How many times have you started a project and you come across something unexpectedly?  You need another part that you didn’t plan for. Or, after you have finished, it doesn’t work as you expected? Well, in the last couple of weeks, we have had a big unexpected, unhelpful obstacle in our day-to-day tasks.

While elk hunting three weeks ago, Greg accidentally cut his left hand while helping his buddy break down an elk. He started antibiotics and got his hand stapled out in the field. When he got back to civilization four days later, he went to the doctor. By then, it had started to heal and looked pretty good. 

The following day, he got scheduled to go to the hand specialist. He had begun to get electric shocks through his hand. The surgeon confirmed that he had severed a significant nerve. She told him that if he didn’t want that to continue for the rest of your life, surgery would be required to repair the damage. No one wants to have surgery, but considering that each electric shock was extremely painful, surgery sounded good. The surgery was scheduled for the next day.

While in surgery, the doctor discovered that the primary tendon to his index finger was also cut through.  The tendon had retreated up to his arm when it was cut, so to retrieve the other end, she had to make an incision up his wrist and drill a tunnel for the reconnection.

The surgery lasted about 90 minutes. He was put in a partial hard cast to limit any movement in his wrist. He was supposed to wear it for two weeks before returning to the doctor to have the stitches removed.

The swelling was so painful that after a week, Greg began periodically unwrapping the bandage to relieve the pressure of the cast when he wasn’t being active (I know, a rare thing for him). 

He was very discouraged throughout the entire process. First, he was in a lot of pain and felt like things were getting worse, not better. Second, he could not use his hand. How many times do you use both hands in a day?

This week, he went in to get the stitches taken out. He was determined that it was worse off than before when he was only getting the electric shocks, but to his dismay, the doctor said things are great and healing well. He can start to bend his wrist again and just had his first appointment with a hand physical therapist. Since his appointment, he is happy he can once again (very slowly and methodically) touch his thumb and pointer figure together and slightly bend his wrist.

Over the last few weeks, pending projects have been slow around the ranch. We have been having to reach out for help and will continue to until Greg’s range of motion returns.

If you are at all interested in helping with Turkey harvest November 23^rd & 24^th, we would love any help we can get.  It will be a party!