A rough day for us

This past Thursday while I was at work, I got a call from my Wife.  She informed me that our loving dog wanted to play and injured her in the process.  The injury was most likely a broken finger and what should she do.  Fortunately a nearby worker helped her bring the dog home so she didn't have bring him and hurt herself more.

Since this was our first time using the new insurance I had to spend some time finding where to go, but eventually found out that one of the closest hospitals accepted our insurance.  After getting back from work, I finally saw the injury and it did look painful.  The middle finger was angled to the outside of the hand and very swollen.  We decided to go the the emergency room more out of ignorance, and was later informed by those with a little more hospital experience that we should have gone to the urgent care.

After checking in we waited for about a half hour to forty five minutes before she was called back.  They took her vitals and cleaned her wounds from the fall which was very nice and then we were sent back to the waiting area for about another half hour.  Finally they came to take her x ray, and after waiting for another half hour my wife came back and let me know what the x ray showed.  I didn't get to see it till later but this is what it showed.

The last thing that happened in the morning was a lot of struggling because we didn't pull of her wedding band and engagement ring at the beginning right after she fell.  I did get to find out about the string trick to remove a ring, but unfortunately it didn't work, so now we have to get her rings repaired from being cut off. 

Now that half the day had disappeared, I had to run and take care of the pets and my mother in law.  This is what my wife is usually doing and since she was unable to I had to go and get them food and make sure that everyone was okay.  Then after heading back, I got there just in time to miss the finger being set.  Now the only thing left was to get the follow up x ray.

Now that it is a full hour past how long the staff said we were going to be there, both of us was getting hungry, and with her still stuck there waiting for them to do the follow up x ray, I ran to get food, and came back with her sandwich.  I got there just in time for her to be taken  back for the follow up x ray, and for her to get one bite of the sandwich.  After about 15 minutes she was brought back to the waiting area and then we started to get our discharge briefing about 10 minutes after that.

Finally, 6 and 1/2 hours after getting there, the joint was reset, my wife had a finger splint, and we could finally leave.  All my co-workers who have already gone through this said the same thing. "Why didn't you go to urgent care?"  Unfortunately all I can say is I won't be repeating that mistake again, but at least my wife's hand is healing.  Her last comment was that she could not believe that in 6 and 1/2 hours she never once met a doctor.