The Full Story, as of Now.. With an Update

warning this post contains disturbing pictures.

Do you believe in miracles? Because we do.
So here's what's happened so far:
Tues. afternoon, "Big Bro." asked if he could go shovel the snow on his lunch break. (we had about 2 inches of new snow.) I said sure. Well, he decided the snow blower was a better idea, until it got clogged and he decided to try to unclog it. I'm betting you can already tell where this story is going.
Sure enough as soon as the snow was brushed away the blower sucked his hand in.
Now to tell you about Big Bro's character. He found his glove, which the blower sucked right off his hand, put the snow blower in the garage and came in the house, took off his other glove, his coat and his shoes, before he came downstairs to me, crying.
He walked into our family room and sat on the couch, his back to me, crying. I asked what was wrong, he didn't answer, just crying. I asked again, he said, "My hand." I said, "What about your hand?" No answer, just crying. I was walking towards him and said, "What happened to you hand?" He said, "I almost cut it off." more crying. I instantly began looking for blood and was ready to scream at the girls to get more towels.
Then I looked down at his hand and saw some very distinct marks where the blades had hit, but they hadn't cut him. There was NO blood!
"Okay, you need, ice, it's going to be fine." I said and went upstairs to get the ice. By the time I got back down stairs with the ice, his hand was 5 times the size it usually is in three different places. "Let's get your shoes back on, you need to go to the hospital."
Big. Bro was finally able to really talk by now and the first thing he asked was, "Are they going to have to cut my hand off?" I assured him that his hand was going to be fine, but I was pretty sure it was broken. But to be honest, I thought it was REALLY broken and I had no idea what the doctors were going to find.
I called MBC at work to tell him where we were going and we were off to the Emergency Room.
They checked us right in and the doctors and nurses responded pretty fast when they heard "snow blower". He got a little sick to his stomach as the adrenaline started to wear off. He also went white a couple of times and I was glad that they took us straight to a room where they could lay him down. As the doctors and nurses came in all of their eyes got really big when they saw his hand, they all looked right at me and said, "That's not bad for a snow blower!" I already knew that it could have been MUCH worse, but those words sounded VERY reassuring. They next thing the nurse said was, "We don't have an amputation." And that was an even bigger relief. They were checking him over, and realized he doesn't have feeling in a couple of fingers and said things like, "We have a definite radial here." But I knew that things looked better than they expected.
When we were waiting for the radiologist to come in I told Big Bro., "I know you don't feel like it right now, but you are INCREDIBLY lucky. They've already told us that the worst won't happen... The blower could have ripped your hand right off and it didn't. It could have broken it so bad they'd have to remove it and it didn't. We can handle what ever they tell us now. It's going to be okay!" And to be perfectly honest, I said a prayer right there in the triage room. I thanked the Lord that He had watched over my son. I was glad I hadn't had to put on a tourniquet on an amputated limb and called 911. I was thankful he was going to be able to keep his hand. And I honestly confessed that I could handle whatever He dealt me from this point. I could deal with broken bones and surgeries and long recovery times, because the worst hadn't happened.
They wheeled in an x-ray machine and I left the room while they x-rayed his hand. Then we turned on the t.v. and watched Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel to distract him while we waited.
About 15 min. later the doctor came back in. He held up his own left pointer finger and said, "It's broken, the rest is bruised." I said, WHAT?" He continued to explain that his left index finger was broken right above the bottom knuckle. The rest of the swelling was from very deep bruising, but nothing else was broken. He had no idea how much nerve damage had been done, or if they were just stuck in the swelling. He also said that his finger was completely displaced and would need surgery to be fixed and held in place while it heals. But that was IT!
They splinted his whole hand and wrist, which was NOT a pleasant experience for Big Bro, then they gave us a prescription for pain killers and told us to get an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon within 48 hours and they discharged us. We came home, incredibly happy!
I dropped Big Bro off at home with dad, who had made it home by this time, and I went to fill the prescription. By the time I got back with the RX it had been 3 hours since the accident and Big Bro had gone without ANY pain killers that whole time. I'm am amazed at how tough my little man was.
While I had been gone, MBC had made all the phone calls needed to get the insurance to give us an immediate referral to the Orthopedic Surgeon.
Big Bro's hand is still incredibly swollen and you can still see where the blades hit and how out of place his bones are:
Other than that, we've been giving Big Bro his Lortab every four hours, even through the night. We are keeping it elevated with ice on it, and waiting for Thurs. to get here.
We see the Surgeon today (Thurs. Jan. 8, 2009) at 2:30, and that's when I'll know what else we have in store.

But as of right now, I feel VERY blessed. I truly believe that Big Bro had an angel standing next to him, who may have just put their hand into that blower too. Thank you to all of you my dear friends who have said prayers on our behalf and expressed your concern, you have no idea how much it meant to me. I will keep you all posted.

Update: We're back from the Orthopedic Surgeon and it is badly broken. It isn't only broken and displaced it's slightly rotated. So they definitely didn't want to try to fix it in the office. Not only would it hurt, they doubted it would stay in place. He will be going in for surgery on Wed. and he will have a bunch of pins put in it to hold it in place for 4 weeks.
However, Big Bro. had let himself think about the option of having it set in the doctors office and almost passed out just thinkin' about it, so you've never seen an 11 year old so excited to have surgery. They put you to sleep for that!

*hugs*