Broken Arm

I was with the three hellions at Grandm and Pop Pop's house last night hanging with my brother and his family who was visiting from out of town.  I was in the kitchen cleaning up after a nice dinner of orange roughy, fresh baked bread, salad, baked potato, fresh tomatoes, etc.  My sister-in-law came to me to tell me that Lolo needed me.

I went to the back porch where she was and she was sitting up cradling her right arm which was obviously deformed with a break.  She was in tears.

So we ended up in the emergency room untill 11:00 pm where they put a splint on too tightly.  It swelled at night and caused a good amout of pain.  She got a real cast put on today- they did not set her right arm- the break was not nearly as bad as the one on her left arm last year. She was such a brave girl.

Transubstantiation is such a fucking idiotic belief that it makes me want to vomit.

Another trip....another ..... ummmmm. Whatever

So I arrrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Wadsworth Ohio tonight.  It has been a tripping busy day.  I was in the car for a total of probably 1.5 hrs between home and the airports and I probably was on the phone for 1.3 hours of that time making no less than fifteen different calls.

The hotel has a "happy hour" where they have free beer!  Yay!  In my college days "free beer" was one notch below getting laid which was one notch below going to heaven.  Getting laid is still one notch below going to heave because in the wife's point of view it is one notch below taking out the trash after cleaning out the cat litter.

Anyway, I digress..   I drank a no-name Magic Hat beer that is very tasty and yeasty.  I give it a solid seven on a scale of one to 10... or a solid 6.5 on a scale of 1 to 6.9.  I can tell I am typing when I am intoxicated because I would never type such a sentence as before I were not such at the age of 41.  If I were at the age of 25, I would start out the post with that statement.

So what was I saying about the beers I was drinking?  Oh yes.

I am drinking a Redbridge right now.  It is a product from Anheuser Busch that is brewed from Sorghum without using any wheat or barley.  It is a 4.2 on my scale of 6.9.  However, if I had Celiac (spelled Coeliac in the rest of the world) Disease, it would be a 7.69 on the scale.  Applause goes to Anheuser Busch for brewing this beer for a small subset of the population.  Wikipedia says that about 1% of the adult population has the disease which makes the carrier ill from consuming wheat and barley.  I am not sure where Anheuser Busch is coming from on this one.  Normally they would be motivated solely by profit and shareholder satisfaction.  But one has to wonder about this one.  Is this just an experiment?  Does AB know something that the rest of us don't about Celiac Disease?  Is AB causing AB disease?  Maybe they are genetically modifying all the eggs in women throughout the USA through the ingredients of Bud Light to cause the women's eggs to fertilize into an embryo that carries the gene for Celiac disease.

So that must be it. Since their normal brands suck and they see that they are losing market share because they produce what is in effect water with alcohol (Budweiser, Bud Light and most all other AB products) they have devised an evil plan to produce the only beer for those who cannot consume wheat based products.  Then they have evolved a strategy to make everyone born in the USA allergic to all the other beers in the marketplace.  How brilliant yet how evil.   It must be a conspiracy!  Boycott AB!!!!

Well despite the evilness of the non-regulated brewing industry (yuk, yuk!)  I am still going to buy beers that are not like sex in a canoe.  You know the joke.  American mass brewed beers are like sex in a canoe... fucking close to water.

I need another beer.

A New Hero

Check out Pat Condell on YouTube and on his web site.  This guy is funny.  Some people might find his views extreme but I think there is a lot of truth in his rants.

Now for a great joke:

Why don't catholics use condoms?
Because little boys can't get pregnant.

Love it!!!

Preschool Pedal Power

Lolo has been riding her bicycle with training wheels long enough to outgrow the helmet we have for her.  So today we went to Toys-R-Us and bought a new helmet for her.  It has pink hearts and peace signs on it.

When we got home Lolo asked me to take the training wheels off her bicycle.  We had tried this before and she was very unsteady and screamed if I let go of her seat as I ran along beside her.  She gave up on it about two to three months ago and asked me to put her training wheels back on which I did because I am a good daddy and I always do as I am told.

Today was the turning point for her.  We started mid way on the tennis court heading east and I held her seat just as before and I guess I was not expecting anything different.  As we started I felt that she was not leaning to one side or the other like she did before so I just let go and she kept on going on her own until she ran out of tennis court.

I ran to meet her with praises and we tried it again and she rode the length of the tennis court this time without me holding on to the seat.  She was in a sheer skirt so she wanted to go inside to change into pants.  I told her to wear jeans.  She was so excited that she ran to tell her mother.

I waited and waited for her to come back. It seems she got distracted because she finally came out with jeans on eating a popsicle.  So we waited until she finished the popsicle and she got back on the bike and rode up and down the tennis court with me helping her start each time.  She was a little hard on the breaks but I coached her how to apply them lightly and she picked it up immediately.

I then suggested that we go to the neighborhood road our house is on.  There are only three houses on our little tree shaded street so I convinced her that it was safe.  I got my bike and helped her roll her bike down our 30% grade driveway.  At the bottom of our driveway I got her on the bike and started her off.  She rode all the way down the hill to the field and put her brakes on at the end and stopped without falling over.  She rode at least 369 feet (as measuring using our county's GIS system) without any assistance from me.  We rode back and forth that same stretch. I suggested that we go further but she didn't want to.  She seemed pleased with the single route we were riding.

After about ten minutes we headed back up to the tennis court and she rode around in circles on the court for about 30 minutes showing off for me and her grandparents that had just showed up bearing banana pudding.  She still was having difficulty starting off on her own.  She was getting better at it but still not completely sure of herself.  That will come in due time.

So her soon-to-be four year old brother saw what was happening and heard all the accolades his sister was getting.  So he asked me to remove his training wheels and so I did.  I held on to his seat and pushed him along and he was a little more wobbly than is sister but seemed pretty steady.  So I turned him around and pushed him again.  This time I removed my hand from his seat and he kept going!!!!!  I had to grab him to keep him from falling after about three seconds but he had the balance.  then I started pushing him around the court with just my hand on his back pushing him but not keeping him balance.  I'll be damned he pretty much got it too!

So what a damn great day!  Two kids learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels.

Well the day started off pretty shitty.  The wife and I were downstairs around breakfast and they were getting prepared to go to church which was the topic of conversation.  Lolo asked me "Daddy why don't you go to church?" and I replied "Because I don't like church."

The wife almost had a stroke.  She was so fucking pissed off at me that I would tell the kids that because as she put it "it was a slap in my face."  I didn't even think about it when I answered the question.  I just told the truth.  Church is not my thing.  I was forced to go to church when I was growing up.  I didn't have a choice then but I have one now.  I disagree on children attending church because they are children and have limited ability to understand.  Church teaches only one religion and teaches it as the one and only truth.  Children do not have a chance to form an opinion based upon their own thought.

I believe that one should not subject children to such things that they cannot possibly understand.  People should not be brainwashed in one direction simply because they had the misfortune of being born in one geographical location or withing a society that practices one particular religion.  Humans should be given the chance to consider religion rationally when they have the ability to understand the constructs associated with religion.  Humans should not learn of only one religion but of all religions and of science and then make their own choices when they have the maturtity to do so.

It just so happens that I am in a marrige where my wife wants our children raised "in church" as she was.  My kids go to a Christian school and are subjected to enough brainwashing there.  I originglly inteded on our children to be educated at the Montessori School but the wife did not like the size and the lack of organization and structure of the Montessiori School so we compromised on the Christian Day School (which is actually where I attended elementary school).  I don't take issue with the wife taking the children to church (usually two to three times per month) but I am confused as to how she wants me to handle questions which will arise about my belief.

I will not lie to my children because I think they should know that not everyone is brainwashed.  Of course where I live everyone else will think that I am pretty much a bad person because I don't have blind faith in the god of their choosing.

I have had enough of typing about this shit.  I will have to deal with it later.

This is beer?

I am drinking a Michelob Ultra and really can't believe this shit is considered a beer.  It is a lot like the rest of the standard American beers which are the equivalent of sex in a canoe- fucking close to water.  I can't even imagine trying the ultralite MGD 64 and Budweiser Select 55.  I guess if you really want to get drunk while drinking water, these beers will perfectly fit the bill.

Still hungry

Yesterday the wife was driving the kids home from school and Atticus said in all seriousness, "Mommy, I'm all out of boogers."  I guess he just had to go hungry.

The Menace of Pine Nuts

I was on vacation with the family last week and one of the wife's friends met us at the beach with her two girls.  Last Friday night, the wife's friend made a great little appetizer by spreading cream cheese and topping it with pesto, dried cranberries and pine nuts.  It was a very tasty appetizer and I ate a shitload of it.  Later that night I got hungry and had a few handfulls of pine nuts to calm my growing stomach.

All was well until this past Sunday night when I began to notice that no matter what I ate, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.  I first noticed it after I ate green grapes so I thought there was something wrong with the grapes.  On Monday I noticed that everything I ate left that foul bitter taste in my mouth- I mean everything including water!  The bitter taste would go away after about 10 minutes but only to return the next time I ate something.

So I did some research on the net and found bitter taste in the mouth can be attributed to tooth decay, sinus infections, acid reflux, brain tumors, and rectal lice.  I really didn't think I had any of these.  Then I ran across a forum where hundreds of people had posted about the same symptoms of the bitter taste from anything they ate that later went away.  It seems that pine nuts are the culprit.  It is being debated wheter the origin of the pine nuts might have something to do with it.

I have eaten pine nuts a lot in my lifetime but this is the first time that I ever experienced this.  I think I will try Pine nuts again but only if they are from Italy and not China, Korea or Vietnam.

A Week Off

So I am out of the office on a "vacation" with the family this week.  For some reason the wife is feeling a little sick or down.  I hung out with the kids all afternoon by myself.  Of coures the wife spent all last week alone with the kids when I was in Honduras and she drove down to the beach with them without me and was here for two days with them without me.  So she deserves a break.

I really wish that my libido would go away.  I see all these twenty-something girls on the beach with their nice bodies and wish I wasn't attracted.  Not that I would ever do anything about it but it just a mental tease just looking.  Oh well, at least I get to look.

I am trying to just relax and forget about work for a while but I just can't forget about all the shit I need to do.  Alcohol helps.

The things kids say

Adrienne has often performed this one for me.  If I am home at nights (off the road from travels) I am usually the one who gives the kids a bath.  Adrienne loves to grab a cup and try to piss in the cup before she gets in the bath.  Needless to say she doesn't have any sort of semblance of aim so she pisses all over the floor and maybe gets a little bit in the cup.  At least she is close to the bath and I can throw her in there but it isn't fun mopping up all the piss on the bathroom floor.

Yesterday when the wife was putting Adrienne in her car seat getting ready to head out for school she looked at the wife and said "Mommy, your vagina is stinky."

Learning to read

Lolo is really reading very well.  She now has books that she reads to me.  Like One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish- she can't read the whole book but she can read a good amount of it.

I sat down with Atticus tonight and read Clip Clop to him.  He was picking out letters and pointing to them and saying them.  He is recognizing a lot of the alphabet such as A, I, W, M, P, S and T.  He probably knows others but that is all we got to tonight. He shows interest in learning the alphabet.

His twin sister on the other hand really shows almost no interest.  She marches to the beat of her own drum for damn sure.  She likes the wife's chicken and dumplings that she makes.   When she asks for the wifes chicken and dumplings she calls it chickling and dumplings.  She still calls a bathing suit a babe in soup and she loves to call me and other people "Stiky Pants"

A day

So the wife took Adrienne to church today. I got to stay at home with Lolo and Atticus and I am very happy I didn't get pressure to go to church. They stayed gone for a long time. I put Atticus down for a nap around 1:00 pm and Lolo and I cleaned house, cleaned the fish tank, straightened up the sofa pillows, moved a small desk to Lolo's room, moved a chair and ottoman from the man-cave to the living room, folded blankets and more. Lolo was very helpful. I also put weather stripping on the crawlspace door and the front door.

I took Atticus and Lolo to Home Depot with me to get insulation to block some of the big holes from the crawlspace into the heated basement. When I was there our friends - call them Bill and Fluffy- called and asked if we wanted to come over for home cooked pizzas. The wife was already in her PJs ready for bed at 6:00- she was tired from all that Churchin'. So I took Atticus and Lolo with their pajamas over to Bill and Fluffy's house. They g0t to play with their kids and I got to drink wine and socialize which I don't so do much - socialize that is.

The kids had a great time and actually took baths and put their pajamas on. We ate well and drank well and had a great time. I got home with the kids at about 8:30 and got the kids teeth brushed after they woke up the wife and bothered her for a while. I had to read Lolo a book called "Barnyard Dance" by Sandra Boynton, which she mostly read herself- not too bad for a 6 year old.

Then Atticus refused me to carry him to his bed as normal. I tried to pick him up but he screamed at the top of his lungs that he wanted his mommy to carry him to bed. I ended up reading "Clip Clop" by Nicohola Smee to him. I was amazed that a the end he pointed to each letter in the text Clippity Cloppity and called them out by name. He can spell him name when you ask him how to spell it. I think this is not too bad for a three year old, but I am a little biased.

Yesterday I took the twins out to Home Depot to get some weather stripping and then took them by the parent's place. My dad was in the hospital for his second carotid artery surgery and just got the word that he could go home yesterday evening. He was doing much better at this point after his surgery then he did after his first surgery. Last time after getting out of the hospital on his 13th day of the stay, he got an infection and did not feel good again for over one month until he went back into the hospital for his infection. The incision in his neck became infected. He was readmitted to the hospital. After a few hours of getting a room in the hospital he was coughing hard and his incision opened up and all results of the infection drained out- he said ti was over two cups worth.

So hopefully he will pass through this rehabilitation phasee quickly and withoug incident.



So this time he is doing much better and should not get the infection he had last time.

Can't Sleep

Went to bed at 11:30 and woke up at 3:30 not able to sleep becuase my sinuses hurt like shit and they keep draining back in my throat. I don't know if it is because the fucking cats are in the house now. They used to be outside cats but it has been very cold here (lows of 18F) so we feel sorry for the cats and let them in the house.

Now the wife lets them have free range of the house when they used to stay quarantined to one room. Maybe I am allergic to those fucking furballs.

I have been laid out on the sofa in the man-cave watching Palladia which has been playing a lot of Sugarland videos. Jennifer Nettles is so hot.

So it is 6:00 AM now and sork today is going to be a lot of fun. I seriously need to get motivated at work and lack of sleep ain't gonna help any.

Lolo lost another tooth standing in line at some christian book store about a week ago (the wife buying presents). Apparently other people in line offered her money if she pulled her very loose tooth out. So she yanked it out and after cleaning up the blood she cleaned up by collecting $25 from people in line. That's my girl.

On my own with the hellions

The wife took a much deserved weekend away with her girlfriends. She left on Friday morning. I picked up the kids at school at 3:00 and I was planning on meeting the mother-in-law and dumping the kids on her but when I got to school Atticus was tugging at his ear. It was nice and red and he said his ear hurt. So off to the doctor I went.

We have Aetna health insurance and their network it bad in the area where I live. Ok I am being too nice. The Aetna network fucking sucks where I live. My cardiologist and both of the two urgent care centers (where you can take a sick kid on the weekend or after hours) are out of network. Aetna network SUCKS!

So I was planning on going back to work cuz I have so much shit do to. But I sat in the doctor's office with Atticus for about an hour and a half. My mother-in-law came to the doctor's office and picked up the girls and took them to her house. So it was just to boys at home Friday night. I don't remember what we did so it must not have been too exciting.

Yesterday I took Atticus to the lake and drove the boat arouned and continued to be perplexed at the oil pressure guage continually bouncing between normal pressure and no pressure. I hope it is just the sending unit.

Today I took all three of the hellions to my brother's house about two hours drive away. He is in the process of building his house. He has the framing, roof, subfloors and drywall up. The first floor is painted. it is going to be a nice house. The kids enjoyed their time there and didn't want to leave because they got to play with their cousins.

Tonight was hell getting them to sleep because they were all so tired without any nap. Hell, I'm tired too!

Waste of time

I rented a movie called "Meteor" which I find out (after watching it) is a mini series starring Stacey Keach, Christopher Lloyd and Jason Alexander. I watched the DVD and I will never get those two hours of my life back. It absolutely sucked.

AFib and Enemas

This past Sunday Adrienne was beside herself with pain in her bottom- "My bottom hurts!" She kept asking us to wipe her bottom. She had not had a bowel movement in several days so the wife went to the store and purchased a child's enema which we adminstered. The first try the wife inserted and squirted but didn't pull the mini turkey baster out before letting go of the bulb so it just sucked all the medication back into the enema. So she had to reinsert while I held Adrienne down screaming. She then removed the baster before letting go of the bulb and the medication reached the colon as needed. The bonus was that when the wife pulled out the turkey baster she got a few good squirts of shit on her arms. She just loves getting shit on.

About one minute later Adrienne had explosive shit in the toilet where it was supposed to be. She had immediate relief from her pain. That was two days ago.

Now she still has not had a bowel movement since the enema and we are concerend that she is constipated again because she is complaining that her bottom hurts. The wife bought some oral laxative but it takes 12 hours to work. We will keep our fingers crossed that the laxative works. I am of the impression that Adrienne is afraid it will hurt to poop (due to the constipation) so she won't try. Whe she won't try to poop it just keeps getting worse.

Today I am pretty sure I went into Atrial Fibrillation. I had eaten lunch at home as was sitting in front of my computer (what an unusual occurance) and I notice my heart jumping around in my chest. It was pretty much the same feeling I had gotten before when I was in Atrial Fibrillation. I drove to work and went in for a while and went straight back home. I laid on the bed for about twenty minutes and took my blood pressure which was normal. I then was back in rhythm. Thank Zeus!!! I hate being in atril fibriallation! I hope this shit doesn't start happening again after the two surguries I have been through.

Challenges Keep on Coming

Lolo had oral surgery yesterday. She had an extra permanent tooth that was horizontal in her pallet and was blocking the descending of her regular permanent teeth. The doctor had to remove three of her top baby teeth to access the extra permanent tooth.

The prescription they gave her to relax her before surgery made her kind of confused and she cried before she go the IV but when they got it in she said that she didn't even feel it.

The surgery took about ten minutes and I got to go back to see her wake up. She was really knocked out and I had to carry her out to the car. She rode lying down with her head in the wife's lap. When we got home we looked at the gauze in her mouth to change it out since it was becoming soaked with blood. The wife found an extra tooth just protruding out of the gauze. She apparently had lost a bottom tooth right after surgery or when they put the gauze in her mouth. We were happy she didn't swallow it.

She definitely has a different smile now with all those teeth missing. She certainly is growing up.

Adrienne went to the doctor on Thursday because she had been constantly complaining (very loudly when in public) that her bottom itched. The doctor diagnosed her with a yeast infection and gave her medicine. She had been on teh medicine now for almost three days and she cried about all day today that her bottom hurt and itched. She urinated on the floor and on the sofa so we are now worried about a urinary tract infection. We went through so much hell with Lolo- we certainly don't want Adrienne to go through that too!

Atticus has a toy catalog that he as obsessed over for almost two days now. He looks through all the pages and asks me or the wife what each toy is and how much it costs. He is particularity fond of a Harley Davidson motorcycle battery operated toy that he could ride. It is $219 (I can remember the price because he has asked me how much it costs about fifty times today) so I don't think we will be getting that for him.

I drank too much red wine last night.

Looking Back to Pee

Adrienne pee peed in the potty for the very first time at 7:20 on 5/6/08. Obviously that was not the end of diapers- it still took another year before diapers were a thing of the past.

My Father's Health

This morning my father had a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) also known as a "mini-stroke" or "warning stroke". I was not there but this is what my mother relayed to me. He had arisen early to go to his church to help cook breakfast. When he got back he went to get the newspaper and came back in the house. He was slurring his speech and my mother could not really understand what he was saying. My sister-in-law was there too and she had difficulty understanding my father as well. My mother had called me to tell me that my nephew wanted to see Lolo so they could play. I loaded up Lolo in the car and drove to the parents. When I got there Mom was pulling out of the garage in dad's car. She stopped and rolled down the window and told my dad (twice in a very mean tone of voice) to stick out his tongue. When he did it went to one side which is a sign of a stroke. I told her to get him to the hospital immediately.

She called me on the way and asked me my opinion of which hospital they should go to. We have two hospitals in the county in short driving distance. I instructed her to go to what I felt was the better of the two. I made sure Lolo was cool staying with the sis-in-law and went to the hospital. The already had Dad in a room in the Emergency Department. The doctor talked to us very clearly, personably and he took his time. This was much, much better than the last experience I had in a ED.

Dad's signs improved and his speech got much better and when he stuck out his tongue it no longer wagged to one side. They took him for a CT scan and brought him back quickly. A nurse told us that the CT scan was normal and that there were no anomalies. So we sat there and waited. I waited for probably another 45 minutes and decided that they would probably release him and the parents were both telling me to get back to the family. So I left and headed to Lowe's to buy the shit to paint Adrienne's room including a $100 chandelier that looked like it had purple crystals on it but looked pink in Adrienne's room. So now I get to take that back sometime.

Well they decided to keep Dad for 48 hours for observation since a TIA can be a warning sign for further stoke.

It is kind of torturous to think about but one day my father will die. Today made me really think about that. How will I handle it? I guess I am more afraid that my mother would pass away first because my father really cannot seem to be able to take care of himself. It isn't something that I really like to think about but nevertheless, I think i am rather mentally prepared for when it does happen.

I love my father and he was a very good father to me and to my brother- not perfect because no one is, but he was very good to us- even when I wanted to fight him for making me come home from a party when I was 16 or 17 years old. He was always there, he always provided for us, and he put up with my mother belittling him continually and treating him like a piece of shit while at the same time taking very good care of him physically.

Blowing off steam

Business sucks.

Adrienne's finger is healing very well. We went to the orthopedic surgeon last week and they took the stitches out which was an excruciating happening for Adrienne and both me and the wife. The orthopaedic surgeon questioned why the emergency department doctor did not use dissolvable stitches. He did tie one or two stitches using the dissolvable type but the other four he used regular stitches and poor Adrienne didn't understand the reason they had to come out. The orthopaedic surgeon said that the emergency department doctor should have to take out the stitches.

Atticus has been to the doctor last week with an ear infection. He still has a tube in his left ear and there was a bunch of wax and nasty stuff that was blocking the tube from doing its job. The family doctor removed that and put him on an antibiotic and he is fine.

I went to the doctor the week before last with a cough and they put me on Azithromycin which did nothing because I had to go back to the doctor Friday with a low grade fever and splitting headache. I never get headaches, so when I do, I am definitely sick. I have been coughing for the past three weeks. My family doctor listened to my lungs and thought he heard something. They took a chest x-ray and sure enough I have walking pneumonia. So I am on another antibiotic.

So all three of the hellions were at the mother-in-law's house Friday night. Saturday morning we got up and I was feeling pretty good. The wife took a shower and I walked into the room as she was putting her clothes on. She looked at me and I looked at her and she said "What? You are looking at me like you want to have sex. We have to get some stuff done" which meant painting Adrienne's room.

It has been at least three weeks since I have gotten any, so the streak continues. I guess I can't be too critical of her because she is on a drug that decreases her already pretty low libido. Also I didn't get her anything for our 9th anniversary. She never said anything to me about this, but I know it really, really bothers her. I hate these occasions because I hate trying to buy something for someone else. She did spend $70 of our money to buy me a massage for our anniversary (which of course I would have never bought for myself). I guess I am just going to have to force myself to buy presents and learn to live with the lack of sexual satisfaction with a partner and just be appreciative of what I do have.

A Traumatic Night

Well tonight started out normal enough. I arrived home and ate dinner after everyone else had finished- this is pretty normal. I normally get home about 6:00 PM. Atticus and Adrienne got in the shower together. I got them out and dried them off. My sister called and I talked to them while the hellions were running around playing. I handed off the phone to the wife so I could get the kids finished for bed. Got the pajamas on Adrienne, Atticus and Lolo and then while the wife was still on the phone.

Adreinne brought me the green from that is a puppet that croaks the tunes of Old McDonald, Frere Jacque and London Bridges. They love it when I chase them with the frog and make it nip at them when they are writhing in giggling fun on the floor. I chased Adrienne and Atticus into the the master bedroom and had a few songs they both jumped up and bolted out of the bedroom down the hall and towards Atticus' room. Atticus entered his room and immediately slammed the door as Adrienne reached for the wrong side of the door (the side with the hinges). The door slammed on her index finger and she immediately started screaming. I was right behind them but not close enough to stop the door slamming. Blood was going everywhere and I grabbed her up and took her into the master bathroom. I had a look at it and it looked like the tip of her finger was crushed.

Her fingernail was perpendicular to the rest of her finger. It made me feel so, so, so horrible for playing part of this. It was her right index finger and she is right handed. I felt like such as ass even though I knew that these things kind of happen. We are always telling the kids not to slam doors but they are kids and they don't listen to their parents.

It was about 7:40 and we needed to get to the hospital. We had two other kids and I felt that we didn't have time to put them into the car. The wife called my mother who lives about six miles away to come over. I called a neighbor because I thought we needed to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. Adrienne calmed down pretty quickly and was really brave. Fortunately the wife was more coolheaded than me and got some ice to put on Adrienne's finger.

My mother arrived before the neighbor did and I sent the neighbor home. We headed to the hospital and were seen by the triage nurse within about five minutes. Adrienne was not crying but she had been shivering some. She was very calm and cried a little bit when the triage nurse put the heart rate monitor on her uninjured finger.

So we went to an Emergency Department room and sat for about 30 minutes before we were seen by a young doctor who didn't have the best bedside manner. During the wait, Adrienne didn't cry and joked with us. I held her in my lap the entire time.

The doctor looked at it and told us that she would definitely loose her finger nail that might or might not grow back. We needed a x-ray to see if there was a fracture. Another ten minutes passed by and we wen to the x-ray department and Adrienne sat on my lap and did a great job of holding her hand in position for the x-rays. She still was not crying.

The x-ray showed that the tip of her had been fractured. The doctor called it a tuft fracture. He ended up putting four stitches in the finger to put the tip back in place. Two of the stitches were in the nail bed. Adrienne really cried during the stitching. The doctor had to inject lidocaine several times- she really screamed the first time he put the stitch needle so he put more lidocaine in the finger and she really screamed.

She was crying that she wanted to go home and when the wife or I said something like "the doctor is making it better" she sobbed and said through her tears "I don't think so" That made us all laugh.

We felt so bad for Adrienne. It was a really tough and painful thing for a three year old to go through. We were very proud of her and she did such a wonderful job. The nurse said that usually they had to hold down children. Adrienne stayed in place and didn't try to move her hand. She also was very tired. After it was all over the nurse brought her a purple popsicle and Adrienne at it all.

We stopped by McDonalds and got her chicken nuggets and a sprite with a barbie toy. The doctor wrote her a prescription for antibiotics and pain medication so I ran to Walgreens in Hickory (since it is the only 24 hour pharmacy in the county) and got back home about midnight.

I am really concerend that the doctor did a good job. I don't think he irrigated the finger enough (but I am not a doctor) and I don't konw if he got the tip positioned correctly. I am eager for an orthopedic doctor to look at an x-ray of her hand.

It just kills me to see my children hurt. I guess the moral of the story is that we need to enforce the no-slamming door policy.