A Deer Horn Antler Did WHAT?

I was downstairs folding laundry this past weekend when my son hollered at me "Mom, Dad's hurt"... and the rest of what he said I couldn't understand...but there was something about a deer, a horn and a foot????

As I ran up the stairs I couldn't imagine how all those three things fit together in a scenario!  I was thinking my husband's hurt with a deer horn foot? What in the world could be going on?

My son just happened to text my husband right as the event happened, and at first we just got pieces of a story that seemed garbled and too crazy to be real!  Finally, we began to make sense of what had happened, and indeed, this story was a crazy one!

A friend of ours had bought 80 acres recently, and had invited my husband to come out and walk it with him and another friend.  I thought about going with them, but the weather was kind of nasty - a cold drizzling rain, and so I declined the opportunity to roam around 80 acres (which I would normally love to do but the weather was icky!), and so I stayed home to keep the fires going.

As they were hiking around the property, they went through a marshy, low-lying area with a lot of huge cedars growing in there.  They were walking along through the marshy area when all of a sudden my husband took a step that resulted in instant pain.  When he lifted his boot up, there was a deer horn stuck inside his boot.  The deer antlers had been under a pile of leaves, and covered up with the wet marshy swamp area.  As they pulled the deer horn out of his foot, my husband began to bleed pretty badly, and they knew he was hurt.  His friends helped him to the vehicle where he was able to sit down and get a better look at what had happened.

Now... if you don't want to see this next picture... just scroll past real quick, as it is kind of gory!

OUCH!!!  This happened with my husband wearing thick wool socks, and thick insulated rubber-soled winter boots!

When I received this text of the picture of the deer horn that penetrated his foot, it turned my stomach! His friends broke it off for him to bring home.  EWW!  I can't imagine this gross thing penetrating into my poor husband's foot.  I felt so bad for him.  And if it wasn't bad enough to have the injury, on the way home, our pickup developed a flat tire, and he and his friend had to get out and change it! Apparently they had run over something out on the property that had penetrated and ruined the tire.  One penetration adventure wasn't enough for the day it seems!

When my poor husband got home, I immediately prepared an Epsom salt bath for his foot.  I used 2 cups of Epsom salts in the foot bath.  After soaking for about 20 minutes or so, I dried his foot and bandaged it with antibiotic cream and Oregano oil.  Oregano oil is a lifesaver in our house.  It is said to be the strongest natural antibiotic there is.  I always make sure to apply oregano oil with a carrier oil when applying directly to the skin, because it is so strong.  In this case, I teamed up with Neosporin and oregano oil. We decided we would wait until the morning to see if we needed to take him to the doctor.

In the morning, he was very sore, and the puncture wound was draining nicely with no sign of obvious green pus or infection.  We continued to soak the wound three times a day for the next day or so, and apply the oregano oil and Neosporin.  I also supplemented him with extra garlic pills, as well as echinacea in order to boost his immune system.

The hardest part was keeping him off his feet and resting.  I felt that he needed at least a day off his feet in order to let the wound begin to heal up.  We took good care of him, and he hobbled around as little as possible.

By the second day, he was able to get up and hobble around a bit more.  We went out for about an hour to run a couple of errands, and then it was back home to his easy chair.

It has been several days now since he got hurt, and every day he is better.  He is still hobbling around somewhat, but the pain has decreased to more of a dull knowing that it is there kind of pain.

Several friends and family asked about his tetanus shot and whether it was up-to-date. Thankfully, he had a tetanus shot about 7 years, so we were okay there.

We have discussed the event many times since and my husband is still shaking his head over the strange events that took place, causing him to have such an unusual puncture wound.  Things like these never happen at convenient times, for sure.  It just so happened that we had bought lumber to build a tractor shed this week.  Unfortunately, the tractor shed has somewhat been pushed to the back burner, and we are not sure if we will get it done or not.  He will have to leave for work again next Monday.

Such is life, isn't it!   One moment you're walking along, having a great time enjoying being with your buddies, and the next moment your whole world changes.  I guess there is a lesson to be learned in all this!  Realize, and recognize that life is full of unexpected, unwanted, and unforeseen surprises.  There is no way to be careful enough, or wise enough to bypass them all.  At the most, we can be thankful that things aren't worse than what they are, which makes me think of the verse the Apostle Paul penned when he said in I Thess. 5:18,  "In all things give thanks".   Amen :)