Before I do that, let me introduce you to...Ken. His full name is Kenmore Elite 9600 Ergo 3 Quilting and Embroidery Machine. Thus...we shall call him Ken for short.
In the ten years since I bought this machine, I have yet to have a sewing injury of any kind. Until last night. Last night was a unique experience, to say the least. I had finished Abbey's quilt, which you saw in my previous post. I had finished a cape to go with her "superhero/princess" costume for Halloween and was in the process of stitching together a letter "A" to go on the back of the cape.
I had intentionally put the needle down to secure the fabric, but also allow the fabric to turn, so I could continue stitching. So I am focusing on positioning the material exactly where I want it, nowhere near ready to begin stitching again. My foot had other plans that I was completely unaware of. In case you are not familiar with sewing or sewing machines, there is usually a machine and then a pedal that controls the needle (i.e. making it go up and down). You press down on the pedal, and hold it down and the stitching will continue. My pedal looks like this, and happened to be under the table while I was lining up where I wanted the material to go.
This next picture shows you where the quilting needle goes on the machine. Just so you get an idea of you're looking at, as I explain what happened next.
There is currently no needle in the machine. You see, the needle that WAS in the machine is now in 3 pieces. If you haven't already heard the story, perhaps you are getting a sense of where I am headed with this.
I had my fingers down under the "foot" that guides the fabric and not completely realizing what I was doing, I instinctively pressed my ACTUAL foot down on the pedal and the needle began moving up and down. WHILE MY FINGER WAS POSITIONED DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH IT. The needle entered through my fingernail, hit the bone in my finger and broke into three pieces. One piece remained in the machine, I found another 1 inch long piece on the table and looked down to realize that the other 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch of the needle was embedded into my fingernail. Prepare to cringe.
I warned you.
I was home by myself with the kids. It was around 5:30pm. Kris hadn't arrived from work yet and somehow, despite how I would have reacted if this had happened to one of the kids, I remained calm. The kids obviously knew something was wrong - I was in pain after all. But I wasn't crying or anything. I think I was in shock. The first thing I tried to do was pull my finger away from the machine. The thread was still attached so, with shaking hands, I cut the thread to free myself from the machine. The second thing I did was turn my finger over to see if the needle had gone all the way through my finger. It hadn't. I realized later that had the needle gone all the way through my finger, my finger would actually have just been stuck in the machine and I would have been completely helpless. So, it could have been worse. The kids were all concerned and I remained calm, telling them that I was fine and that I just had part of the needle stuck in my finger.
I walked outside to call Kris, because I didn't want to scare the kids. I said "Where are you?" He indicated he was at 70 and 170 (which is about 12 minutes from our house). I said "OK. I think I need to go to the ER. I have part of a needle stuck in my finger." He indicated he would be home as soon as possible. I went back in the house to make sure I was presentable. One has to at least look decent and put a bra on to go to the ER. What? I hadn't planned to get back out that night! Katherine tried to put my hair in a pony tail for me, but I wound up managing to do it myself and it at least looked halfway decent. All the kids were waiting in the van when Kris got home. I had collected all the pieces of the needle that weren't in my finger and put them in a bag to take to the ER, in case they needed to gauge how much of the needle was still in my finger.
Abbey had started crying at some point during all of the hustle and bustle of getting ready to go. I told her that I was sorry I was ruining her birthday. She explained that she wasn't crying because of that. She said "I'm just scared they won't be able to get it out of your finger." I calmly explained that they would definitely get it out and that is why we were going to the hospital, because they could get it out easier than I could. She decided she wanted to stay with me the whole time, so when Kris got me to the ER, she went in with me while Kris and the kids parked and walked in.
Immediately, I became the star patient. Not that I got super fast treatment, though overall the ER visit was surprisingly fast. Apparently, while I am sure they see crazy things every day, it isn't every day that someone walks in with a quilting needle solidly embedded in their fingernail. Three different intake/triage people took a look at my finger. The lady who did the registration took a good long look, I think just to see it, as all she was there to do was to take down my name and info.
Cindy arrived shortly after and took the kids with her. Abbey went from wanting to stay with me to wanting to get Chinese with Grandma, so Kris and I were alone when they took me back to a room. Immediately two of the nurses came in, just to look at my finger. I heard them say "Rick (not his actual name cause I can't remember it) called this one. He loves this kind of stuff!" So, before I even got back there, someone had already "claimed" my case. Said Dr. Rick came in and explained that they would numb my finger, remove the needle and then xray the finger to make sure that the bone wasn't fractured.
When all was said and done, THIS is what they removed from my fingernail.
Yes, the thread was still in the needle. The eye of the needle was actually embedded below my nail. You couldn't see the eye of the needle, though you could actually pull on the thread and move it back and forth.
When all was said and done, it didn't look so bad, though. They told me to expect bruising and swelling, and sent me home with pain meds, but honestly, it feels just fine. A little pain from time to time but overall, I barely feel it. I was very fortunate. My arm hurts worse from the tetanus shot I had to have!
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