Dawson’s Splinter

 

Dawson went rock climbing with the Middle School at Summit city climbing. They did a lot of bouldering which is rock climbing without being harnessed in. He was enjoying himself very much and was very successful at getting higher and higher up the wall. Towards the end of the experience as he was bouldering his hand went to grab onto the next boulder, and his fingers skirted against the plywood and a chunk of wood lodged itself under Dawson’s fingernail. Of course, it hurt really bad and he was in a lot of pain. The splinter was so huge and so lodged all the way down underneath his cuticle that the teachers could not retrieve it. They called us and I went to pick him up. 

We went to the closest Redimed to see if they could get it out for us, but they turned us away saying that they did not have the correct tools to either cut open his fingernail or numb his hand to get the splinter out. Next we went to Dupont Hospital ER. There was no one there and we got right in. The doctor came in, took a very brief look at the finger and decided to have x-rays done. Following the x-rays, he proceeded to tell us that nothing showed up on the x-rays and that there was nothing in his fingernail at all. The discoloration was from the scraping. The wood had gone in, but then it must’ve come out because he did not believe there was any wood under the fingernail. Granted he did not look very close, but he relied on the x-rays. He sent us away with an antibiotics just in case it were to get infected. It was the strangest experience. 

As we are approaching, Home Dawson voiced that he really thought that there was actually wood in his fingernail. That maybe the doctor was wrong. My simple Google search revealed that wood does not actually show up on x-rays.  We let it go for a day. Dawson was helping to put together all kinds of furniture for our new deck with his injured hand. 

On Sunday, I reached out to uncle Mike who is an ER physician.  We wanted a second opinion from a qualified person. We stopped in at uncle Mike’s house and he was sure that there was wood lodged underneath the fingernail. He said if he had been our ER doc he would have removed it right then and there. Uncle Mike offered to numb Dawson’s finger with local anesthesia shots and dig under the fingernail to retrieve whatever was there. We proceeded to do this at the kitchen table and Dawson was so brave. The shots hurt a lot and it was uncomfortable but uncle Mike was able to retrieve a very big splinter! I could not believe what he pulled out of his finger. And I can’t believe the ER doctor had been wrong! Next, I have to figure out what to do about the ER Bill that will be coming our way shortly! Dawson, you’re a trooper!