It was bound to happen sooner or later. One of us was going to have an accident or hurt ourselves doing all this new outside work which would necessitate a trip to the emergency room at the local hospital. And yesterday was "the day". For Joel. Poor guy....
The three of us went outside mid-morning Saturday to work on the never ending fence surrounding the main garden. All that remains is to attach the 6' fencing to the posts and supports that are already in the ground. We had done one long side a couple weeks ago and Joel thought if we could do the other long side on Saturday, then the two short sides would be a breeze to do today and we would finally be done with that project. So we walked out to the garden to begin working.
But it was hot. Really hot. And humid. And the heat index was way up there, too. I was starting to feel a little nauseous and said I'd go back to the house to get us all a drink of water. By the time I arrived at the garden with the jug of water Joel was in his truck and heading back to the house. He rolled down his window and said he wasn't feeling good and needed to cool off. When I got to the garden Jeremy and I decided to cool off, too, and we jumped in the Polaris and drove to the house.
Well, when we walked in, there was blood all over the kitchen floor and I could hear Joel's weak voice saying,"Debbie, I need help." Good grief! What in the world had happened so fast? He was on his knees at the kitchen sink with the water running. As best we can piece it together today, this is what we think happened.
Joel says he came inside because he was starting to feel like he might pass out. He got to the table but momentarily went black. He remembers hearing stuff falling from off the kitchen table. Later we discovered he had hit the glass kitchen table with his forehead so hard that he had pushed it up against the cupboard! On his way down to the floor he somehow pulled a 2-1/4lb. weight from the table and it landed on his right foot and big toe.
He came to and managed to crawl to the sink because he said he was trying to find something to hold against the blood running out of his forehead and running all over his face, beard and arms. He couldn't hardly see because of the blood streaming into his eyes and coating his contacts. Jeremy and I ran into the kitchen and helped him to lay down on the floor. I was desperate to find out where the bleeding was coming from and was so grateful to find it was only one good sized gash in his forehead. Jeremy ran to get some washcloths so I could apply pressure to the wound as Joel is on blood thinners and he kept bleeding at a good rate and it wasn't going to stop.
Each time he tried to sit up he started to black out again. I knew he wasn't going to be too thrilled to get to the E.R. by ambulance, but that gash needed stitches and we couldn't lift him to get him into our car while he kept blacking out. And I wanted some medical backup because I wasn't sure what else was going on, so, I sent Jeremy outside to call 911. Joel was really sweating and his color was awful and he couldn't raise his head off the floor. While we waited for the ambulance, Jeremy put the dogs in the bedrooms to decrease the chaos and I cleaned Joel up as best as I could. We packed him in freezer packs from the freezer to try and cool him off because we were worried he had heat stroke.
His pulse was thready when I tried to find it and he was feeling worse. He asked for some orange juice, thinking his blood sugar had gotten really low and was perhaps a part of the reason he was feeling so lousy. I was really glad to see the paramedics arrive and put him on a stretcher. At least now he could get an IV and have his vitals monitored. And off Jeremy and I drove in separate vehicles to the hospital. In our filthy dirty, sweaty gardening clothes. We were a sight, let me tell you.
The folks at the hospital couldn't have been nicer and they wheeled Joel in right away. By the time I got to see him he had already had one bag of fluids and said he was starting to feel a little better. He got a second bag of fluids, a CT of the head and neck, a chest x-ray and was monitored for his vitals. No concussion, thank goodness. I'm not sure how many stitches it took to close up his wound, but they had to apply a pressure dressing as the bleeding just wouldn't stop, even after being sutured. The paramedics told him his blood pressure was dangerously low in the ambulance, which made no sense to us at the time.
We were all three very glad when they discharged Joel late in the afternoon with orders to stay inside and relax for a few days. Last night Joel looked up the symptoms of heat stroke....he had them all! Low blood pressure, nausea, light-headedness, fainting, clammy skin, profuse sweating.....and his sugar went down at the same time. Not a good combination. Hitting the table with his head just made it messy.....and very uncomfortable, and scary with the blood trail from the table to the kitchen sink. Oh, yeah, and that weight that fell from the table.....it hit his right foot and he can hardly walk on it today. He laughingly says that his foot hurts worse than anything else does. His shoulders are stiff, probably from trying to break his fall or from hitting a chair. We'll never know.
So today we are watching old movies and chilling out inside. From now on we all need to hydrate with a couple of glasses of water before going outside in the heat. And no caffeine products before working in the heat. Joel has a pretty good knot on his forehead today and his eyes are both puffy. He thinks he's going to have 2 black eyes by the time all is said and done. I'm just grateful that it was nothing more serious. This was bad enough.
And as far as the fence is concerned........it can wait till Fall when it's nice and cool outside. Don't 'ya think?
Relieved Wife,
Debbie
