A couple of weeks ago, my ds7 found a heavy duty metal ring (kind of like a washer but rounded, not flat) and slipped it onto his finger. He went to sleep with it on and when he woke up his finger was swollen slightly above the ring and we couldn’t get it off. I wasn’t too worried, because I figured if it went on that easily, it should come off with a little bit of time and effort. I was wrong.
We tried pouring dish soap on his finger, we tried oil, we tried icing it down and then putting dish soap and oil on it, but no luck. The metal circle had a tiny gap where the two sides almost connected, so we tried prying it apart with pliers. No luck. It wasn’t hurting him so it wasn’t urgent, but I obviously wanted to get it off before it could cause problems. When someone mentioned that jewelers have tools to deal with this kind of situation, I decided to take him.
So off we went today to the jeweler. The jeweler tried using the tool he cuts rings off with, but the metal was so thick and so hard that it hardly made a dent. He tried using a special kind of saw, by taking off the thin blade, slipping it under ds’s finger, reattaching it and then sawing away from his finger so he couldn’t be hurt. No luck. He tried a stronger blade in the saw. Nothing. Then he took out some dish soap. Do you think it helped? Nope. He and the other jeweler each grasped one of their special pliers and pulled as hard as they could on each side to try to increase the gap. Didn’t budge.
The jeweler was very concerned and told me he honestly didn’t know what to suggest for me. I felt sick to my stomach wondering how we were going to get this metal circle off his finger if the people who specialized in this couldn’t do it. He said maybe a pediatrician would have experience with other kids doing this and ideas who we could ask, so on the way home I stopped at our doctor and asked her if she had any inspiration.
She suggested the emergency room, an idea I firmly refused. I told her there’s no way they’d have the tools or skills to deal with it, and after they botched up the last time we were there with this child I don’t have much confidence in their ad hoc strategies to dealing with unusual situations. At that time he was four and had something stuck in his ear, and after waiting 3 hours for them to get the instrument they needed from another part of the hospital (and no, it wasn’t being used by anyone else – I told them I’d be happy to take the ten minutes necessary to go get it but they said it was against their policy), they took an inappropriate sharp instrument and bloodied his inner ear (fortunately not puncturing his ear drum) but still didn’t get it out. The ENT we took him to afterward was appalled. I was thinking I’d have to go to a hardware store and ask if they knew any machinists who worked with miniatures.
But then our pediatrician said she’d ask the dentist next door if he had any ideas. He came in and took a look and confidently said, ‘No problem, I can get that off.’ I was thinking that once he saw what he was dealing with he wouldn’t be so confident, but I was grateful for his willingness to try and off we went to his office. He took this miniature golf club looking instrument and tried to enlarge the gap. After trying for a few minutes with no improvement, he said, “Wow, this metal is really hard, it’s not moving.” My heart was starting to sink again when he said, “I’ll have to drill it off.”
So we went to the back room and he took out his tiny little drill he uses for cavities, and drilled off the ring. I was so relieved! Ds11 and dd9 stayed in the waiting room of the pediatrician for this, and ds11 told me afterwards he didn’t want to come and hear that the dentist also couldn’t get it off – watching the jeweler try so many things that weren’t working left he and I with our hearts in our throats.
I didn’t have time to get them something to visibly show my appreciation before they closed this afternoon, but tomorrow morning I’m going to purchase some nut/dried fruit platters to thank both the dentist and jeweler. I’m so, so, so relieved and grateful to have it off, and though I hope none of you ever run into this situation, if you ever do, now you know to go straight to your dentist’s office!
Avivah
