New Hitch, a Trip to the ER and a Visit With Friends

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, January 15 to Sunday, January 18, 2015

Paul ordered a B&W Companion hitch from a shop in Bushnell on New Year's Eve, and it finally came in last Tuesday. He made the appointment for installation for Thursday because of our plans to go to the RV show on Wednesday.

Paul headed down the road bright and early on Thursday morning to have the new hitch installed. They wanted the truck there at 8:00 a.m.

The installation was supposed to take about 3 hours, so Paul hung around until they pulled the truck into a work bay, then he walked back to Blueberry Hill. It was a distance of less than a mile.

A little before noon, we got a call saying the truck was done. Since we needed a few groceries, we decided it would be a good opportunity to take Freeway on a long walk to go pick up the truck then stop at Walmart on the way back. The weather was cool and cloudy, so Freeway could easily stay in the truck while we did our shopping.

As we made our way down the sidewalk, a loud truck passed by causing Freeway to tuck his tail between his legs and try to scoot out of the way of whatever he thought it was that was coming after him. Paul thought chicken-heart Freeway was so funny, he tried to mimic him.

After about 2 steps of his immitation of Freeway, Paul suddenly found himself with his face on the sidewalk. Obviously, his foot caught on something causing him to trip, but it happened so fast he really doesn't know exactly what made him fall. He was worried his cheek would be bleeding all over the place, but that wasn't the case. Instead, his hand had also hit the sidewalk in an instinctive move to break his fall. When he looked down to check out his hand, he was surprised at what he saw.

Ouch!

The picture may be shocking, but please be assured that throughout the entire ordeal, Paul was in surprisingly little pain. He was pretty squeamish at first, but since there was no blood and little pain, he soon turned into a real trooper.

A lady driving by saw Paul fall, and she stopped to see if we needed help. We didn't know if the finger was broken or dislocated, but we knew Paul needed medical attention. However, we couldn't go very far without the truck, so we asked the lady if she would give us a ride to the shop to pick up the truck.

There is a walk-in clinic in Bushnell about half a mile farther down the road, so that's where we headed after getting the truck. The doctor at the clinic said we needed a hospital, so we headed to the ER at Citrus Memorial Hospital about 40 minutes away in Inverness.

To make a long story short (it took about 4 hours to get Paul's finger X-rayed and fixed up), the finger was dislocated rather than broken. The doctor injected a topical anesthetic to numb the finger then popped it back into place.

Paul icing his finger while waiting treatment

Swollen, but straight again

The nurse "buddy taped" the dislocated finger to Paul's index finger.

Dislocated finger "buddy taped" to Paul's index finger

Since Paul is left handed, having a dislocated finger on his left hand is a major inconvenience. Also losing the use of his index finger because of the "buddy taping" made things even worse. Therefore, as soon as we got back to the motor home, Paul re-taped the dislocated finger to his ring finger instead. It was still awkward, but it was better.

As we said, there was surprisingly little pain, even after the numbing anesthetic wore off during the night. The next morning, Paul switched from "buddy taping" to a splint we had lying around from some previous mishap. The splint still gets in the way, but it's better than the taping. The finger will need to be splinted for 3 to 6 weeks while the muscles and tendons heal.

We thank God Paul's finger wasn't broken and for lack of pain both during and after the ordeal. We're grateful for the good medical attention he got and also for the kindness of strangers.

When we got back from the ER on Thursday, it was almost dark. On Friday, Paul finally had a chance to get a good look at the new hitch. The Companion hitch is supposed to be very sturdy and durable. Another plus is when it is removed from the bed of the truck, there are no mounting rails or other obstructions to get in the way in the event we ever need to haul anything big. When we stopped at the B&W booth at the RV show, the Companion hitch got high praise from another RVer who was there at the time.

B&W Companion hitch

Mike and Peggy are friends of Darrell and Judy, who are our friends that used to have a deeded lot at the Escapees' Rainbow Plantation in Alabama. Mike and Peggy live in the same town in Maine where Darrell and Judy used to live a number of years ago. We visited Mike and Peggy when we went to Maine two summers ago.

We got an e-mail from Mike and Peggy a few days ago saying they would be staying about 45 minutes away from Blueberry Hill in Crystal River for a few days and asking if we wanted to get together for lunch on Friday. They stopped by our rig around noon, and we headed to OakWood Grill after chatting a while.

OakWood Grill

Peggy had a smoked turkey sandwich, Mike had a combo plate with a half rack of ribs and smoked turkey while we both had blackened blue burgers (grilled burger topped with blue cheese). Recommending restaurants is a bit subjective, but we were happy to hear Mike and Peggy say it was as good as they had anticipated.

Margery, Paul, Peggy and Mike

We arrived at OakWood at the tail end of the lunch rush, so the restaurant started to clear out shortly after we arrived. That allowed us to hang around and chat for quite some time after our meal. We eventually headed back to Blueberry Hill and said our good-byes to Mike and Peggy.

After we did our weekly cleaning on Saturday, we headed to Walmart to do the shopping that got postponed due to our trip to the ER on Thursday. We spent the rest of the day Saturday and some time after church on Sunday doing last-minute preparations for our departure for Fort Meyers on Monday to pick up the 5th wheel. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Janice Williford Evans]

OH MY WORD. . .all I saw in the title was "trip to ER". . .I had to hurry and find out what on earth had happened. . .good grief. . .that is a gross pic of Paul's hand.

So thankful that he is okay. . .and will recover. . .goodness!

I know you guys are already in your new rig. . .can't wait to see the pics. . .hurry up already. . .LOL!

[Gerri Jones]

Oh my that finger looks awful!! So glad Paul was able to get things all fixed up with so little pain.
So glad you all were able to have a good visit with Mike and Peggy!! We enjoyed a dinner with them on Friday...always nice sharing time with good folks!!

[Paul and Marsha]

My goodness, Paul. We are so glad you weren't hurt worse than your finger. Boy it did look ugly. I can't image that it didn't hurt. So glad you went to the ER to get it taken care of. Now don't go working too hard and reinjury it!

The hitch looks great. Enjoy your new home!

[Bob & Jo]

That finger looked painful.