The weirdest breakfast ever
(and that one time I had to ride in an ambulance. Please skip this post if you’re squeamish, like yours truly.)
Hi 🙂 Hope you’re all having a wonderful day. I’m typing this with one hand because I had a little incident today.
It all started with this weird breakfast I had yesterday.
This is going to sound totally bizarre, but that’s Elana’s Pantry Paleo bread (made with some applesauce so it was sweet), cubed and topped with almond milk and fresh fruit. It was almost like a bread pudding (so good!!) and I knew I wanted it again for breakfast today. Livi was happily eating her oatmeal and fruit at the table, and I was in the kitchen, using a knife to shimmy the last hunk of bread out of the loaf pan. The knife slipped and went directly into my thumb. I immediately knew that it wasn’t a “put a Band-Aid on it and call it a day” kinda cut.
If you’ve been reading the blog for a while (thank you!), you know I’m the biggest weenie with blood and medical stuff. Even though I was panicking in my head, I somehow kept it together while I tried to call 911 and hold a cloth over my thumb as it shot blood all over the kitchen and floors. The most frustrating part: my phone wouldn’t dial. My fingers were slightly wet since I’d rinsed my thumb in the sink, and the keypad wouldn’t work. It was pretty scary/annoying simultaneously trying to call for help and pep-talk myself out of passing out. Finally, I got the “emergency” button to work and the EMTs came quickly.
After the vitals and questions, Liv and I were off to the hospital.
(She was strapped into the kid’s seat behind me, chatting with the EMTs and waving at me)
The Pilot met us there, I got some stitches, and all is bueno now. The amazing part was that I didn’t cry, even with how freaked out I was, until the nurse pulled my thumb apart to inspect the tendon. (I was close, but it was intact, thank goodness.) I’m just thankful that it I was being treated instead of anyone else, and that it wasn’t worse.
Livi was amazing during the entire thing. She was also really interested in the medical stuff, and watched intently during my shots, as I was cleaned up, and my thumb was stitched back together.
I’m also thankful for the team of EMTs (they grabbed the bag of snacks I’d originally packed for Livi’s school day + her shoes and my purse), the sweet nurses (one was singing “Let It Go” with Liv), and the Pilot, who just finished cleaning up the aftermath all over the kitchen and patio floors.
Breakfast ended up being even better:
(Gluten-free pancakes and eggs at the Broken Yolk)
Hope you’ve had a happy and pleasantly uneventful day. Thank you to all of you for the sweet well wishes on Instagram, too <3
xoxo
Gina
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Oh dang, so glad you are okay! Serious props to you for staying calm, and it sounds like Livi did awesome, maybe she’ll be a nurse? :). Well wishes and a speedy recovery.
I’m so sorry about your finger! I had a similar experience about a year ago – I lost the fight with an avocado pit and a knife. Four stitches later and I was back at home to retrieve the avocado on the floor of my kitchen. As freaked out as I was, my first thought was getting a dark colored towel so I didn’t stain a white one with blood! Haha! So glad Livi was enthralled with the entire experience. 🙂
In my opinion, you should have just called a taxi! It wasn’t life threatening!
no it wasn’t, but i’d rather have my child safely strapped in a child’s seat than riding freely on the freeway. also, i’m not sure how cab drivers feel about blood all over their backseat
also, if i would have taken a cab (which i wouldn’t in this situation, ever) i’d be getting comments saying that i should have called 911 and it was irresponsible. it’s funny to me. you gotta do what’s best for you, and in this case, i’m confident i made the right and safest choice
Agreed. Imagine if your 911 call for a cut thumb stopped someone who actually desperately needed an ambulance making it to the hospital in time…
it’s not like i had a paper cut. i was alone, with my baby, and gushing blood all over the kitchen. the EMTs weren’t like, “do you want to go to the hospital?” they said “you might have cut your tendon. you need stitches, we’re taking you to the hospital.”
if you want to take your baby in a cab and make friends with the driver by bleeding all over his car, that’s great for you, but it wasn’t the right choice for me. i was not capable of driving, and usually faint at the sight of blood. if you want to talk about “what-ifs,” what if i would have fainted before calling 911 and was really injured, and liv was here alone with a mom bleeding everywhere and a concussion?
I’m not saying it was a paper cut, but if you’re able to take a gratuitous ambulance instagram shot then I can’t imagine it was that bad…
Unless you’ve had your leg blown off, most cuts can be wrapped (with several layers if necessary!) so they won’t bleed everywhere. I’ve sliced nearly all the way through my finger before and was able to stem the flow of blood with basic first aid skills, which I assume you have being a fitness instructor? I’m sure you must have at least one friend or neighbour who could have driven you and saved the ambulance.
I’m not trying to attack you personally here, so please there is no need to be so defensive. I just don’t think that this is a good story to put out on the internet. Misuse of the emergency services is a severe issue which can cause real problems.
I have a family member who is an EMT. You are right, misuse of emergency services is a real issue. But people call the fire department for FAR less. Dead battery in a smoke detector, a sore throat (free ride to the doctor), ect.
It’s really easy to tell someone what they should have done. Gina didn’t feel safe getting to the hospital any other way, period. The vast majority of fire departments have multiple ambulances per department, and the staff to handle multiple calls at one time. Unless there was some major disaster in her town that day, it’s pretty safe to say that she didn’t take the services away from someone who had a critical need.
I’m not being defensive- just explaining my situation. I snapped the pic because I had my phone out to call Tom. I didn’t Instagram it until hours later, when we had left the hospital. I’m just saying that there’s no way to judge someone’s situation unless you’ve been there. My closest friends live at least 15 minutes away. I do have basic first aid knowledge, and even with it wrapped and pressure, it was still bleeding profusely and I felt lightheaded
I think you both are terrible and were not there and have no idea how bad the situation was. Nor did you witness the blood everywhere or a small child being terrified of what happened to her mother. Nor do you all live in a new neighborhood with no family in town. I think you all should get a life. She did the best thing she could with the situation she was in.
I hope your day gets better!
It takes 20-30 minutes to get a taxi to my house. So… Not always a good or realistic option.
wow you guys! way to kick a girl when she’s down.
how exactly does one get their toddler safely strapped in their carseat with an almost-severed thumb, while simultaneously freaking out on the inside and trying not to pass out at the sight of blood….and then safely drive to the hospital? Uh, no. I would have done the exact same thing Gina.
Do you live in San Diego?
do you? either way, i’m not putting my child in a car on the freeway without a carseat
oh no, that’s awful! i’m so glad you’re okay, though. my knife slipped while i was quickly slicing a bell pepper once – luckily i didn’t need stitches, but it still freaked me out. i’m really squeamish when it comes to blood and almost passed out when i saw how much i was bleeding! :/
Oh no, Gina! So sorry about your accident! Happens to the best of us though. Funny how being a mom makes you able to handle a crisis with calmness and clarity, right?
Speedy recovery!!
You sound a lot like me! I recently cut my thumb too, only it was the tip so I couldn’t get stitches and they had to cauterize me…causing the bf to pass out! Glad you’re ok and cool to see that your daughter wasn’t scared…maybe you’ve got a future doctor or nurse on your hands 🙂
Liv found the medical part interesting? Got a future doc in the house? 🙂
Glad you’re doing better and it wasn’t worse. That’s so scary!
Oh no 🙁 I’m so sorry this happened and am glad you are on the mend and that you got the care that you needed! [EMT would not have transported if they also didn’t think it was necessary just as an FYI for folks out there.]
When I first moved to Birmingham, my index finger was on the “losing end” of slicing a knife and an apple. Sliced through the joint capsule and needed stitches.
“[EMT would not have transported if they also didn’t think it was necessary just as an FYI for folks out there.]”
Actually, that’s not true. I was an EMT for over half a decade and we were required to transport anyone who wanted to be taken to the hospital. We could not turn people away, due to the liability risks, no matter how minor or even non-existent the “emergency”. I’ve transported people to the ER for much dumber and simpler reasons than a laceration to the finger, trust me. Many, many people use ambulances as taxi services.
And in most places around the US, emergency services like fire and EMS are stretched thin to the point of critical and unsafe understaffing, to due budget cuts and lack of state or county funding. These systems are already taxed, and response times for true emergency calls are driven even higher when emergency services are abused. Obviously, if you’re unsure if a situation is an emergency, you should err on the side of caution and call 911. But if a situation is not life threatening, it never hurts to take a few minutes and wait to assess to see if emergency medical care is really needed. For a minor laceration, usually a patient would be taken to the triage nurse in an ER and would probably be sent to the waiting room, so even a trip via ambulance wouldn’t reduce the amount of time that you would spend waiting for treatment.
I am pretty certain you getting upset with one woman who did the very best she could in the situation she was in with a toddler to also worry about is not going to change a damn thing about the system. Scream your cause elsewhere sister.
Over half a decade, eh? Burned out in the average 6 years, then? No shame in it… the average paramedic in the US lasts less than 6 years, and EMT is variable by region. Me? I’ve been an EMT for 10 years and a nurse for 2 now.
Unless she had hubby or friends close by to help, which she didn’t, I say she did exactly the right thing and got herself and her child safely to the ER for care. Everyone’s threshold for “emergency” is different. Home alone with a toddler, unable to gain bleeding control, unable to drive self? You bet that’s an appropriate use of 911. Obviously they didn’t feel she was in good enough shape to treat and release (bandage so she could drive self) and transported her.
Don’t lose your compassion in the frustration of your past experiences with EMS misuse. Or did you forget how to put yourself in the patient’s shoes by the end? Save the anger for the true abusers, not a military wife who did the best she could think to do to keep herself and her daughter safe.
Let’s be honest here, 90% of EMS is bullshit calls anyway. The sad truth is, we teach our up-and-coming EMS students that it’s all about 911 emergency calls, fast driving, life threatening illness and cardiac arrests, rapid trauma assessments requiring you to cut off all the patient’s clothes… when really, a lot of it is something that a community health based intervention is more appropriate for. How many calls are from exacerbation of chronic illnesses, like diabetes, asthma, COPD, hypertension? How many calls are because people don’t understand how to seek continuing care and use the ER like their PCP’s office?
On the flip side, how many people wait to call on the funny chest pain, and we’re lambasting them or their family because it’s an acute MI that’s been going on for 6 hours now? That’s why we tell people to call… you never know.
The point is, I’m sorry you worked for a “you call, we haul, that’s all, because we’re scared of lawyers” service, but that doesn’t give you the right to get snarky. If you’re still in EMS in some capacity, I hope you find your balance… and a better service to be working for.
I think it is nothing short of amazing how we can react in times like this. We are not always who we “think” we are and we are so much stronger than we know! You and Livi handled a tough situation like pros it seems 🙂
I’m so glad your OK! That is always such a fear of mine (and i’m sure every other mom) for something to happen while your at home alone with the kids! Do they give you a shot before they start stitching you up?
it’s always been a fear for me too. yeah, thankfully. the nurse tried to examine the tendon before they number me, and it hurt so much
GAH! i cringe for you, girl!! yikers! i break in to embarrassingly awful opera style theatrics when i have a kitchen accident (like that time i sliced off half a fingernail while chopping kale). i also would have called an ambulance– what else are you supposed to do by yourself?! like honestly…
Oh no, how scary! Hope you feel better soon!
The Broken Yolk is dangerous for me, HUGE portions!
Ok–I just read through a bunch of these comments. Seriously–some of you are just being ridiculous and have wayyy too much time on your hands. Gina was alone with a child and severely cut her finger. She did what any sane and normal person would do in her situation. There’s no reason to judge and attack–especially when you don’t know what you would do in an emergency. Completely alone. With a child! It’s scary. And I think we should all be more compassionate.
Amen sister!
Whoa, I thought the same thing! I was so shocked at how some people responded (the “abusing the system” thing never even entered into my mind)! Everyone’s situation is different. I once cut my thumb really badly while home with my husband and our infant daughter. My husband helped keep me calm enough to assess the situation, wrap up the wound, and determine that I needed to go to the hospital. I drove myself so my husband could stay behind with our daughter and make sure she was in bed on-time. But if I’d been by myself I 100% would have called an ambulance! With bad cuts there’s a “shock” factor (which could be an actual medical condition, too). You panic, its hard to think straight, and these factors are exacerbated if you’re squeamish around blood (as Gina is). And the fact that a young child is there witnessing the whole thing? Terrifying! I was particularly off-put by the comment about calling a friend to drive her. This may have hit close to home being that my husband and I live out-of-state from the rest of our relatives so I know how difficult it can be when you don’t have a support system near by. Did we forget Gina is a military wife? Luckily she does have some friends in the area, but I don’t think that’s a given that she can just call them up and rely on them. And we know she doesn’t have any family there.
Anyway, vent over. The point is – I’m glad Gina and Livi are both okay. I think the whole ordeal would have been incredibly traumatic so I’m glad that Liv looked at it like an adventure and took it like a champ! Happy healing!!
Sending you love and healing vibes! I hope your thumb gets better quickly! Also, the Broken Yolk makes everything better. <3
I hope your thumb heals quickly! I did the same thing a few years ago when trying to cut a frozen bagel (don’t ever try that). I ended up in the emergency room with a slipper sock wrapped around my thumb while I waited, haha. It was annoying to have stitches but fortunately nothing too terrible! Get well soon!
So sorry that happened. I’m sure you’ll never try to get bread out like that again :). Glad to hear Livi was such a little champ and did well with the confusion/chaos. The nurse in me is glad you didn’t sever your tendons!! Sending good healing vibes <3
i should have just used the spatula :/
thank you– i’m thankful too!
Wow! I can’t believe the comments here. Gina did what she felt was best in the moment for her safety and her child’s safety. She clearly needed medical attention, and she had to react quickly in the moment. Let’s all be supportive here and thankful that she made the right call for her and she is now on the mend!
thank you <3
I just read this and I am so happy that you are ok! 🙂 I live alone and I am in nursing school, but trauma freaks me out and I would have done the exact same thing. I can not believe the comments, I had to stop reading them they made me too sad. You are awesome and I love reading your blog 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing! Two days later, I had a similar accident- I stabbed right through my hand while trying to get the pit out of an avocado. I had to call the EMTs too as I nearly passed out. Luckily my hand is on the mend too, but I’ve also struggled with needing extra help and having to cut down on exercise. On the flip side, I keep being told that I’m a bada**, which is not unwelcome! From one stitched-and-banadged-hand girl to another, feel better soon!
WHOA. i can’t believe a similar thing happened to you. i’m sorry :((( i’ve also needed extra help lately (opening jars and cans is the worst). thinking of you and hope you feel better soon, too!