it's a good thing we don't have vampires hanging around...

Last night Ruby had a little accident. Lyla, Ruby and I were about to head out the door to attend a volleyball game that Nate was playing in (Duke vs. UNC MBA's) and Nate was already at the gym they were playing at.

So, as we were just gathering last minute things to put into our bag, I see Ruby by the door with dark stuff all over. At first I thought "What did she get into?" But as I got closer, I realize the dark stuff is actually BLOOD and there was a lot of it! It was all over our door, the window next to the door, the couch, Ruby's sippy cup she was holding, the floor and Ruby's hands. What the heck? I look at her hands and can't find the source of the bleeding yet because the blood was everywhere and was literally just dripping all over the place. So I quickly take her and rinse her hands under some cold water and realize the cut is on the tip of her finger.

Meanwhile, Ruby is crying because she is terrified of all the blood. Lyla is in complete hysterics... I think it was because 1) Ruby was bleeding like crazy and 2) I mentioned that we may need to take Ruby to the doctor (and if you know Lyla, she is a freak when it comes to the doctor... especially if it is for her sister!).

So anyway, I grab several paper towel's to try to get the bleeding under control and she filled up 3 paper towel's with blood and it was still bleeding. At this point I'm thinking the cut is pretty bad and she may need stitches. While this is all happening I am trying to call Nate to tell him to come home and he was not answering (I later found out that he was refereeing the women's volleyball game). So I call my neighbor two door's down and she doesn't pick up. Who else lives close? Who else lives close? Finally I call my friend Cabrina and she picks up right away and I get her to come over. Lyla finally lessen's her hysteric state once I tell her Miss Cabrina was coming over to stay with her while I take Rube to the doctor. She was SO relieved she didn't have to go.

Anyway, I tried cleaning up some of the blood but I really needed to get Ruby's finger to stop bleeding and so I sat with her and put pressure on it. Poor, pregnant Cabrina... by the time she got there, there was still blood all over the floor, the sink, couch, door, window, everything. And our house was a MESS! Anyway, Ruby's finger had stopped pouring blood and was only slowly trickling out and so we wrapped it up in a paper towel and taped it there for the car ride.

Once we got to the ER we were pretty much seen right away (probably because Ruby had her finger wrapped up and she had blood all over her shirt!). We were talking with the triage nurse and he got all the info he needed and then he wanted to take a look at the damage. So we take off her paper towel and guess what?!? The wound had actually sealed on the outside!!!!

I felt like such an idiot.

In my shame and embarrassment, I just kept saying "There really was SO much blood". blah blah blah. Apparently, hand wounds tend to bleed a lot, especially in kids! So, he cleaned her up, put a bandaid on her and said her wound looks superficial and that he can't technically discharge her. Only a doctor could do that. There were several kids in front of Ruby and it would be a few hours until we could see one. So I chose to take off instead since it looked like it had closed up.

Finally, when we get home, I see that Mike (Cabrina's husband) is taking out our trash. When I walk in, I see that they have cleaned my entire downstairs (and believe me, it was SOO messy... we've been sick so we've just been laying around) and they cleaned up all the blood. Man, I felt like such an idiot, especially since I probably over-reacted and got them to come over so I can take Ruby to the ER (when she apparently didn't even need to go) and they were so nice to put my daughter to bed and clean everything up for me. I felt so stupid! I just have to keep reminding myself about the amount of blood and it makes me feel a little less foolish. Anyway, here is a pic of her finger. Phone pic but it's the only one I have of the whole fiasco...

Anyway, her wound may not need stitches but it does keep opening up. After the McNeil's left, Ruby had taken off her bandaid and was grabbing my flip flop and her wound opened right back up and was pouring blood again. So we stopped the bleeding and waited for Nate to come home with more bandaid's and some medical tape. When Nate got home, he was holding her so we could put another back on and it opened up AGAIN and bled a ton. So we stopped it, put triple antibiotic on it, bandaid, and taped it up. She slept great. And then this morning, she had somehow managed to take her bandaid off without me knowing it and it opened up... AGAIN! It's weird, it still looks like very fresh wound. I think Rube is starting to realize that if she takes her bandaid off and uses her finger in any way, it'll bleed. So hopefully she'll keep this one on so we get that finger healed!