Okay, now for the gory details. The reunion went off well and by the time everyone left the campfire we thought it was a success, but my oldest daughter had hurt her foot. At first we thought it was nothing, but just before ten I realized we needed to get her to the hospital. The problem was that they closed the gates at ten. So we packed everyone up as quickly as we could and left our tents there. We would pick them up the next day. We got to the gate just after ten and it took us two minutes to talk the park rangers into letting us out. We went straight to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a possible hairline fracture and we all went home..
A couple of hours later I woke up and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. I noticed that I was leaving bloody foot prints. Then I noticed my socks were bloody. I checked my feet and found several of my toes had cuts and were bleeding. The worst was the bottom of my left big toe where the skin was peeling off and it was bleeding quite a bit. I had had a large blister and hadn't felt it. It had popped and was now bleeding.
Well, I am diabetic and realize how serious this can be for someone in my condition. My Mom, who was still in town because of the reunion, watched my kids and I went to the emergency room. We were in and out in record time. They gave me some antibiotics and told me some things to do. On Friday I had an adventure in Roanoke at Shoe Carnival. I won't go into detail about it in this post. But I will devote another post to that adventure. A week later my antibiotic prescription was about complete, but my foot and leg were in great pain. I took off my sock and my wife noticed a red streak going up my foot and nearly reaching my leg. When I took off the bandage around my toe and the entire bottom of my toe was black, both are dead giveaways that you have a serious infection.
We were in Waynesboro house-sitting for my mother-in-law at the time so we went to the closest hospital. Even if we had been at home and had gone to the hospital down there, that hospital is not equipped to handle an infection as nasty as the one I had. So they would have just sent me to the hospital I went to anyways. In the hospital I was diagnosed with.a diabetic infection and was admitted. I stayed four days where they immediately started me on intravenous antibiotics. They determined that my infection had made it to the bone, but I was caught early enough and I was responding well enough to the medication that they did not believe that amputation was going to be necessary. They decided to switch me over to oral antibiotics to prepare me for my release. They gave me a sixty to eighty percent chance of keeping the toe.
I was released and I am going back to a wound care clinic in the hospital every week. They cut away the dead skin at every visit, allowing new tissue to grow. It is getting better all the time. At one point the massive antibiotic treatment made me very nauseous and I vomited repeatedly but my doctor called in an anti-nausea prescription that worked well. My mom came out for a week and helped us around the house. That was really appreciated. I received so many prayers, and they worked. My toe is still nasty, and I have almost around a week and a half left on my medications, but I have been doing so much better.
I am so grateful for the power of prayer and everything it means in my life. We felt we had just the right medical care we needed at just the right time. We could see the Lord's hand all around us. I got calls from my family, so many prayers and so much love from friends and family. We firmly believe that this horrible ordeal will be a blessing. I was letting my diabetes rage out of control and now it is under control. My overall health is much improved, and I know better the symptoms to look for and how to prevent infection so I can avoid similar situations in the future. Because of this horrible experience I might be able to live a longer, happier life in the long run. Through everything I know my Lord and my Savior is with me and has paid the price for me. When no one else can relate to me, He can. What comfort this sweet knowledge is, I know my Redeemer lives.
There will be more updates and stories later.
Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes.