A run-in with the treadmill

My in-laws have a bunch of workout equipment in their basement. I happened to be downstairs Thursday morning and saw all the kids playing on the treadmill. I told them they all needed to get off because someone would get hurt. Then I went upstairs. Later, just before we got ready to eat Thanksgiving dinner, I woke up from a cat nap on the couch to hear screaming. I was a little out of it still so Mike jumped up and ran down the stairs to find an injured Eli.

Someone had turned on the treadmill and Eli had gotten on it while it was going. He was being thrown around and eventually hit into the wall. My brother-in-law had his wits about him and ran and unplugged the treadmill. Unfortunately, Eli had already been banged up. His arm was torn up (though not badly) and his lip and hands were also torn up. The skin was grated off three of his fingers on his right hand, the pinky torn all the way to his knuckle. On his left hand he has one finger injured and then a small spot on the top of his hand.

It looks awful. We covered his hand with bandaids but they keep falling off so finally we just bandaged the entire right hand so it looks like he's wearing a mitt. He does not like to have the bandage changed. My sister-in-law changed the bandage on Saturday before we came home and said to Mike, "He is the angriest little boy I've ever met!" This is not news to us, his parents, as we deal with this daily. Yet, it was funny to hear her say it. He also does not like to take a shower or wash his hand because any bit of touching hurts him.

He keeps saying, "I a poor baby Eli." So sad. Intersting how the only thought I had was to yell at the kids to get off the equipment. I wish I had thought of unplugging the machine when I saw them all on it.

On top of Eli's injury, Diamond also got injured while we were gone. In one of his anxious fits he scraped some siding off of a shed and we think he must have hit a nail or something. His paw is sliced up. He is in a lot of pain and can barely walk on his paw. He is not a happy dog. I am worried his paw will get infected. Tormorrow I am going to try and get him into the vet to see what we can do about getting him something for the obvious pain he is feeling and find out how to keep it from getting infected.

So, just call us the house of injuries.