a day of firsts!

Tuesday, June 24, Red Wing, MN.

A DAY OF FIRSTS!

Sounds exciting, and it was!  These were a couple of “firsts” that will necessitate a drastic change of plans for us for the near future.  Unfortunate but necessary.  I am going to lead off with a picture of everyone’s favorite Biscuit, Biscuit, then we’ll get to the firsts.

Biscuit and his ball.

One of the firsts, after years and years of trauma training in the Marines, as an EMT, and as a firefighter, I got to apply my first tourniquet!  I did not have a medical kit with me, so I used my belt.  It worked well. 

Another first: Julie, after 57 years of being on the planet, received her first tourniquet!  And, her first ambulance ride to a hospital as the patient in the state of Minnesota! And her first real trauma stitches!

GRAPHIC PHOTOS FOLLOW

Sorry to lead off that way, Julie is fine, she got 24 stitches today and we will not be able to continue our trip for a couple of months.  Here’s the story as best as I can piece it out.

I had gone to Rochester, MN to pick up the rental car to go to Montana on Wednesday morning.  Julie and Biscuit were on the boat, she was packing her suitcase, putting medicines together, snacks for the road while Biscuit supervised.  She got all the trash together and was going to go put it in the trash bins by the road. 

As she was stepping from the boat to the dock – probably about 12-14 inch height and length difference, she slipped and caught her arm on the railing.  Not just the railing, but a clasp on the railing where a chain can be used to close it off when underway.  When she slipped, her left arm got caught on that exposed clasp and ripped through her flesh.  She only fell to the swim platform, but was immediately smart enough to scream for help and put pressure on the wound with her right hand.

As it happened, I had pulled up probably within a minute of this happening.  I saw Biscuit running towards me (which was not right, he shouldn’t be on the dock by himself), and heard Julie screaming to “call 911!”  I came down and saw the wound and blood all around the back of the boat, the dock and the swim platform.  Julie was screaming that she needed a tourniquet – which I couldn’t deny – but she was standing on the swim platform. 

Still wrapped from the medics.

I asked if she could get to the dock, she said no, so I told her she HAD to step to the dock.  I got down on the swim platform and pulled her over and sat her down on the dock.  A kid who was fishing on the shore had run up by this time and I had him help pull her legs up.  Then I called 911 as I was applying the tourniquet.  I will tell you that it was a gnarly wound.  I’ve seen some bad ones.  This was ugly bad.

The ambulance was on scene within 5-6 minutes.  Julie had passed out briefly after we got her over to the dock (which was why I wanted her on the dock and not the swim platform).  We kept her arm elevated and she started talking a lot.  Mentally, she knew that talking would keep her from passing out again, and she wanted to give all her information to the medics, since she has collected that information from victims many times. 

Starting on the stitches.

The medics got there and we got a better packing on the wound and the belt was returned to me.  They loaded her up on the stretcher and I asked where the hospital was.  “It’s the Mayo Clinic one just over by that water tower,” and they pointed.  Now, when most of us hear “Mayo Clinic” we think horrible cancers, neurological disorders and the like.  It really threw me off.  But they explained that the hospital was associated with the Mayo Clinic which is in…Rochester.  Where I started the morning picking up the rental car.

So, they took her away.  I took Biscuit on a walk and then cleaned us both up.  He had a lot of blood on him as well and I was fairly covered with it.  We headed over to the hospital and I finished checking her in with the paperwork (it’s all computerized now!) (dang stupid technology) (Brad, I blame you for all technological things).

Numbing it up!

She was on fentanyl and not feeling the pain as bad when I got to her room in the E.R.  The doctor initially thought she would go the THE Mayo Clinic for surgery, but after some consultations they decided to treat it as a basic wound and suture it up.  The key thing was that she had only slightly cut her muscle.  If it was a deep muscular cut, she would have gone to Rochester.  But since it was just a very small cut on the muscle, they decided to clean it all out, and they did 6 internal stitches and 18 external stitches to close it up. 

 We left the hospital around 2:00 and I got a hotel room close to the Marina so I could get her and Biscuit someplace safe.  Then I picked up her prescriptions and made a couple of trips to the boat to get all the suitcases and extra things that we were already preparing to take back to Montana. 

So, definitely many “firsts” took place today.  Big trauma, torniquet, and a drastic change of our current plans.  Julie will have 2-3 months of no use of her arm while she lets it heal and get back to normal.  I imagine she will have quite a bit of physical therapy as well.  That means a big delay on trying to start our trip. 

Ah, the number of Young Frankenstein lines that come to mind...

We will still go back to Montana tomorrow for her Friday appointment, but then we’ll come back to Red Wing, grab some stuff off the boat, and head to Michigan to stay with Christie and Zack for a few months.  Zack is an architect, and when he designed their house, he built is with an entire mother-in-law wing, not just a suite, but a wing!  So we will be spending some time in Michigan for a couple of months.

For my medic friends who are saying "I thought there were graphic photos. Where are the graphic photos?" send me a text or email and I'll get the good ones to you! Also for my medical friends, if you read between the lines, you are correct.

We still intend to have our trip, but on God’s time and not ours.  We must have been rushing it! 

Blessings to all ya’ll!