Blends With Savanna Grasses

If you know much about my 14 year old son Dylan, you know that he's prone to spectacular injuries. He doesn't go for the little injuries like skining your knees on the street. Instead, he crashes through the front storm door, splits his legs open in three different places, and winds up getting fifty-seven stitches.

Well, this time, we have a "Christmas Story" adventure to tell. Dylan was excited to spend some of his Christmas money on a very nice, very realistic looking BB air pistol. I said "Are you sure? You could shoot your eye out, kid!" He said that he could handle anything that came his way with regards to the prized BB pistol.

So two days later, he comes into my office from outside, with his left hand index finger held in that distinctly "I gotta booboo" sort of posture. He described that he was clearing a jam in his BB pistol when it discharged. He was careful to explain that it wasn't loaded and the big puncture hole in the end of his finger was from compressed air and not from a BB. Fast forward two weeks and the end of his finger is the same size and color as a big Concord grape. He obviously had a bad infection.

So we went to the doctor's office yesterday and here's what the X-Ray showed. Yes - that pretty little sphere adjacent to the bone is the BB that wasn't loaded into his gun. (grin)

The X-Ray took place on Tuesday. But the doctor was so busy on Tuesday that they couldn't actually remove the BB at that time. We schedule a return trip on Thursday (thanks to Kelly for getting that on the books) and went on our way.

When we came back, we expected a couple shots of lidocane, a couple quick snips, and a loud "plink!" into a metal basin. That's not what we got. Have you ever dropped a BB on a hardwood floor? Did it ever stay exactly where it dropped? Heck no! So in the same way, every time the doctor tried to grab the BB, it'd roll out of the way.

I tried to make things as fun and lighthearted as possible. But for some reason, Dylan didn't enjoy my attempts at levity. (grin) Here he is with Doctor Jones making the initial incision.

It also took a lot more cutting than Dr Jones expected because the BB kept on taking evasive maneuvers (below).





Dylan didn't enjoy the lidocane and the cutting was pretty gross. But the thing he liked the least was the miniature tournaquet on his finger to staunch the bleeding. Eventually, the evil BB from Hades ran out of places to run - the doctor was victorious (below)!




In the end, it all worked out OK. But it was a bigger cut than anyone expected and Safariboy was going to need some time to heal... and learn about BB gun safety!

Our nurse, Lora, comforted him with these final thoughts. "Dylan," she said, "chicks dig scars."

He seemed a lot happier.

Cheers,

-Zebraman

# posted by Zebraman @ 2:10 PM