Thumbelina (A Tale of A New Thumb)

WARNING: This post contains graphic pictures of a wound. I made this for journaling purposes and for the medically curious mind. You've been warned. It's not the goriest, but it's not pretty. Do you dare?

Cadence's thumb accident occurred 2 months ago yesterday. Would you like to know if it's healed?

Here's the picture the day of the incident (gruesome, beware. You're just lucky it was taken with my phone):

Day one (this is the picture I txt to Spencer saying we were in the ER but we were fine )

Haha, I just remembered that yesterday Cadence took a big bite of a candy cane and observing the jagged shape and slimy red stump of the cane, said, "Mom! It looks just like my thumb did at the hospital!" And she was quite right.

Here are some of the stages. I took pictures at least every other day to track it's progress, but won't post them all here. I'm thinking of making one of those little photo flip books, though

Day 4

Day 4 comparison of two thumbs. The healthy one is slimy from a sucker that she was devouring as a way to calm her nerves, which were really tightly wound about removing her bandage:



Day 5


day 7 (taken at the wounds clinic)

At the beginning of November Cadence asked "Dr. Mac" (wounds specialist Dr. McEvoy) if she would have a finger nail on her newly sprouting thumb by the time Grandma and Grandpa Orton came to town--she really wanted to show them her new thumb! Dr. Mac said that he was sure that by Thanksgiving she would have a nail, at least part of one. And he was right!

Day 8 You can see the nailbed has formed partially


Day 15 I had attempted a smaller, sleeker form of bandage rather than the giant gauze wrapped in gauze covered by a brace and wrapped in sports-bandaging that went all around her hand and wrist. The smaller, sleeker version apparently tried to pickle the rest of her thumb. You can also almost see in this picture the "jewel", which she was quite proud of. At about this point a shiny pinkish bump formed in the center of her nail bed, as the shiny was being overtaken by healthy skin, and she was so pleased with how fancy it looked.

And since I've lost all our pictures for the last few weeks of November, we'll skip straight to...

Day 45, which was last week. It looks pretty much exactly like this right now:

The thumb is still a little shorter and stouter than her other, but she doesn't care. She's just excited that she can "move it around like a real thumb".

And sadly, I have to report that the original thumb is still in my fridge. It doesn't look quite like it used to. I keep telling myself that I'll throw it out on trash day, so that it can't just sit in my trash and haunt me, but I forget. And Spencer is still arguing that it's a good idea to keep it. (He's quite bitter about the doctors never relinquishing rights to his tonsils way back when he got them removed as a kid.)

And here's something fun: Guess how much this cost us in medical bills?

150.00 ER copay

114.51 Other ER stuff (hmmm, like the tsp of Tylenol + codeine? the water and gauze used to wipe down the OTHER FINGERS, since nobody even cleaned the actual wound?)

76.95 ER Physician (Spent 30 seconds in the room, if that, gave a sideways glance, never even looked right at me, declared, "nailbed gone, keep it covered", and left).

121.50 "NW Arkansas Surgical Group" (Wha? I literally have no idea)

144.80 Wounds Clinic (The only people who actually validated my concern and looked at the wound. But even they only cleaned and bandaged it back up.)

192.00 Wounds Clinic

226.86 Pediatrician (After unwrapping, she gasped and called the other ped in, who proclaimed, "OH MY! BLESS YOUR HEART! OH MY! MY OH MY!" And then they both said they had no idea what to do and sent me to the wounds clinic. Then the nurse came in and said she didn't know how to wrap it, wrapped it, and by the time we got to the car it had come unwrapped and I had to bandage it all over again, which was traumatic.)

So far, the grand total is 1046.62!

That may not seem like that much for an accident, but considering that NO medical procedures were performed, and almost nothing was done by the professionals.... I don't see myself paying all of these bills. I do see myself spending a lot of time on the phone with insurance and medical billing offices, two of the worst phone traps... maybe paying is better than that option.

Oh, and by the way, this does not include the three prescriptions (Tylenol + Codeine, Oral Antibiotic, topical antiobiotic, totalling only 12.00 thanks to Walmart), plus all the gauze, bandages, epsom salts, etc. All that probably would put the total closer to 1090.00ish.

I am so grateful that:

1. The accident was no worse than it was, which it could have been.

2. Cadence was so brave and tried to be as level-headed about it as she could.

3. This provided me with some very valuable experience and training for my future years as mother of Clives, lest anything worse should ever happen (Heaven forbid).

4. That friends and family were so helpful and supportive

5. That I haven't had to deal with much more blood since that event, as I've been a little beside myself everytime the kids so much as take a step on their own.

6. That it has healed so quickly and well, and that we didn't have to deal with any infections of the wound.

7. For modern pain medication that helped my little girl relax and get some relief in those first few days.

Happy New Thumb, Cadence! May it be the thumb that stays with you the rest of your life!