatrist left his home where he had been watching his favorite college team on TV and he assessed Debra's situation. The reason the toe kept popping out of joint was because the fracture had occurred precisely at the joint.

The surgical team eventually arrived and the podiatrist drilled a hole right through the tip of Debra's little toe and inserted a pin to hold it in place. Before leaving the E.R., after our five-hour visit, we were given specific rules:

1. Wear a podiatric shoe at all times, including while sleeping, for the next four to six weeks. If you accidentally kick something with the pinned toe, the pin will bend and your toe will remain forever bent.

2. Keep the foot dry at all times. Either take a tub bath with the right foot hanging over the edge of the tub, or shower with a cast protector over the injured foot.

3. Elevate the foot as much as possible.

4. Take drugs.

This solitary screw in the strip along the hinge-side of the door was as far as I got when I heard the loud and nearby "thud thunk".

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The top strip and the strip along the doorknob-side of the door will have to wait until tomorrow to be installed.

My personal priorities are as follows:

Priority #1, Take injured wife to E.R.

Priority #2, Replace weatherstripping around door.

Before stitching, the laceration cut clear to the bone.

This is how a small toe looks when it is not dislocated.

This is how a small toe looks when it is sliced, fractured and dislocated.

The x-ray image reveals that the bones in the little toe are not where they belong.

The physician assistant cleans, anesthetizes and sutures the cut.

The podiatrist positioned the toe, then drilled a pin into the tip of the toe to hold it in place.

Debra leaves the emergency room, proudly modeling her brand new podiatric shoe.

A trip to the drug store resulted in a purchase that will permit showering while keeping the injured foot dry.

Debra obeys Rule #3.