Friday night, a hail storm was impending and I was out bringing in plants that I didn't want to lose, when I heard
Ted calling me. I went to see what he wanted and he had
been messing with a gun and dropped it and it went off and
shot him in the foot. There was blood everywhere. He had
been painting and trust me, he can't do two things at once.
I had him elevate it and I called 911. They had a policeman
here in a couple of seconds, followed by a fireman. They
dressed it and wanted to take him to a close hospital which
is notoriously bad. Fortunately I insisted they take him to
St. Anthony's.

My next door neighbor rushed out to take me but good sense
prevailed and I told her I would just go with the ambulance
and have Bobby come and get me. When we got there, I didn't
even have to mess with admission because they could pull up
the records and find us, they just had me stay in the emergency room. That was at about seven p. m.

After waiting several hours and consulting with three or
four doctors, they located an orthopedic surgeon and he
met us at Bone and Joint, their sister hospital to do
emergency surgery at l2:30 a.m. About two a.m. the surgery
was done and he got a room where he is now ensconced. The
pain was excruciating because fragments of his shoe and
sock were pressing on a nerve and all of this time he was
shaking uncontrollably. They had a bed for me in his room
but I slept not a wink.

Bobby came and got me and I sent him home with all three of
Ted's guns to lock up. He will have to sell them or give
them away. He is too unsteady to handle them.

Ted's shin bone was broken and he lost l0 percent of the
ankle bone. There was a lot of damage but the excellent
doctor was able to close up the wound, although it may
require skin grafts later.

His timing sucked. Bobby was sick from chemo, we had a
mini vacation planned for next weekend. It is like some
kind of dark situation comedy and we all laughed about the
situation but Ted of course could not see the humor and insists he can still go to Branson. Ha!!

I visited him for a couple of hours yesterday, and since he
has wonderful nurses, great food and a great doctor, I am
not going to stay but a few hours. Of course, the whole
mess had me breaking out in shingles again. I stay calm on
the outside during these messes but it still takes it's toll
on me. I won't spend the nights there again, despite the
comfortable bed and the coddling. The staff wants to ply
you with hot chocolate and graham crackers and sympathy.

Carolyn, my fun neighbor, says Ted should have his own
reality show.