Can't Keep A Good Man Down: Part 2

You'd never, ever know what my husband went through if you saw him.  Even just two weeks after surgery.  Thankfully, all of his wounds are covered by normal clothing.

He decided to try to fill his deer tag before hunting season ended.  We went out together as usual.  He found the little herd of white tail that he would stalk.  Picked out a little buck and shot.

 Can't get enough of this cute little face!

He's quite the helper!

 

There was a beautiful moon on our way back home

Corn Maze Leads To Finding Normal

 Life in October was far from normal.  It was October 8th when we arrived home from SLC.  We had to spend up to an hour a day dressing The Prairie Daddy's wounds.  It was hard.  Sometimes I would just break down and cry as I looked at his body.  Sometimes I would be able to just buckle down and get the task at hand done without flinching.  Every day, every moment was different.  He was tired and needed rest.  Overall, I am incredibly impressed with how he handled having to be home more, rest and take time getting back to work.
We did slowly re-join society.  It was much harder for me than I expected.  It is funny what trauma does to a person and going into public and seeing lots of people and answering lots of questions was exhausting.  I didn't feel normal; I wasn't normal.  And the normal world felt unknown and harsh.  It took time but I finally found myself feeling normal again by Thanksgiving.

Here was our first outing after the accident.  We took The Prairie Kid to the Family Fun Day at the Pumpkin Patch at church.

Then we went with a group of friends to Billings to the Corn Maze and celebrated several birthdays.

 Me and one of the greatest ladies in the world! 

 

 (don't mind our silly friend sticking his head in the background!)

What a crew!  

Here is this year's carved pumkpin

And somehow I cannot find a picture of my kiddo on Halloween.  I will have to see about trying to track one down.

Little Pumpkin

The Prairie Kid had a special assignment to read a poem in a contest at school.  We turned him into a pumpkin.  : )  Here is a picture of my perfectly sweet little pumpkin and the video of him reading.  It is a really dark video and it is hard to hear him though.

Coping

The majority of what we went through in SLC at the burn center is not something I am going to choose to publish on my blog.  In such a tough time though, there are sweet moments.  You cling to them.  You cherish them up in your heart and allow them to be what helps you push through the torture.  You create them to cope.  You do silly things in the midst of the pain and the exhaustion and you let yourself laugh.  We weren't shy in doing so.  Our laughter was our best medicine (okay, my best medicine, cause the narcotics and anesthesia were definitely The Prairie Daddy's best medicine!)

Cuddling.  That was about as close to my cowboy as I was willing to get in fear I would bump his wounds.

 My sisters took turns flying into SLC to support us.  My mom was in Poland on vacation so she came after we returned home and was back from overseas.  My sister and I donned a couple of the mustaches from her wedding reception one afternoon.  We were celebrating the move from the Burn Trauma ICU to a regular room on another floor.  The CNA was fun and we had a good time laughing when he came into the room to our facial accessories.

I am sure they have NEVER seen another family feed their patient with stick-on mustaches!

 

The Prairie Daddy was in splints for 5 days so we got to feed him. It was funny at times. 

When they took his splints off and we were close to getting released from the hospital we had a "date" and watched some TV together in his hospital bed.

The day after he got released from the hospital his brother and sis-in-law were visiting.  We were going to go to a movie but The Prairie Daddy requested MINI GOLF instead!  We had a lot of fun on this MUCH needed break from the hospital.  He was pretty fun to play with since he was still on methadone. 

Gangly Kicker

The Prairie Kid played soccer again. We missed most of his season due to our surprise trip to SLC but we did get to see a couple of games. He had a fun season and we had fun watching him.

The Phone Call

A few days after arriving home from the wedding I was waiting for The Prairie Kid to get out of school.  My cell phone rang and it was The Prairie Daddy.

"Are you picking up The Prairie Kid after school?"
"Of course, he has soccer tonight."
"Well, I need to fill you in on the situation.  I kind of got chemically burned and I was wondering if you could call the doctor."
"What do you mean you kind of got chemically burned?"

I will tell you what he meant.  He was belly crawling through a culvert patching it up with mortar mix.  Some water mixed with the mortar and soaked through his clothes.  Mortar is a pH of 13.  Before he could even feel it, he was burned on his chest, elbows, knees, thighs and wrist.  By the time he got out and got rinsed off he was 3rd degree burned on 8% of his body.

I drove to the ranch to get him.  He got off the mountain where he was working and met me at our house.  We packed our bags for the night and headed immediately to the ER.  The news wasn't good.  After three days of outpatient wound care we were sent to the Burn Center at the Univ of Utah in Salt Lake City.  We spent 16 days there where he had grafting surgery done on 7 sites.  We had to leave The Prairie Kid with family for the entire time.  It was the hardest thing we've ever been through.

I will likely write more about my heart/thoughts on this another time.  My husband will make a full recovery and is healing well.  We're finally feeling like "normal" again and are thankful to have put this behind us.

Can't Keep A Good Man Down

We got home on a Monday night from Salt Lake City.  On Friday we branded.  And there was no keeping The Prairie Daddy from getting out and working.  I was nervous but knew I couldn't tell him what to do.  The most important thing was to keep him clean and his wounds from getting bumped.  He was pretty good with staying back and I was amazed that he lasted all day after being down for weeks. 

We had our first batch of calves from the new Hereford bulls that we got.  They are SO cute!  Just look at that speckled nose!

Look at how serious he looks...

The Prairie Kid took my picture : )

My mom arrived that afternoon.  She has never been to a branding.  And she had never seen a calf castrated.  I love the look on her face!