There's a new saint in town.

As of Monday, we are now only 9.6 miles away from the closest hospital. This hospital will be a trauma center unlike the hospital we visited with the chainsaw injury. Who knew that all hospitals are not ready to handle trauma situations? I sure didn't, and I still don't understand that either. Oh well. I am thankful that Penrose St. Francis is now open very close to home. I hope we never have to make a trip there but am glad to know it is so close to the house. Isn't it pretty with the mountain backdrop?

When we started building our house in August 2006, this hospital had only barely begun. There was a huge cement stairwell and that is all that was on the land. And this week it opened. It's amazing to me that something so intricate and big can be built so quickly. Matthew and I both drive by this hospital on the way to work each day.

ER Visit #3

June 19, 2007 started out as an ordinary day…nothing to make it more memorable than the day or week before. After work I went to my Weight Watchers meeting (plug for WW here – the program works, I lost 34 pounds over 8 months in 2007). Matthew had asked me earlier in the day to attend his softball game that night. This was his second season to play on one of the company teams, but I had never made it to a game. I think this was only the second or third game of the season.

The game started at 6, and I showed up around 6:15 or so. As soon as I got there, one of the wives told me I should go check on Matthew. So I walked over to see what was going on. From a distance, he looked fine. One of the guys on the team told me that he had been running back in the outfield to catch a ball, fallen, and hit his head on the ground. He must have hit it just right because it knocked him out for a little bit (just a couple of minutes according to them). Several guys and an umpire suggested that I take him to the ER. I had to ask where the nearest ER was and we drove there. All the while, Matthew was trying to go back into the game. He had no idea what was going on.

Matthew couldn’t remember much. He was in a euphoric state, but his memory was certainly lacking. He did not remember what happened on the field. He asked me how I got to the game. He didn’t remember inviting me earlier that day. I told him what the guys had told me had happened, and he asked if he caught the ball (he did in fact catch the ball). He didn’t remember how long we had been married (I honestly think he didn’t know we were married but was trying to figure things out), where we lived (or that we had just built a house), where our friends lived (who had moved to Dallas and Seattle since we moved to Colorado), where family members lived, or how old he was (although this is something he doesn’t remember anyway).

All the way to the ER, I kept asking him things to see what he could remember. Other than some of his memory being gone, he seemed pretty normal. I asked him if he could tell me the alphabet (he could), count for me (he could), and other questions about our lives. Some things he knew and some things he did not know. I tried to keep him talking so that he wouldn’t get tired or groggy. That wasn’t a problem because he kept asking me questions as well. He would ask me what happened, where we were going, where I came from, etc. As soon as we made it through those questions, he started over with the first one. At first, I told him he had just asked me that question. I thought he was playing with me, but he wasn’t. So I quit telling him that I had already answered the questions 5 or 6 times. I just tried to calmly answer him.

Once we got to the ER, I took him inside and as I told the guy and girl behind the counter what was happening I almost started crying. All I could think to say was, “he hit his head and keeps repeating himself.” As soon as I said that, they told me he most likely had a concussion. Thankfully, the ER was not too busy when we walked in and they took him directly back to a room. As we were checking in, they would ask him questions which he didn’t know the answer to…address, phone number, insurance, birth date, etc. He did however know his social security number which I thought was interesting.

We were at the ER for hours. He had an MRI to make sure there was no bleeding in the brain. There wasn’t, which was fantastic news. He kept the nurses and other patients laughing because he was in this euphoric state. He was so happy and everything was exciting. “We built a house? I can’t wait to see it.” “I was knocked out. That’s so cool! I’ve never been knocked out before.” Then the shock wore off and he was in great pain. The rest of our time there was miserable.

The next day was our physical for our life insurance. That was fun. Poor Matthew did not feel well for days and even weeks. He was dizzy, nauseous, in pain. He spent a lot of time in the dark. At first, he couldn’t even watch a movie without feeling sick. Over the weekend we returned to the ER because the symptoms had not gotten better. Unfortunately, the ER was much busier this day and we waited a long time before getting called back. The best they could do was offer him pain medication. The effects of the concussion slowly went away. The doctor could only say his brain had been knocked around pretty good.

Some things to remember for the future…

• If I see someone sustain such an injury and a spouse or family member is not there to do so, I will call 911 or take the person to the ER myself. Why didn’t anyone think about either calling me or calling 911 if they were so worried about him and knew he should go to the ER? They didn’t know I was supposed to show up at any moment.
• If a person is repeating himself after a head injury, that could mean he has a concussion.
• As this was his second injury in two seasons of softball, Matthew is no longer allowed to play on the company team. Isn’t that sad?

So you see there was not even a year between ER visit #3 and ER visit #4. Thankfully, there was no blood involved in this injury. That does not make it any less serious, but I was able to deal with it better than this last accident.

Big Toe Picture

I am not sure that you want to see this, but here is a picture of Matthew's toe taken June 7th. This was taken exactly one week after the accident. I don't have any pictures of it earlier than this because I couldn't stand to look at it or think about it. It was about this long before I could look at his toe without remembering his voice in the forest when he told me to take him to the hospital. Yuck! I am SO very thankful it is healing well.

Stitches Out

Matthew visited the surgeon again today. He got the rest of his stitches out. The toe is not completely healed, but he can also stop wearing the air cast/boot if it is comfortable for him to wear his normal shoes. He is going to try that for the rest of the day so we'll see how that goes. He will go back to visit the surgeon in two weeks to see how everything looks.

After seeing his injury just over 2 weeks ago, it is surprising to me that he has healed so quickly. I have warned him that if I sustain such an injury, I will be milking it so he should be prepared for that. He was a very good patient. He only let me do things for him the first day or two. I tried to wait on him hand and foot, but he didn't allow much of that.

Big Toe Update

Matthew had an appointment with the surgeon today concerning his big toe. The doctor was surprised at how quickly Matthew's toe is healing. In the beginning, we were told he would be on crutches for 4 to 6 weeks. Matthew decided last Thursday (after 4 days on the crutches) that was enough for him. I just knew he would "get in trouble" from the doctor, but today the doctor told Matthew he totally understood why he was not using them. So much for following the rules. He took a couple of the stitches out and thinks he will be able to take the rest out next week. He also thinks Matthew will then be able to get out of the air boot and start wearing regular shoes. Matthew just knew this was going to ruin his summer, but so far it looks like his healing is ahead of "schedule."

Thank you for praying for him. It looks like he is out of woods concerning the infection. He will finish his antibiotics in the next couple of days, and the doctor did not prescribe any additional pills.

The surgeon also told Matthew that over the weekend he was cutting wood on his property. He said he could not get Matthew out of his mind so he was being extremely careful. Matthew thought that was funny.

Fighting Infection

We visited a surgeon yesterday to see if Matthew needs to have surgery on his toe. Right now, the main concern is infection. Because the cut is all the way to the bone, this can be a serious issue. The ER doctor prescribed an antibiotic on Saturday which Matthew has been taking 4 times each day since then. The surgeon we visited yesterday prescribed a second antibiotic because there are early signs of infection. The surgeon does not think he will have to operate on Matthew's foot, but he can't say for sure. Pretty much nothing can be done until the infection issue is dealt with. Matthew is now sporting a very stylish boot on his left leg. He can now put some pressure on his heel for walking even though he is still on crutches.

Update: This is more serious than I first thought. Matthew told me this afternoon that the doctor told him yesterday there isn't much that can be done about the infection. He is in fact taking two antibiotics for it, but if they do not help, he could lose his toe. This is, of course, something that we would like to avoid. Please pray with us that the infection will go away and the toe will heal properly.

ER Visit #4

It could be #5, but I am going to give M the benefit of the doubt here. (And who's counting anyway?)

As planned, today was going to be a busy day for us.

1. First thing this morning I needed to return the minivan I rented for our team build yesterday. I drove to Boulder for the team build and my boss asked me to rent a minivan so we could carpool in two cars.
2. Next on the list was to go to the forest and cut some firewood. M has been wanting to do this and now that we have a firepit outside he had an excuse. He made a special trip to a hardware store this week to buy a new chainsaw for the adventure.
3. If time allowed, we were going to go to the tree nursery with our neighbors to see about buying some trees for our front yard. We have both been considering going and the delivery fee is by truck so we thought we could split that. The trees that were planted in our front yard last summer appear to be dead. So we would like to replace them soon.
4. I needed to get caught up on laundry and some other housework.
5. I needed to make brownies for the Sunday school bbq we were going to tonight.
6. Then we would pick up some friends and carpool to the party.

Those were our plans (or at least MY plans). Instead, we had a very crazy and partly terrifying day.

The beginning of the day went according to plan. We had a nice breakfast at home, I started a load of laundry, and then returned my rental car (after making a quick trip to PetSmart to replace a leash that Max destroyed this week). Next we loaded up everything to go to the forest. I was going to play with Max while M got his firewood. Neither of us wanted him to go alone since he is accident prone. He hates for people to label him this way, but it is entirely true. He will hate reading that sentence (if he does in fact read it). Believe me, I wish this was not the truth. We (as well as our good friends) could relate story after story that might be hard for you to believe that prove the truth to that statement. But I digress.

Things went well for the first part of our trip in the forest. I played with Max and he played some in the water again. M would chop some wood with his new chainsaw and load up the car. Then he would drive to another spot for more wood. We stayed close to him playing so we would be ready to go when he was ready to go.

After a while, I heard a yell. Then M yelled that he had cut his foot and I needed to take him to the hospital. He did not know how bad it was, but blood was squirting forcefully out of his workboot. This is when I flipped out. I did not handle this well at all. We were on a tiny jeep trail in this forest. I tried to back out, but I am terrible at backing out a long distance. So I tried to turn the car around. That was not going to happen so M made me switch seats with him so he could get us out of there. Before I go any further, I would like to clarify a couple of things. (A) You cannot get cell phone reception in the forest. That is why M did not want to be alone out there with his chainsaw. (B) He hurt his left foot so he could still drive with this right foot.

So M drove himself to the hospital while I sat next to him terrified and repeating "God, help us." All he told me was that he had cut his foot. It was wrapped in a towel that was getting more and more saturated with blood. I did not know (and later found out neither did he) how serious this was. Had something been cut completely off? Was he losing too much blood? We made record time to the hospital doing all kinds of illegal driving (passing on the shoulder, driving in the wrong lane, running a red light, etc).

This ER experience was unlike any other in several ways. First, we had to go through a metal detector before we could go in the ER. Then when M got to the desk, the man told him he would be with him in just a moment and then walked away. M then got his attention and asked, "Is there a particular place I should be for a chainsaw injury?" After that, he was taken back rather quickly.

He was cleaned up and x-rayed. He cut through several tendons and cut into the bone. He did not cut all the way through his big toe. The ER doctor sewed up the wound (which was amazing because at least half an inch of flesh was missing from his toe) and we will be visiting a surgeon early this week to see if he requires surgery. As they were cleaning up his wound, I had to leave the room because I was so squeamish.

I learned a couple of things today.

• While I was freaking out about the worst thing happening, M kept reminding me that it could have been worse. He did not lose any limbs. He was still breathing. And he said he wanted some new workboots anyway. I told him that was NOT funny!
• Even though I understand some of the rules that have to be followed at the hospital, I can get aggressive and confrontational when I think something that is necessary is not getting done.
• We should have driven to the close-by firestation instead of driving to the hospital. Even though we may have gotten to the hospital later, M would have had immediate medical care and the drive to the hospital would have been safer for both us and other drivers.
• I am thankful for those who are able to deal with other people's blood and guts because apparently I cannot do so.

Believe it or not, M still wanted to go to the Sunday school party tonight. He's a real trooper in my book. It was still a really busy day, but it was not busy how I had planned it. I would have rather stayed with my plan, but the day is ending the same way with us home together.

Here's a picture of M's boot. I didn't dare take one of his injury.

And here's a picture of the firewood we got before the accident.

M is worried about his foot healing well. The ER doctor said it will be a slow process because of the cut tendons and because part of the bone is missing. Please pray that it will heal correctly. Please also pray that the surgeon we meet with this week will know the best course of action and that we can get started on that soon. Also pray for me. I recognize after this accident that I want to lock M inside and not let him go out. Because he is accident prone, this just makes me worry about future incidents. However, he cannot live in my little box. And if he did, knowing him the ceiling fan would probably fall on him or something weird like that. I know this sounds silly, but I just need to trust that God is God and is in control of all things. In the large scheme, today was not life-altering or life ending for either of us. Even though it was really scary and painful, we are still hopeful for better days ahead.