Men's Retreat

Did you know that a church men's retreat can be dangerous?

Our church is having a men's retreat this weekend. Last night was game night (basketball, board games, card games, etc) along with pizza and a speaker. Today they are having a breakfast, a few sessions with the speaker, chili for lunch, and (Mike's favorite) a skeet shoot! Mike spent yesterday afternoon setting up a 5-station skeet shoot competition for the guys to use today. He won the shoot last year and has been practicing this week so that he could try to win again. He's VERY disappointed that he's not going to get a chance to shoot today.

Last night he was playing basketball at the game night and hurt his knee. At first he thought it was just sprained, but then the pain greatly intensified. It got to the point where 2 guys (Terry & Jack) carried him out to the car and Bob rushed him to the hospital. His knee was locked in a bent position and he was unable to straighten it out. They did an x-ray and found that the bone was ok. They said he tore his meniscus and that they needed to straighten it out. The ER doctor tried to straighten it out (after giving Mike a pain shot in his leg) and it was too painful. So...they put in a call to the orthopedic doctor.

At 10:00 I was sitting on the couch feeding Brody when I saw a car pull up our driveway. It was so dark outside that I couldn't tell who it was. I knew it wasn't Mike (you know how loud his truck is! lol). So I picked up the phone to call Mike to see if he knew who would be coming to our house so late. It was then that I realized my phone was dead. I ran to the bedroom to plug my phone in and called him. He said it was Terry coming to tell me that Mike was in the hospital! To make a long story short, I called Teri and she came over to watch Brody while I drove to the hospital (thanks so much Teri!!! You're a lifesaver!!!)

When I got there Mike's knee was still stuck in a bent position. Bob (who just happens to be a nurse) was still there just trying to help Mike find a comfortable position. They gave him another shot for the pain and we waited for the orthopedic Dr. He got to the hospital around midnight and gave Mike a shot deep into his knee with a numbing agent. He said this would help Mike to be able to relax and hopefully they could get the let straight. He said that when you tear your meniscus (the cartilage behind the knee) it can flip up into the joint locking your knee. When you get it straightened out then the cartilage should lay back down flat and give you movement in your leg.

We waited for the numbing agent to take effect and then the Dr. tried to straighten Mike's leg. It was still too painful (and if you know Mike...you know pain has to be unbearable before he shows you that he's in pain!) The Dr. left to go book Mike a room in the hospital. Mike kept working on his leg trying to straighten it. Finally he grimaced and tried really hard. I heard a loud pop and Mike was writhing in so much pain that I had to push against his body to keep him from falling off the bed!

I went to find the Dr and he was happy to see that Mike got the leg straight! He wrote a prescription for codeine and told Mike to come into his office on Monday for an MRI. He said they'll probably have to do orthoscopic surgery sometime next week to remove the torn cartilage.

We made it home a little after 2:00 am. Needless to say...it wasn't an easy night of sleep for Mike. This morning he fell asleep on the couch with Brody while watching their "man cartoons" (aka home building shows). I'm sad that he's not getting to go do the skeet shoot (he tried to convince me last night that he'd be able to do it today...but he had changed his mind by this morning). I'm very thankful that it's not any worse than it is. I guess if there's a year for this to happen...this is the one. With Brody being born this year we're already pretty close to our total out of pocket! I think I have a few moles that I need removed. I wonder what else we need to have done this year?