"Days Off"

Lets see.. where did we leave off? This week started out with Tim and Zac hauling furniture around the house while I scrubbed kitchen cabinets. Zac headed back to the mainland so we could put the finishing touches on getting the house reading for Grandpa. We only had a few days left to work and a lot to do! I made up a detailed list; hang the light fixtures and buy more for the new spots, clean the windows, install the downstairs toilet, buy a fridge, replace the upstairs sink faucet, make up the beds...

Wednesday morning (I think), Tim was hanging a light fixture of questionable beauty which he was quite proud of after spending more than an hour tediously cleaning the glass droplets and little lights. After hooking it up and having only a couple of the many bulbs click on, Tim went in to do some tinkering and repairs, and as he was taking the light fixture down he suddenly jumped off the chair with a yelp clutching his hand. He ran for the door, briefly flashing me the exposed innards of his wrist.

I helped him to the car while calling 911 and frantically looking for my keys. The operator had me use my shirt for a temporary bandage as the sirens got closer. The medics brought Tim up for a seat in the back of the ambulance while I grabbed keys, shoes, wallets, and phones. With a last glance at Sad Tilly locked in her little room, I shut the doors and got Tim from the medics. Their bandages were unable to stop the bleeding nearly as well as Tim's thumb, so he pushed hard and I drove us the agonizing distance to Whidbey General Hospital in Coupeville. The doctors there gave some local injections of painkillers, a shot of antibiotics, and spent an hour on the phone locating a hand surgeon before sending us back to the car with strict instructions not to stop until we reached Harborview Medical in downtown Seattle and not to feed or water the Tim until we had talked to a surgeon.

After a couple painful bandage changes, the bleeding stopped and we were ready to leave Whidbey General

Meanwhile, I had sent a cryptic text to my dad in Alaska: Can you find our neighbor's phone number a few houses down and ask them to take Tilly out? I don't know their address or last name. He used his Dad superpowers and got right on it. In no time, she'd been rescued from our horror house of broken glass and blood and brought to play with her favorite friend, Sandy. I had thought it would be a few hours to get patched up and checked out at the local hospital, but this was quickly turning into a bigger deal.

A long, rush-hour, dark, I-5 and down town Seattle, bumpy, painkiller free drive later, we got Tim into the Emergency room, where we were quickly set up in a room and attended by a stream of doctors and nurses. Some life-long family friends of Tim's from Seattle, Bill and Julie, stopped in to see us, and eventually the surgeons came around. After more poking and prodding and excruciating pain, the hand team declared Tim in need of repair, with severed veins, tendons, and nerves, mostly in his left pointer and thumb. The hand team also declared we could now eat until midnight as surgery wasn't likely until at least morning. With less than an hour left on the food-clock, our nurse made it top priority to get us settled in our room for the night with something to eat as quickly as possible. We were hooked up with a shared room in the Burn Unit with another guy and a tasty turkey sandwich for Tim.

The door to our room

After a long night of painkillers and a long day of watching cartoons and waiting, Tim was grabbed for surgery and whisked to the basement surgery unit. I waited and watched the monitor for Tim's number to be up and to see him back in our room. After a couple hours, he was set free and wheeled back up to our room where his nurse lost no time getting him discharged. Julie hung out with us while we finished up the last of the paperwork, scheduled our follow up visits, and carefully dressed Tim around his new cast.

Tim heading into surgery, thoroughly drugged.

Watching the screen while Tim was in surgery.

We headed up to Bill and Julie's house to stay near the hospital and to keep the drive short. They supplied us with every extra blanket and pillow in the house for propping up Tim's arm. Every three hours all night and all day, we kept to the schedule for painkillers. The following day, Joe had already planned on heading to Whidbey before the accident and stopped in on his way up to feed us and visit. My mom, grandpa, and uncle were all also already on their way to Whidbey and also stopped in on their way up later that night. We spent one more night in our Seattle suite before climbing back into the car for the long ride home, this time with pillows and painkillers.

Finally aloud to eat, cozy at Bill and Julie's house

Our neighbors had been putting up with an unexpected sick puppy for a few days and were well past their good neighbor quota for the year. I got on the phone our first morning at Bill and Julies and called in search of reinforcements. She's too young to go to a kennel, having barely gotten her shots, plus being sick and needing to go out every half hour, so I called my vet desperate for ideas. The AMAZING girl who answered the phone took pity on me and remembered Tilly from our recent visit and her full-body wiggles of delight and offered to take in the poor beast until my mom arrived.

Tilly freshly laundered before our arrival

Since getting back to the house, and reuniting with Tilly, it's been a blur of waking up for frequent pills and taking the sick puppy out all night. Lots of napping, or taking it easy watching funny movies in bed. I can't imagine what it would be like if we'd gotten home to no toilet and a puppy without my mom, uncle, and Tim's dad waiting for us to pitch in and keep us going.

The remains of the light fixture after my uncle's careful disassembly