Lindsey had just painted her fingernails and was coming across the room to show them to me when she suddenly yelled and started crying saying that she stepped on a toothpick (we had all been snacking on little smokies). I looked at her foot and it looked like there was a small piece of a toothpick stuck between her toes. When I tried brushing it away, it didn't budge ... then I noticed a small piece of a broken toothpick on the floor and realized that the remainder of the broken toothpick was inside her foot! It had gone in horizontally between her big toe and the one next to it! Chuck tried pulling the toothpick out with tweezers. He could pull it a little ways out, and then her muscles would just pull it back in (like pulling a bit on a rubberband). He then tried to get a better hold on the toothpick by using a pair of his pliers. They didn't work either. So ... he picked her up and we took her to the emergency room at the American Fork hospital.
They took her almost immediately in (we waited about 5 minutes). The doctor was really good with Lindsey and explained everything he was going to do to get the toothpick out. He had to give her a few shots between her toes (or maybe on them, I wasn't watching) which really hurt. After that, he was able to pull the toothpick right out (all 1-1/4 inches of it)! They then irrigated the puncture wound, filled it with neosporin and then put a little gauze on it. Throughout the whole ordeal (except the shots) Lindsey was very calm and was handling everything a whole lot better than I would have been able to. Once the toothpick was out, she was happy and smiling - We were so proud of how she handled the whole event! She says that the one good thing about getting a toothpick stuck in her foot is that she now trusts doctors a lot more. She was also happy about getting to keep the medical bracelet. She also got a new pair of socks and they gave her a huge syringe to use as a squirt gun! Merry Christmas!
She is still on a mega dose of antibiotics, but all signs of any trauma to her foot is gone. You can't even see a mark where the toothpick went in! The day after going to the ER Lindsey wrote a story about what happened:"On Cristmas day I stept on a toothpik. It went strat in my foot! My dad coodent get it out so we went to the Dr's. They wer reelly nice. I got a bracelet! The dokter told me that he was goin to put the medicen on my foot. Wen they got back he told me that her wold put a teeny needl on both sides of it. It reely hert. After that he pulled it out! I only fellt it go out of my foot. It didn't hert at all! I am glad it is out. The End."
She also drew the following pictures ...
