The Wheeler and the Blue Rope

In Alaska we refer to our 4wheelers and quad runners as 'wheelers'.  So, one day I was dragging out deadfall with the wheeler when all of a sudden the rope slipped down around my leg while I was riding forward.  All at the same time, as the rope slipped down around my leg both ends got caught under the back wheel as I was moving forward and totally strangled my leg.  It's a good thing I was only going about 2 miles an hour or I would have been in far worse trouble.  Here' a pic.

At first I didn' think I was hurt very badly.  I walked around my wheeler picking up the rope but soon decided to have Raz look at it.  The pictures following may be too graphic for some people.  Sorry for that, but here are some.

Now, I don't have skinny chicken legs to begin with but you can see how much swelling happened just within the first hour.

Over the next 24 hours this is what evolved.

The next day.....

One might ask why I didn't

 go straight to the doctor.  Well, Chad and Casey had been up helping us build (and laugh, and eat, and laugh some more) but when they went to go home their car broke down and so we lent them our rig to get back home in.  They were to return in a few days.  In the meantime I went over to visit the EMT's in town and decided it could wait a few days.  So I took a bunch of pictures for the Doc to see later.

And talk about color!

Now it's about a week later.  Still at the cabin but headed home today.  Think I'll stop by the emergency room on my way home.

When I saw the doctor she told me I did all the right things and that it was going to run it's healing cycle and that it would look a whole lot worse before it got better.  Boy, was she not kidding.

Pain, you ask?  Not really.  My surface nerves were temporarily damaged and also squished off from the swelling.  I didn't feel much.

After about a month out from the accident the constantly seeping blister finally turned into a big scab.

The scab began to shrink away from the edges and revealed small holes and fishers in my flesh called tunneling.

Six weeks out from the injury the scab fell off leaving a big messy, yucky hole in my leg.  They called it an ulcer.

At that point I knew it wouldn't be long until the microscopic buggies moved in.  I was right.

Back to the Doc.

She said, "Yep, you're right on schedule".  She put me on the highest power antibiotics they have.  The stuff they use for Malaria and some other nasty illness I can't remember.  Then she sent me to the Wound Care Center where the experts could teach me how to care for it.

God bless The Wound Care Center.  They were amazing.  They taught me all the things I needed to do to heal.  Keep my leg elevated above the level of my heart for 23 hours a day.  For weeks.  Uuuuugh.  I could shower and pee.  Lol.  They had me on protein shakes 3 times a day and a high protein diet.   But I was faithful.  So my leg began to slowly heal.

And here it is today.  It has taken 6 months to get here.  All that being laid up made it so I couldn't help build.  But my man, Raz,  he's the bomb!  He got it all done.

I still have discoloring and an odd shape to my leg now but I learned so much about wound care and the vital importance of  how following the doctors orders can make all the difference.  In the meantime we got better phone service hooked up at the cabin and the Doc gave me antibiotics to keep there just in case I get stuck there sometime with an injury that calls for antibiotics.  Fortunately we have helicopter medivac service up there if it is ever needed as well.