First I must tell all Happy New Year and may your 2020 bring joy, happiness, blessings from God, and a lot of quilting.
If you are one of my contacts that usually receive a Christmas or New Years greeting and have missed the Happy New Year card, I have a little story to tell.
In my last Post, excitement was in the air for the coming New Year! That was before I received another phone from Apple. About 6 that evening I started to set up the new phone (a replacement). I will condense this part – They sent the wrong phone (an AT&T carrier phone versus my Verizon carrier). That call ended at 11:00PM. Then up at 5:30 AM. I spoke to Apple again from 7 to 10:30 AM and things were looking up but we were exhausted.
NEXT phase – Tuesday afternoon adventure. Clay had ordered another American Arms 22 mag gun for Christmas. The Firearms Dealer in LV called and advised that the gun had arrived and we could come pick it up. We did and arrived home about 4:30. We headed to the Studio as I had left the new phone updating to IOS13 – of which it is reminding me of why I do not like a black cat to cross my path!!!!!!!! Remember, we were both exhausted from lack of sleep as I tell the story.
Clay was in one of his rooms and I went to my room and stopped to fix me a pot of coffee before I sat down to finish the updating of the phone and my Apple Watch. I THINK I was heading back to the other room to get my coffee when I heard the gun go off and smelled the black powder. I ran into where Clay was and he kept telling me he was sorry that he had accidentally shot himself in the hand. It was like the twilight zone. HORRIBLE
I immediately called for an ambulance. Clay is a retired SAFD Lieutenant so he knew to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. CLAY IS NOT ONE TO HAVE THIS HAPPEN – HE IS THE OVER CAUTIOUS TYPE BUT HE WAS TOO TIRED TO BE DOING WHAT HE WAS DOING! When this happened I did things that were evidently programmed in my mind, but all I could do was cry, shake and try to get him to the ambulance. Of course we had just locked the gate and my worry was that they could not get in without bolt cutters. Clay was probably in shock, and was determined to walk to the Gate (about 800 feet) to the road to meet the Ambulance!
He was taken to the Trauma Center at Brook Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio. BAMC is the premiere trauma center in the USA as far as we are concerned. He had the most wonderful Orthopedic Team to take care of him. By 10:00 PM they had decided that he would be admitted and that surgery would be on New Years Day. The surgery was successful (Surgery Number 1) in cleaning out the wound and accessing damage. He had shattered the 5th dorsal in the left hand (the bone between the small finger and the wrist). There will be another surgery in 6 weeks for reconstruction and bone drafting. We are so blessed to be so close to BAMC (about 40 miles) and to have all those angels taking care of my Clay. I never left his side, and they allowed me to spend the night with him (we went 24 hours without eating and sleeping). Because the surgery went so well (they did a block on his entire arm) we arrived home by 5PM on New Years Day.
We experienced the dedication, talent, and caring of some very young military doctors and nurses that serve our country – PLEASE REMEMBER TO THANK A PERSON SERVING IN THE MILITARY THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE ONE! THEY ARE SPECIAL PEOPLE ALONG VETERANS THAT YOU KNOW – THEY ARE PROTECTING YOU!
We had a follow up appointment yesterday and the Doctor was so pleased with how well the surgery went. It appears that he was able to close the wound up and Clay will have the 2nd surgery in 6 weeks. Then the massive therapy will start.
Yes, it could have been worse, God was watching over Clay. For me I am slowly getting over the trauma of witnessing all of this but at times, tears come. We are fine, Clay is a trooper, more worried about me, just like I am more worried about him. This is what has made us a great team for 24 years (even if the Irish guy and the Cajun lady can butt heads every now and then). LOL. It was an accident and it is not for him to carry guilt around forever. I am fine, he is going to be back to normal sooner than later, and our year will continue to have blessings!
So now you know why I have been silent for the last 4 days! I am not in a hurry to worry about any of my 2020 goals, and if I happen to miss commenting on some of the posts of others, please forgive! I will slowly go over them. I am glad that I have a lot of hand work ready to be completed. I will stay close to Clay. I am just not ready to go back to the Studio as of yet.
Hugs to all
Nanette
