Emergency Room Visit

So I would like to apologize for the disgusting photos of my ER visit. Some people had to see what kind of a mess I actually got myself into haha. Also for those who know me well it won’t be a surprise hearing about how clumsy I am. My Grandma Mary says that she can trip on a toothpick in a parking lot. So Grandma Mary… Thank you for that gene! I guess being clumsy just runs in the family :)

This was my weekend off so I really didn’t even need to be in the cow shed but one of my coworkers who hasn’t gotten too much time off asked if I would cover for her for the weekend and I could have Monday and Tuesday off instead. Her job is to take care of the calves which for the most part is just feeding them and making sure they are all happy over the weekend, so I didn’t mind coving for her. I got up at 6am (which was nice b/c I’ve been getting up at 4:30am the past few weeks) I got all of the calves fed and happy and decided to help Brendan in the cow shed. He was in there by himself and I just wanted to help him finish up so he didn’t have so much to do on his own. After we brought in the last row of cows to be milked and were just about finished for the morning was when things went wrong. I went to put the cups on the very last heifer cow in the row. She looked a bit lively so Brendan thought it was a good idea for him to put the cups on her… I agreed and handed him the set of cups to avoid getting kicked. As I did that I stepped back and ended up tripping on a bar that we use to hold the cows in the row. I must have swung my arm back to try to catch my fall but the only thing I caught was the hook on the pole that holds the set up of cups up. I didn’t even know it had cut me, all I knew is that it hurt like hell. I hurried up and rushed out the cow shed. Brendan thought I had twisted my ankle when I tripped.

As I walked to the office in the cow shed I felt like I was going to throw up and I try to be tough but I could even control my tears. I sat down on a chair to wait for the pain to go away but it only got worse. I had a long sleeve underarmer shirt on so I couldn’t see the cut. The hook ripped a hole in my shirt and I tried to get a good look at what had happed. I decided that I needed to head in when all I saw was flesh. I jumped on the quad and drove back to the house. My cousin Jen was awake and I walked in the front room and asked for her help.

She helped me take off my T-shirt and Underarmer… She saw what I did and told me not to look at it. Well I didn’t listen and the moment I looked at my arm I started hyperventilating. She sat me down at the kitchen table to call my Aunt Val and to get me a glass of water. As I was telling her that it really wasn’t that bad and it didn’t hurt that much I started feeling really light headed and passed out. Jen said that I was out for a good minute and that my body was stiff with my eyes wide open. She said I scared her to death. Once I came to she threw a blanket around me and got me in the truck to drive me to the hospital.

My Aunt met us down by the cow shed where we let Brendan know what was going on and we left for town. It takes about 30-40 minutes to make it into town so it gave me plenty of time to calm down and to adjust for what happened. My hands and feet were numb which I thought was weird but that didn’t last too long.

Once we made it to the Emergency Room I still had Jen’s Fresno State Bulldog’s blanket over me. A Doctor saw my blanket and asked us where we were from. He was a traveling Doctor who was from Tahoe. His wife went to Fresno State and thanks to that blanket we didn’t even have to wait, he took me straight back to the ER Room. I wasn’t even able to look down at my arm until he had finished cleaning it. I now know why I chose to study Finance in school… b/c there is no way I could ever be in the medical field. You’ve all seen pictures which I’ll probably take down but even now I can hardly look. I think the doctor numbing my arm was the worst part of my ordeal but after it was numb I didn’t mind too much. I got 12 stitches and it looks like I’ll have a pretty mean scar from this experience. My cut is in the shape of a Koru which ironically I want to get a tattoo of while I’m here. A Koru is a Maori symbol that depicts new beginnings, growth, and harmony, taken from the symbolism of an unfurled sliver fern leaf. So if I chicken out on my tattoo idea I still go home with a souvenir of my journey haha! I have to take it easy for the next week and my arm will probably be sore for the next few weeks but I guess that is the price I’ll have to pay for being clumsy.