Friday, June 12, 2009

Pain and Blood

Yesterday I learned just how freaked out by blood and pain I really am.

Chris was turning on our dining room fan when the light fixture fell. As he tried to catch it, it shattered on his arm giving him a couple of cuts. One which obviously required stitches.

(I am feeling faint just typing this.)

Chris asked to me look inside the wound to see if there was any glass in it. I about died. And then we switched roles. I am normally the one who will do everything to stay away from a doctors office, while Chris is the opposite. (Luckily, we haven't had to go to the doctor for emergencies since we've been married.) But I knew that if we didn't go to the doctor, I would have to do something to clean it and that was not happening. Chris was like "Do I need to go to the doctor?" He was imagining putting some butterfly bandages on it and leaving it at that.

We went to the Riverwoods Urgent Care Center instead of the ER. I am glad we did, because we were out of there within 40 minutes. The dinner we had left behind was still worth saving.

He only needed 3 stitches. The doctor put on a gauze wrap and an ace bandage over that and told him to leave bandage on for about 24 hours and then check for infection. 3 hours later, Chris decided he needed to check for infection sooner. So he unwrapped it. Right next to me. I didn't look at it, but I was cringing the whole time.

I wrapped it up again, without looking the stitches. He wanted it a little looser this time. Then we went to sleep. At about 4 am this morning, I think I bumped his arm which woke him up. At that time we discovered the bandage had moved down exposing the stitches and there was blood. Chris hurried to the bathroom and I started waking up.

When I went into the bathroom to help, I saw what I had been trying to avoid for the past 9 hours. His blue stitches were staring at me in the face and all the blood rushed out of my head and I felt faint. (I haven't felt like this since I got my last tetnus shot, where I actually fainted.) Not wanting Chris to worry about me falling and hurting myself, I went and sat on the couch with my head between my knees while he assessed the damage.

Then we went to Smiths and bought some more bandages. I successfully helped him clean it and re wrap his wound without looking at the stitches again.

But now, I keep relieving the experience. And I know Chris is in a lot of pain because the shot they gave him has worn off, plus they gave him a tetnus shot in the same arm! And those hurt a lot afterward. Because Chris is in pain, I am having sympathy pain.

Both Chris and his step mom asked me what I am going to do when we have children and they get hurt. I. Have. No. Idea. I don't know if I am going to be able to handle it. Glenda (Chris's step mom) said that I need to keep calm at first, and then freak out later. I might need some practice for that, although I don't wish for more opportunities to practice.

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