Elbow Vs Eye

Many people have asked what happened to me after seeing pictures or running into me. I presently have 4 stitches, a hemorrhage in my eye, and a lot of bruising around my left eye. I feel like it is easier to write a blog about it than tell the story over and over again. This is bound to happen regardless, but it gives me an excuse to write a blog entry.

This past week I was working as volunteer faculty at Round Lake Christian Camp. Every day, the camp has activities that the hired, core staff of the camp helps put on. Sometimes it's archery, a rock wall, kayaking, etc. On this day, my family group was tubing behind a jet ski. To say the least, we were all very excited. It was Thursday in the week too, so we had heard plenty of good things from everyone else who already had the chance to ride.

Well one of my blog followers, Ryan Hershberger, and I decided we would ride the double tube together. We personally knew the staff member driving the jet ski. And so we told him, "listen. . . don't be shy about the throttle. Give us your worse." So he is flying. We are holding on for dear life. Tears are tumbling out of my eyes as the eyelids flap back in the wind. We are leaning into every corner. Then there was that dumb turn. One left turn that ended all the fun. We flipped the tube. Which, by no means, was the bad part. The bad part was Ryan's elbow coming over from the left side of the tube to my side. And thus, smashing me in the left eye socket.

And so I pop up from the murky lake water after thrashing in the wake a bit. Ryan, holding on to the stopped tube by one arm says "Dude, you're bleeding." I touch my face, look at my very red hand, giggle and say "Yeah dude. I am." And I swim over to tube, and our friend pulls the two of us in. All of the campers on the shore go from looking at me like "That was so crazy! LoL!" to "You need to see the nurse, OhEmGee."

So I go up to the nurse and knock at the door. "This had better be good" "Oh, it is." She opens the door and looks it over. "What'd you do," as she grabs the Tylenol. I start explaining and lift my eyebrows. At this point, blood begins to poor out down my cheek. "OK. YOU NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!" This immediately became the nurse's Super Bowl.

She hands me her phone and it is ringing for my dad's cell as she frantically searches through paper work. Before I know it, I'm in a truck driving to Wooster, 20 minutes from the camp. We get to the emergency room with gauss over my eye. I'm all assessed, tell the story again, and get a room.

The doctor shows up and says we're gonna be doing stitches. Well at least it will look sweet. He comes back with a tray full of all sorts of goodies. "You might want to take off that shirt if you don't want blood on it." I lean back on the chair and he tells me "We're going to numb it now. This is going to be the worse part." He puts the syringe up there to the eyebrow. "You're going to feel a pinch" Ouch. Check. "And this will sting." OH MY GOODNESS! MOTHER OF GHANDI! And then, nothing. He starts tying knots. 4 of em to be exact.

And with my left eye swollen and bloody and stitched, I returned to camp in time for dinner and in time to help lead worship.