Although my friends and I joked that this would end up on my blog, I have to admit that I debated whether or not to share. This blog is as much about showing my life through photography as it is my clients, but there is a point in which full disclosure can cross the line. With my husband’s permission, I have decided to “keep it real” as they say, and just show you. WARNING: This post contains some graphic (read: bloody) images. If you have a weak stomach or only dropped by to see pictures of lovely children and adoring couples **CLICK HERE** instead. However, if you are like me and are sickly intrigued by things you know you shouldn’t want to see, but just. can’t. help. yourself. Then read on my friend and learn how we spent the last day of our recent vacation.
As I chronicled in detail a few months back, the boys love to kayak fish in the Gulf. When we arrived at the house we’d rented for the weekend, the kayaks were already there waiting. The boys woke up early each morning to fish the calm waters and came home a few hours later with tales of their adventures.
On this particular morning, Allen woke me up earlier than expected. They had come upon a school of bull dolphins (like the Mahi-Mahi dolphin, not the Flipper dolphin) that were going crazy around the kayaks. This is a big deal because of their close proximity to the shore. Allen was pulling a king mackerel off his line when Scott hooked one of the bull dolphins. Allen looked up as the king tried to shake loose, slicing his razor sharp teeth across the back of Allen’s hand. The crazy boy just wrapped it up in his shirt and paddled the mile or so back to shore to wake me up to inspect. As soon as I picked my stomach off the floor, I ordered Allen to get dressed. The ER was in our future. (Of course not before they took a quick picture with our soon-to-be-dinner.)
And that my friends, is how we ended up at the Sacred Heart Hospital Emergency Room on the last day of our Labor Day beach vacation. Lucky us.
If you have a weak stomach, this is where you’ll want to stop. It’s kind of gross. But not too gross. Come on, you know you want to… Because I took the above picture of the boys (minus Nathan) as we got in the car, I conveniently had my camera to document the entire experience. Once we learned Allen wasn’t going to die of blood loss, I whipped it out and started taking photos. This is Allen’s “I’m embarassed because my wife takes pictures of me in weird places” face. I could write a whole post with 50 pictures about that face.
This is the solution they used to clean the giant cut. When she pulled it out, Allen smartly asked, “Is that alcohol?” He read my mind. The nurse said she would never do that to someone and then poured the whole bottle over his hand. He didn’t even scream. I did. Just kidding – I took pictures.
The cut was so deep that x-rays had to be taken to make sure there was no unseen damage. He actually was really lucky for the placement of the cut because it missed all the tiny bones and tendons that we have in our hands. After many long hours of blood loss and grumbling stomachs (sorry, but I hadn’t eaten!) Nurse Laurie came in and patched him up good. And he didn’t even scream. I wanted to, but again, I just took pictures instead. Actually, she said that they get a lot of camera phone action in the ER. Ha!
So in the end, all was well. Allen ended up with six stitches, a mummy hand and orders to stay out of the water for 10 days. Although there was no more kayak for this fisherman, after that ordeal, that was a relief for both of us.
by Amanda
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