Never a Dull Moment

NOTE: THERE'S A PICTURE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST OF JUSTIN'S FOOT THAT SOME MAY RATHER NOT SEE!

You never know what is going to happen around the Herr house! As it turns out, Brian is missing quite an exciting week around here ... although it may be for the better that he isn't around since he likely would have fainted last night!

So here's what happened ... I was preparing dinner while my Mom was playing outside with the kiddos. Hailey asked to have a "picnic" and eat on the patio, and since it was so nice out I said sure. I had gotten dinner all set up on the picnic table and we were getting ready to sit down and eat when Justin (I know ... you're all surprised that it involves my little guy!) fell while trying to climb up onto one of the picnic table benches. Not only did he fall, but the bench then fell on top of him ... on his foot to be precise. At first I just assumed he fell and hurt himself ... no big deal. It was only after my Mom helped him and picked him up that we both saw all of the blood. He somehow managed to rip out his entire big toe nail on his left foot ... thus the bleeding. It immediately turned completely black and blue, swelled up and looked anything but pleasant. Even I was feeling a bit weak as I called the doctor (thus the reason Brian would have passed out!). As I figured, they directed me to the ER (trip #2 for the little guy) since they figured they would want to do x-rays and possibly something to his toe that they couldn't do in the office. So off I went with Justin ... that was the longest 12 minute drive to the hospital. He cried and screamed the entire way there. I am so thankful that my Mom was still here (she was planning on leaving right after dinner) to stay with the girls ... it was kind of the Lord to allow this to happen while I had help!

So at the ER they cleaned his wound, examined his nail and determined that they wouldn't remove it since it's going to fall off anyway. They said the nail will act like a band-aid for the time being until it falls off. Originally they were talking about numbing his foot and removing the nail ... yikes! They also took x-rays and found out that he fractured his toe as well ... not much you can do for a little kid with a fractured toe except have him wear shoes (thank goodness it's summer so he can wear sandals!) that have a hard sole.

So around 9:15 p.m. we finally got home and Justin ate PB&J, a banana, blueberries, stawberries, pretzels and animal crackers ... oh and of course a bowl of ice cream for being such a trooper! He kept saying how hungry he was at the hospital, so he was making up for skipping dinner when we got home. I was so proud of my little guy at the ER ... he was a tough little guy even while they were poking, probing, doing x-rays, cleaning, and bandaging. I think we sang about 20 songs together while we were there and prayed lots too ... whenever it would start to hurt him again he would ask me to pray for him! Even though he's a tough boy, I love his tenderness, affection and how he's so cuddly! The doctors and nurses got good laughs from him ... every time someone saw him they would ask what happened and he would tell them, and then they would ask about his lip and he would tell them how he went bum out of his bed, and then he would tell them how he fell down the steps and point to his scar. He's proud of his battle wounds I suppose!

Thankfully Justin slept through the night (he is still on motrin) ... he's even outside playing right now! This morning I had to clean his foot and rebandage his toe so I took a pic of the memory ... however, as I mentioned above, some may rather not see it ... but for all of my family and friend nurses and those who enjoy visualizing I thought I'd include a picture ...