HAL the stub!

Well, it has officially been a lame summer...sorry for the bad attitude, but read on and you will find out why.

Nearly a month and a half ago, Danny was bringing home a big attachment (approximately 2, 000 lbs) to hook on to the bobcat so that we could spend the weekend putting grass in our back yard. Unfortunately, the attachment fell off of the trailer into an intersection while Danny was making a left hand turn. Amazingly enough, within minutes we had two faithful members of our ward there to help, including a bus full of inmates (seriously!). The inmates and Danny were trying to move the attachment off to the side of the road and in the process the piece of equipment was dropped on DANNY'S FOOT! One neighbor rushed him to the nearby Insta Care, while the other neighbor finished securing the equipment back onto the trailer and brought the truck home as well as meet up with me to take me to the Insta Care. I have to say that when I first saw his foot and the pain that he was in I was sure that we were in for it....Well, I ended up being right.

To make a very long story short, Danny had miraculously not broken any bones in his foot, but his big toe was a disaster. It was broken in a few places and was smashed severely. They called it a partial amputation. He was stitched up by the emergency room, and week after week we saw all kinds of specialists. All of which didn't have promising news about his big toe. Danny was not able to do anything for weeks but lay down with his foot elevated. As we babied and nursed his toe day after day, we realized that it wasn't doing much good. It was dying. The black continued to spread and it became as hard as a rock. (Danny even tested it out by trying to stick a tack into it. The tack wouldn't budge). It was discouraging and confusing on many different levels, but we kept reminding ourselves that it could have been so much worse! Finally, we had to come to grips that it was going to have to be amputated. A week ago Tuesday was the day. Danny went to the hospital with ten toes, and came out with 9 and 3/4. Since then the healing process has started all over again. UGH! He has been back to doing nothing but laying down and keeping his foot elevated. We saw the doctor for the first time since the surgery and were able to look at Danny's new small stub. To be honest with you, I have been gearing myself up to see it, but it still felt like I had been punched in the gut when I actually did. The doctor warned Danny that there was going to be a "grieving" or "mourning" process that took place when he saw it. Danny handled it very well, but I definitely felt that I was "grieving." Sounds so silly for a toe, but nevertheless, that was the case. My heart hurts. Today is his first day back to work since the surgery and it feels good to be on the mending path. Maybe our life will get back to "normal" again soon.

Sorry to the faint of heart, but here are a few before, during, and after pictures.

Here is Hal the Stub (short for Halix which is the fancy name for "big toe." We might as well "name it and live with it," right?)