To the ER we go

**Warning, not for the faint of heart!!**
Today I was sitting in Relief Society at church when the nursery leader brought Camden in to me. She pointed out that he was bleeding badly through his bandages. Camden said to me, "Mommy, my bandages are all red!" I saw his hand which looked like this:

So I gathered up our things, grabbed Aaron, and went home to change bandages since I hadn't brought any bandages with us. I took Camden into the bathroom to remove the bandages when this happened:



I've never seen an arterial bleed before, but there you have it. It was spraying everywhere! So we wrapped up his hand as best as we could, dropped Audrey off at the neighbor's, and headed to the ER. By the time we arrived at the ER, Camden's hand had bled through one kitchen towel and a cloth baby diaper. For the first time ever, we didn't have to wait even one second in the ER. Everyone was surprised by the blood. We gave the doctor's fair warning that when they took the towels off that they were going to get sprayed with blood. When the removed the towels.... nothing happened. Yay! The bleeding had stopped. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and the doctors said they wanted to, "let sleeping dogs lie," and just wrap it up tightly and have us return to Phoenix in the morning for further treatment at the burn center. They did keep us for just over an hour for observation as they said the amount of blood that Camden had lost was "significant" and "alarming." He was doing alright, so we were sent home with some instructions of things to watch for since he had lost so much blood. They bandaged his fingers in a sort of bent position with the hope that it would keep him from straightening his hand and causing the clot to come free again and cause another arterial bleed. This is the exact opposite of what we are supposed to be doing to make sure that he doesn't develop contracture, which is to keep his hand moving and stretching lots. So, I guess for now we have to keep his fingers curled a little to protect his artery, and then the burn specialists will tell us what to do tomorrow. When I came home and looked at the bathrrom again, I got really sick to my stomach and kind a little woozy. I thought it was kind of funny that happened when all was said and done, and not during the drama. Thank heavens for little miracles, right?

Thank you to everyone for your quick prayers, I'm sure that's why the bleeding stopped and why Camden didn't require a transfusion which very easily might have happened. Now we are just trying to keep Camden hydrated and we will be waking up every hour tonight to make sure that he isn't having any issues due to the blood loss and to also make sure that he doesn't start bleeding again during the night.