First Blood

ER slashed his own face with fingernails sharp as razor blades. They didn't look long enough to need a trim but because it was Friday (and MIL usually comes on Fri nights), I thought it was good time to trim his nails. Else it's common I get asked: "why are his nails so long? Don't you trim them?"

Fact is, I do. But they sure grow fast. The nails need trimming twice a week if I prefer not to have to repeat my answer every week to the same question: "I TRIMMED THEM JUST A FEW DAYS AGO!!"

God gives mummies strong and usually accurate gut-feels. Something told me I should NOT cut his nails that Friday (the one that had just gone by) but did so anyway, ignoring the voice that said to wait till they grow a little longer.

True to its word, seconds after the first nail came off, ER started crying. I wondered if I snipped too close to his quick, fearing the worst. It didn't look too bad for a start; it looked like I did cut too near but didn't do much damage.

The moment I finished telling myself : "It's not too bad.", the tip of that index finger started bleeding. It bled, and bled. I washed the finger, applied pressure, checked to see if bleeding stopped after 5mins, saw that it didn't, continued applying pressure for 5 more mins, checked again, saw blood, applied more pressure, checked and repeated.

After 15 mins, I was using a second piece of tissue paper to press on the wound because the first piece was bloody. Not soaking in blood but bad enough for an infant :*(

Tissue paper is no good, coz the fibres may stay in the wound and possibly cause infection. Also if the cut was bad or if the clipper wasn't clean, that's double the chance of infection. But I didn't have anything else to press the wound with. :(

It kept bleeding, so I kept wiping. *heartache* I wondered if he would go into shock from losing too much blood.

The "Voice" told me again: "Drip some breastmilk on the wound. BreastMilk is antibacterial." I trusted it this time.

That finger continued bleeding for a while more and diluted the drop of B-Milk on it. I had to clean it off and drip another drop on his finger. I wished I could use a plaster on him but no, because he chews on his hand. That may worse what's bad enough.

At this point, 2 and half days later, the wound has healed completely (in fact it healed the next day but one could still a tiny scar on the finger tip on Saturday).

I'm hoping there will be no infections and fever as a result of it, no profuse loss of iron, no "anything else unforeseen". 

And lesson learnt: Trust the "Voice". I'd rather let him scratch himself a little here and there than to do something just so that I can answer to someone. In this case, I have only myself to blame for lacking discernment.