Blake came today. White faced with fear he brought Jamie. Jamie had blood all over him. I couldn't tell at first if Blake was bleeding, or Jamie was bleeding...there was blood all over both of them.
Red was driving the wagon. They stopped to have me go with them to Doc Stone's. Jamie was not bleeding any more, thank heavens, but apparently he had wanted to be a big boy and cut some wood. The ax was far too heavy for him. He dropped the ax, blade side down, and it slid down his shin bone. In one part of his leg the ax cut clear to the bone.
When we arrived at Doc Stone's, Eric stayed with Red. Red had brought some food, and books, to entertain Eric while we got Jamie cared for.
Jamie was unconscious. Blake was afraid that Jamie had lost so much blood that he was going to die. Looking at Blake and Jamie the blood quantity covering them terrified me.
Dr. Stone took Jamie from Blake's arms. He lifted him on to an examination table. Blake had already taken off Jamie's pants...to expose the leg. Blake had been applying pressure on the wound for the last hour. Dr. Stone said, "You probably saved Jamie's life Blake. How did you know to do that?"
"Red, he told me what to do."
Doc nodded at me. "Celeste, will you please go to my stove and get hot water out of the reservoir? I keep it hot all year long for just this purpose. I need to clean the wound so that I can see exactly what I need to do."
Blake said, "I'll do that Doc. I need to do something to keep me from thinking too deep right now. I mean, is he going to have infection get in, is he going to be able to walk again, is he going to lose his leg? Will the blood loss kill him?"
Dr. Stone put his arm around Blake's shoulders. "One step at a time right now Blake. Your step is to go get the boiling water. Put it in my large pan on the wall and bring it in to me."
After Blake left Doc said to me, "Would you please go to the cupboard on the wall? There are lots of clean rags there. We need to keep the area of Jamie's leg repair as clean as possible."
Continuing Doc said, "Celeste, can you assist me with surgery? Do you faint at the sight of blood, and other bodily things?"
Not hesitating I said, "I will do anything necessary to help Jamie. He is my boy too you know."
Doc smiled softly at me. "That is the reason that I asked. Many times parents are too closely connected to their children to be able to face surgery. On the other hand I have seen parents perform superhuman feats to save their children. I just needed to make certain that you are one of the latter. If you pass out, then I would have two patients on my hands. I need to be able to focus all of my attention on Jamie's leg if we are to save it."
Blake came back with the boiling water.
Dr. Stone said, "Where are Red and Eric, Blake?"
"They are behind your house. Red volunteered to keep Eric busy."
"Blake, I want you to go join them. As Jamie's Father your connection is too close. If you faint, or get sick it will be a problem for my focus on Jamie."
Blake said, "I will sit over here Doc. Then if you need me I will be here."
Blake turned to me soberly and said, "What about you Cele? Should you go outside?"
I kissed Blake gently on the cheek. "I have lost so many people in my life Blake. I lost my entire family in one week, and then I lost my daughter as well. I will NOT lose this precious boy. I will do whatever Doc needs, and I will be fine."
It felt like hours crawled by as Dr. Stone very, very carefully began to clean and diagnose exactly what he needed to do to repair Jamie's leg.
When Doc began the actual stitching Celeste felt a pinching pain between her shoulder blades. Her nose itched but she did not dare to scratch it because she knew how important it was to keep her hands clean.
Dr. Stone only spoke once during the entire procedure. "Blake, Celeste, I'm grateful that there is no muscle tissue missing. In addition I will be able to stitch all of his leg. There will be no part that does not have enough skin to cover the wound."
Skillfully Dr. Stone kept stitching, and swabbing, stitching, and swabbing some more. Celeste began to think that she had died and gone to Hell. She was in her personal Hell where she had to watch someone she loved suffer.
At one point Jamie began to wake up. Doc had already shown Celeste how to administer Ether so that Jamie would not awaken until Doc was finished.
It was two eternal hours later that Doc stood upright and stretched. He smiled brightly. "Blake, I can, with confidence, tell you that Jamie will heal completely. In addition he will suffer no long term consequence from this injury. His bone was not broken, the soft tissue of his leg was still intact, and there was enough skin to sew him up."
"I want to keep him here at my office until tomorrow just to watch and make certain that he doesn't start a fever. All things working as we would pray you can come pick him up tomorrow afternoon."
"Then will come the hard part. Jamie can NOT absolutely can NOT get up for at least a month. It's necessary to make certain that none of the stitches are ripped open, or that he gets his leg dirty. I think you may need some medicine to keep him from getting up too soon. He's too young to understand that there would be serious consequences to him getting up too soon."
Blake and I sighed at the same time. Both of us were thinking of the nightmarish ordeal of trying to keep a child slightly under the age of 2 still for an entire month.
Then Blake said, "Doc, you saved my child today. If I have to sit on him for the next month, I promise that he will stay still."
Blake pulled a twenty dollar gold piece from his pocket and laid it on the counter top.
Dr. Stone retrieved it and slid it back into Blake's pocket. "That is far too much Blake. You always over pay me."
Blake frowned and took the gold piece out of his pocket. "I do NOT over pay you. Other people UNDER pay you!"
"Nevertheless...I will not take that much..."
Before Dr. Stone could say a word I snatched the gold piece from Blake. "You are two of the most stubborn men that I have ever met. Maybe that's why I love you both so much! I will take the gold piece. Some way or another I WILL pay Doc...maybe it will be in $20.00 worth of meals, and pies. I do happen to know that Dr. Stone rarely eats a decent meal. I think good, hearty meals to fatten him up would be better than a $20.00 gold piece."
Dr. Stone smiled, "I think this woman knows me a little too well, Blake. What do you say Blake, deal?"
Blake kissed me on the cheek, and then reached his hand out to Dr. Stone, "Deal."
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