Furnace vs. Face: Round 1

This post is not for those with weak stomachs. Please skip this post if your are easily nauseated.

There I lay all snug is my bed; and yes, visions of sugar-plums were dancing in my head. When all of the sudden there arose such a clatter....sorry, I'll stop now, but the first part of my story fits so well with this poem!

I'm woken up by the sound of my brother bursting through the front door yelling, "Kristin, wake up! I need you! Kristin!" I sit myself up in bed quite confused. I wasn't fully awake yet, and I knew I must have heard something wrong, for how many times to you hear a brother yelling to a sister, "I need you!"  :-]

As I clear the sleep from my eyes I see my brother run past my bedroom and into the bathroom with his hands cupped under his chin.

I'm a little confused, because I hadn't even heard him leave for work. When I checked the clock and saw that it was still only 7:53am and he hadn't even been to work yet I was really confused.

"Oh, please don't be sick!", I thought.

Yes, I am a CNA, and I worked in a pediatricians office during swine flu season last year, but I'm still not fond of seeing people vomit.

As I run into the bathroom, there stands Wray leaning over the sink. There is blood running from the top of his face all the way down to his chin, and dripping onto the white sink (yes, I had to mention the white sink.....it just makes this story more dramatic )

Honestly, my first thought was, "Oh good, no vomit...just blood!"

Wray is panicking slightly, and when I check his face it's hard to tell whats wrong since there is so much blood. I really couldn't tell where it was coming from. He also had blood in his mouth, and after checking to make sure all his teeth were still there, we assume it was just from the force of the hit.

He explained that as he was fixing the fire in our outside furnace, the 2x4 that he was using to prop open the coal box lid slipped. With the weight of the lid pushing it down, it hit him quite hard right on his face.

He said he could feel himself starting to pass out, but was able to fight it and stay conscious. After realizing what had just happened, he just figured he was going to have a headache all day, and started up toward his work truck in the driveway. 

A few steps towards his truck he suddenly noticed lots of blood dripping from his face. Not knowing where it was coming from he ran towards the house. That's how he ended up bursting through the front door as described above.

So, back to the bathroom. We clean his face off enough to see that the gash is on his nose right between his eyes. I give him some ice to avoid swelling, and Ibuprofen goes down the hatch.

This thing refuses to quit bleeding though. When he pulls the ice pack away I get my first real good look at it, and it was a lot deeper that I originally thought. With every facial expression he makes this gash just keeps getting nastier. He asks if I think its going to scar, and I said, "Actually Wray, I think that's going to need stitches."

We called his work to let them know he wouldn't be in today. Because of recent circumstances, Wray wasn't too fond of having to go to the emergency room, and I wasn't looking forward to going back there either.

I called a local urgent care center, but they informed me that since the injury was on his face no Doctor in the office would be able to stitch it up in fear of scaring.

So, off to the ER we go. It's snowing pretty bad outside, and the roads were pretty nasty. I kept telling him he could have picked a better day :-]

We make it to the ER, where they promptly take Wray to a room.

After a few CNAs and a Nurse check his wound, a Physicians Assistant comes in to check him. She orders an X-ray to check for a broken nose, and says he will probably need 2-3 stitches.

The X-ray confirms that his nose is broken, and they numb his poor nose so they can clean it and stitch him up. A few stitches in to it she calls me over to the bed and says, "This is a lot deeper than I thought. I think he may need 6 or 7 stitches."

As a look down at his face (sorry if this grosses you out) I see my brothers nasal bone and all that other nice stuff. Yea, I think he'll need a few more stitches.

A broken nose, a slight concussion, an antibiotic, pain meds, 1 Tetanus shot, 2 hours, and 7 stitches later we're headed home.

Needless to say, that's not how either of us thought our morning was going to go. Poor Wray! His nose looks so painful, although he said the pain medicine is working pretty well.

Keep him in your prayers, as he has to get trough the weekend with some pain and stitches right in between his eyes.

Lesson learned: Well, you'd have to ask Wray that, because I've never been in a fight with a furnace!