The saga of the hand (WARNING: GRUESOME MATERIAL AHEAD!!!)

So, every 6 months or so, Che' and I decide to get together to make freezer meals. Freezer meals make everyone's lives easier and we have the art down to a science. We prep for a week: Pick our meals, make a list for groceries (we quadruple every meal so that she ends up with 2 and I end up with 2), divide the shopping, prep the meat ahead of time and prep/cut the veggies ahead of time. Then on the day of, we whip together meals like nobody's business and end up with a freezer full each (this time we ended up with over 100 meals- so 50 each. Yeah, it's awesome).

Everything has always gone off without a hitch....until this time.
Dun, Dun, Dun....

We were already behind for the day, so we were trying to hurry along. I was opening a can of pineapple and  couldn't quite get the lid to come all the way off with our crappy can opener. So instead of trying to get it with the can opener or even to open it by sticking a spoon in there or something, I stuck my hand in to pull up on the lid. You know you have done this before-- and so have I a million times without consequences. However, this can lid was stubborn and I said to Che', "I am going to cut myself." Not even two seconds later, there was blood gushing everywhere. I had ripped through the skin of four of my fingers on my left hand- every finger but my pointer. I was standing over the sink, so I ran water over them and they didn't look all that bad, but all I could tell was that there was a lot of pain and a lot of blood. Then I got really light headed and felt like I was going to pass out, so Che' rushed me to the couch to get me to lay down. We put a kitchen towel around my hand and I was holding pressure on all of my fingers to stop the bleeding. After a while, I glanced at my fingers to check out the damage and it appeared that my fingers looked okay, but my thumb had a big chunk of skin hanging off and you could see right in there. Disgusting. Che' has a picture of that that I will spare you!

Che' then came over to check it out and I was positive I was going to be able to just put some bandaids on and continue on. But, she took one look and told me that I needed to get to the instacare for some stitches. So, Devin hauled me to the instacare (and I was looking lovely might I add-- freezer meal day has never been a day that you get up and get ready if you know what I mean...). So Che' got stuck at the house with all 5 kids and a ton of freezer meals that still needed to be made. Devin and I waited at the instacare for a while and then finally got called back. I thought they were going to tell me that I needed stitches in my thumb only, but no-- all four fingers. lovely. It was a painful process, but we got those babies stitched up. The doctor and nurse became my new best friends as I got to know them really well during those 45 minutes.

With my new stitchwear, we were finally out of there. I knew I was not going to be much help with one hand, so I made Devin call into work so that he could stay home and help finish the meals and then clean up the mess. He joked with me that I went to great lengths to get out of cleaning the kitchen. It's true.

I didn't have much use of my left hand for the first week or so, so my nice neighbors brought food, helped me with getting the kids in their jammies at night, and Devin's parents also brought us a bunch of food. Super sweet. Devin got the job of doing my hair each day. :) What a good husband.

Now, it has been almost two weeks and I got the stitches out yesterday. The doctor told me that I will never be a hand model as my fingers will always have scars, and boy am I sad about that... (yeah right-- I would never be a hand model since I am such a nail biter...). So sad.

Now, enjoy some gruesome looking photos of the journey.

At the instacare-- no shot of the thumb, lucky for you...

looking great

This appears that you can see my spirit says Devin. haha! I hope I didn't come that close to death...

After a few days. My fingers were so black and blue and swollen like sausages. I was lucky, though, that all the cuts were in between joints on my fingers. Could have been a lot worse!

Devin's first day of doing my hair. What a lovely job.

look how swollen those fingers are in that one...

Still a little black and blue, but pretty functional now. You can't see the scars very well, but they are there. I am married again as well! (I didn't wear my ring that entire time-- couldn't get it over my fat fingers and over the stitches! I only got asked out once. True story. By a client...)

First freezer meal casualty. Totally worth it.