The Black Toe and the Missing Child

Warning, gross toe photo's ahead...

 

A few weeks ago I bought Grady this Responsibility Chart in an effort to reinforce good behavior.  It actually has worked really well, I just tell him something like cleaning up after yourself is one of your responsibilities and he is more likely to help out.  As I was trying to find a place to hang this large wooden chart, I tested it out on one of those 3M wall hooks.  I didn't think it would hold the weight so I tested it by tugging on it lightly, and it came crashing down on my big toe...

 

 

It hurt...a lot...and I'm pretty proud of myself for not shouting any profanities as Grady was nearby.  So, I had this bruise at the bottom of the nail and I though man, this will take forever to grow out.  By that night it was extremely painful and I took a large overdose of ibuprofen to take away some of the pain.  I did this the day my sister-in-law came to visit, so I was in for a lot of walking (limping) in the days ahead.

 



The next day we went to the zoo, which involved a lot of uphill walking.  I wanted a toe transplant at this point and seriously considered buying a snow cone to stick my toe into.  By the end of the day my toe was more like 75% black. 

 

The following day was the Children's Museum.  Walking was a little easier and there where lots of places I could sit and rest while watching the kids play.  Then Grady wandered off while I looked the other direction for about two seconds.  I saw him go inside the giant stomach and the next second he was gone.  I walked around the exhibit we were in and didn't spot him.  I figured he'd gone back over to the grocery store area, but he wasn't there either.  I tried not to panic while I searched the entire floor we were on, but when I didn't see him, my heart rate started to pick up.  I left Dean with my sister-in-law and headed upstairs to look for him.  At this point, my injured toe didn't hurt at all.  My adrenaline was pumping and I was no longer walking with a limp.  I just walked as quickly as possible from one exhibit to the next.  I must have looked distraught because one of the museum employees asked if I was missing someone.  I told her yes, I'm looking for my son.  I held myself together pretty well up until the point when she asked me to describe my son to her.  The tears started flowing as I struggled to describe him.  It was every mothers worse nightmare.  I can't even begin to describe the different images of his where-abouts I was coming up with.  I was asked to go to the front of the museum and wait while they found him.  I think it was only 5 minutes later when they spotted him upstairs in the tree house slide, happily playing.  He wouldn't go anywhere with the museum staff so I went up to him.  He didn't understand that he did anything wrong.  Later when I talked to him about it, he kept saying "but I was just going to play on the slide."  Although, when I told him how scared I was, he got upset, so hopefully he'll remember to keep me in sight at all times.  I bet children wander off all the time at the museum, in fact, there was a little girl looking for her mom at the same time I was looking for Grady.  Once I wrapped my arms around Grady, my toe suddenly started throbbing again, and I found the nearest place to sit down and rest.

 

 back to the black toe...two days later my whole nail was black.  The pressure under the nail was very uncomfortable.  I had a regular doctors appointment already scheduled on day four of the injury, she said the nail would fall of in a week or two.

 

 

A week post injury and the massive hematoma under my nail has spread outside the nail.  I'll be honest, against my better judgement as a nurse, I sterilized a needle and poked a hole in my toe to drain the blood.  While it relieved the pressure for a little while, the hematoma refilled.  The pain in the toe is almost gone, but there is still a lot of pressure under the nail.  I do still limp/walk on the side of my foot which is getting annoying.  And Grady likes to pretend he's going to touch my toe which makes me anxious.  He's also "accidentally" stomped on my toe a few times.  Ouch!  



 

Maybe I'll paint the rest of my toenails black so this one isn't so obvious during flip flop season!