Isobel has come in to clinic with mum Helen after getting her finger trapped in a car door whilst off on the promise of cake.
However, Isobel says “I didn’t get any cake.”
Susan explains that Isobel’s injury is very common for children and is called a nailbed injury – the nail has flicked out from under the nail fold leaving a little fractured bone underneath. If you leave the injury you can have problems with the way the nail grows later on.
“We’re going to do a little operation to get everything back to where it should be,” Susan explains to Isobel. “You’ll be fast asleep so you won’t know anything about it.”
This is the first time Isobel has had surgery and she is recording the experience.
“Dear Diary. Today I slammed my finger in a car door. They did an x-ray on me, I saw all my bones. Then they wrapped my finger up and I went home. I got a TOY!”
Isobel’s mum notes “We haven’t got one yet so I think that’s more of an instruction.”
To repair her fingertip, Isobel goes to theatre to have her fingernail removed under general anaesthetic.
After a quick kiss from mum, she goes in for her operation. To detect if there is more underlying injury they need to take the whole nail off.
Helen has an anxious wait downstairs but has something which will help Isobel’s recovery. A cake and as Isobel hasn’t been able to eat anything in readiness for her surgery, this will be the first thing she eats today.
“She’ll be pretty excited that she’s technically got cake for breakfast,” says Helen.
Susan cleans up Isobel’s injured nailbed and is repositioning her fingernail using very tiny stitches so that a new nail can grow underneath, and the old nail will eventually just fall off.
“Over time she’ll get a nice, normal looking nail that she can paint, as she has very beautiful blue nail varnish, I noticed,” explains Susan.
Isobel can now eat the cake she’s been waiting 24 hours for and go home.
