Jack's Bad Day!

At the end of the school year I had a conversation with the school librarian. She was talking about how much fun she thought Jack was. She asked me, "has Jack ever had a bad day?" I told her that no, Jack had bad moments, but never really a bad day. He is my easy going kid.

Well, he will officially tell you now that he's had a bad day.... a few in a row, actually! While heading into the house on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon, Jack managed to somehow slam the door on his own finger. We're a little unclear as to how it happened, but he slammed the door hard and gave himself quite a nasty bruise. The picture below was the day after it happened and not nearly as bad as it got.


By Friday, the finger was swelling and the pain not improving even a little. We got an x-ray, which was negative. Saturday morning Jack woke up in even more pain and the tip of his finger about 5 times its normal size. It was ugly! Off to the ER we went. The doctor said it probably just needed to be drained. OUCH! It was terribly painful. Mom cried as much as Jack. This is when he said to me that this was "the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my whole entire life". After a consult from the hand surgeon it was determined he has done significant damage to the nail and would need surgery. WHAT?!?!? I was shocked! Of course, Jack is an over achiever. He can't do anything half way!

After the trip to the ER I took Jack to lunch, that perked him up a bit. He was quite annoyed by the HUGE bandage on his finger and still feeling considerable pain.

The following Tuesday we headed to the surgery center for an out-patient procedure. Jack was so nervous and expecting the worst. Before going back to surgery he started getting really goofy and he hadn't even had meds yet! I think he was trying to laugh off his nervousness. I promised him that it wouldn't be bad because he got to sleep through the entire thing! The worst was certainly behind him, but he didn't believe me (yet).

It was so sad to see Jack waking up from anesthesia. He was groggy, confused, queasy, and cold. It took about an hour for him to start to perk up, but was surprised that he felt no pain! After going home he took pain medication for only one day. After that, he was back to his old self. the worst really was over before the surgery. Mom was right.

He has since lost the ugly fingernail and we are now waiting to see if a new nail will come back, and if so, what it will look like. The doctor had said he had never seen a nail bed injury that severe that didn't include a broken bone. Only Jack!