Twas the day after Thanksgiving and all was not well…

Well, the food was delicious, but there were other parts of that day that will stand out as being rather unpleasant.

The Longhorns lost to the Aggies and it was kind of an ugly game to watch, especially toward the end as our young quarterback took a bad beating.

As a guy who owns a lot of burnt orange clothing and used to spend lots of time on the 40 acres in Austin, it was painful to watch, but not nearly as painful as what the rest of this day had in store for me.

After the game, well stuffed on Thanksgiving leftovers, my wife and I adjourned to the living room of my parents’ house for a little post-game nap.

We were awakened by the sound of a crying child.

With a one-year-old in the house, we’re kind of used to that.

He often slips and falls or bangs his head into walls.

But this cry was different.

Immediately, I felt very uneasy.

"That’s Molly," I said and I jumped up and ran toward where the sound was coming from, my Mom and Dad’s bedroom.

I opened the door and looked at my terrified four-year-old daughter’s face and saw blood spattered all over her Longhorns cheerleader uniform – an outfit she often wears on "game day."

It was a rude awakening from a sound sleep and I was somewhat disoriented, but I could tell she had hurt herself very badly as I looked at her mangled and badly bleeding thumb.

I looked down and saw blood on the old steel safe and immediately sensed what had happened. The heavy steel door of the safe had somehow slammed shut on her thumb causing lots and lots of damage.

We wrapped her hand in paper towel and had a very quick discussion over what to do next.

It didn’t take long for us to decide to rush her to the nearest emergency room.

As quickly as I could, I gathered my glasses, wallet, keys, cell phone – things I knew we would need later and then I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the car with my wife close behind.

When your child gets hurt badly…

What you feel is just sheer terror.

Something inside just says, "No, no, no, no, no…"

In my state of confusion, I put her in her little brother’s child seat, an error I didn’t realize till my wife and daughter told me about it later that night. My wife sat with her in the back seat and we drove quickly to the emergency room at Otto Kaiser Memorial Hospital.

X-rays showed that the thumb was badly broken across the growth plate near the knuckle.

I didn’t even know there was a growth plate in her thumb.

Shows just how little I know about thumbs.

Fortunately, there are doctors who know a whole lot about thumbs and when you end up in a situation like this, you sure appreciate that fact.

The ER doctor, Dr. James Shaw, was familiar with this type of injury. He told us she would need to see an Orthopaedic surgeon who would repair the thumb by surgically inserting a pin. The news he gave us was good. Although the thumb was nearly severed, there was still good blood flow through to the tip and probably not much nerve damage. He said that her thumb would very likely be completely healed and functional in a few months.

We were so relieved to hear that.

He suggested trying to get her in to see a surgeon who works on children, because it is a rare special skill required to operate on a thumb this small. Dr. Shaw tried his hardest to get us in to see a surgeon that evening, but the one that was on call was not answering pages.

Our next best option, he said, was for him to align the thumb and close the wound with stitches and bandage the wound until we could see a surgeon. More than likely we would have to wait through the weekend till Monday.

The next part was a tough one for our girl, but she was a real trooper.

He gave her shots in her thumb to kill the pain so that he could stitch it closed.

It was obviously very painful, but Molly kept her hand as still as she could while the doctor worked on it.

After her hand was numbed by the medicine, amazingly, she calmly watched as the doctor painstakingly sewed her thumb back together as it should be, or as close as possible for the time being.

Even her mother had to look away a few times during this procedure, but Molly bravely watched as the doctor used a curved hook and surgical thread to sew back together the mangled open wound.

It was not easy, but we did manage to get Molly in to see a surgeon early the next week, and on Wednesday morning, the surgery was successfully done.

My wife and I are so grateful to have such high quality emergency health care so close to home. You just don’t realize how important it is until… until it involves someone you deeply care about.

We also feel very blessed to have had a surgeon with such special expertise nearby ready to help take care of our little girl. How wonderful it is to live in a time where there are doctors with such remarkable knowledge and amazing skill such as the ones who cared for our daughter. Alongside that skill is modern technology that gives these medical professionals the tools to repair injuries that you would think could not be fixed.

As I write this, Molly is back to her usual happy self again and she is delighted to have a bright pink cast on her left hand.

This afternoon she let me sign it, then she signed it herself, and then her mom signed it.

I have a feeling that over the next several weeks, there may be quite a few more signatures added.