Minnesota Memoirs: One BIG Lesson About Axes....and Ben!

Well, the Summer of 2011 started out with one BIG bang....Ben had an unfortunate accident with the ax while chopping wood at the cabin in June, 2011. Accidents happen, but what is amazing is how Ben handled this. While he was out chopping wood with his Uncle, brother, sister and cousins, Ben saw the axe go right down into his tennis shoe and stop. He pulled it out, didn't say a word except to tell everyone he was going in to get a drink of water....5 minutes later, he is being carried out by his Father, mother running to the suburban and yelling we are going to the hospital.....let me back track for you for what happened in those previous 5 minutes.

Ben walks into the cabin, I'm sitting in the living room reading a book, his grandfather next to me, grandmother and father all in the cabin as well. He just goes around the corner, away from everyone and sits on another couch, sits back, pulls off his shoe to investigate what has happened. He pulls of his shoe, bloody sock and then sees his toe hanging on by only the skin, dangling backwards off his foot. THEN, he decides to call out to his mother, "Mom, I think I hurt my toe with the ax."...I asked what, he repeated it...and of course as I come running over to see if what he says is really true...yes, I see him holding his foot in the air in front of him, and that little toe dangling. THEN, Ben decided it was OK to freak out a bit! He kept saying he didn't want to go to the hospital, because they would take his toe, and all I could think was, 'Yes your right, they will Ben'...but of course, all I could say is "No, the hospital will fix everything, you'll be just fine."

I tell you, that was the longest 20 minute drive! I'm glad dad held him and I drove though! Who would ever guess up there in the Chippewa National Forest,110 miles south of the Canadian border, the only hospital near us would have a Bone and Limb Facility that specializes in reattaching! All I can say is the doctors were amazing....after a couple hours of surgery, Ben was wheeled to his room for a long night of rest. (Pictures below) The next day the morphine worked wonders on him, as you can tell in his picture of him awake in his hospital bed! They did have to put a pin in to hold everything together, but within 4 weeks, the pin was pulled out and he was back to the same old Ben, just a little slower for a bit...a little slower, not much though!

Today, you can't tell any of that happened except for the slightly crooked toe bending to the left...I'll take the crookedness anyday over a lost toe...besides, it has character now!....just like Ben :o)

(Note, I included a few graphic pictures for your viewing....so be proceed cautiously!)

1 hour after surgery

Amazing what a little morphine can do!

X-ray of what those amazing doctors did!

3 days after surgery......Now you can see how amazing it is that he only cut that one toe, in between the others, and nothing else was cut. Just another reminder how God is truly in all the details....every last one!