An Unexpected Adventure

Update Friday 5pm: Today S. had a outpatient surgery to remove the barb. Thankfully, the surgeon was able to easily locate it and get it out. The barb was smaller than I thought, but still a pretty long object to have embedded in the soft part of your big toe! S. was very calm and a good patient, though he was quite a character when he was still loopy from all the medications. He'll spend the next 24 hrs off his feet and then a few days on crutches. What a story he has to tell his friends! Thanks for all your prayers and comments. I'm so glad to have the excitement behind us. Now we can spend the weekend restoring order and peace to our home.

(click on the picture to enlarge it and you can just barely see the serrations ... ouch!)

Update Thursday 4pm: We had a consult with a foot surgeon today and scheduled the surgery for tomorrow (Friday) morning at 11. They will not use general anesthesia, but instead "twilight sleep" plus lots of local anesthetic. Thanks for your prayers! S. is in good spirits and enjoying all the extra attention, I think. :)

Well, the Gulf of Mexico gave S. a birthday present - a stingray sting! It happened Monday afternoon while we were enjoying some especially pleasant weather at the beach. I have never seen one of my children in such excruciating pain! We quickly got him to a life guard station, where we were told to immediately take him home and soak his foot in hot, hot water.

After almost 2 hrs in the hot water, the pain from the toxin subsided. The wound is a puncture, and it bled quite a bit. Since it was swollen and ugly this morning, we took him to a local urgent care center. The ultimate diagnosis was that 2 shards from the barb are lodged in his big toe - one of them is almost 2 inches long! A trip to the operating room will be required, with general anesthesia, so that the foot surgeon can use x-ray technology to locate and remove the barb without tearing his toe to shreds. Crocodile Hunter aside, I was really surprised a stingray sting could be so serious.

Since we're leaving for home anyway, the docs felt having surgery at home was better than staying extra days in a strange town. He's on 2 antibiotics, which will buy us the time to get home and have the surgery. I covet your prayers for safe travel, scheduling, and of course, healing!

We are also counting our blessings: though we hate to see S. suffer, we're very glad it wasn't our 3 year old; we're thankful it happened at the end of the trip - after we all enjoyed many good times; we're thankful to have found, after some searching, a podiatrist who could work us in today and took our insurance; I'm thankful that the Lord gave me an opportunity to see the manly character growing in my son - he was so brave; we're thankful that God is a God in control of the tiniest details and we rest in Him.

I'll keep you posted.