Long, Slow Burn

Yesterday was a beautiful Georgia day. Highs in the 70s, light breeze, mostly sunny. I bundled the entire family into the car and head out to the Gainesville Archery Club 3D shoot. We arrived right around 10am, plunked down $20 for the admission for myself, and my two sons. My wife, Kim, doesn’t have a bow yet that fits her so she was just going to be our official score keeper.

We got started and we were having a great time. Griffin was on pace to blow past his previous best as he has a new loaner bow, with a sight and he’s really dialing it in. Logan was doing really well too. Me, I was hitting most of the targets and I didn’t lose any of the arrows that I was missing on. I did destroy one arrow on an overshoot. It hit a tree behind the target and we found the arrow, minus all of the fletchings, and the nock. It looked naked.

On the fourteenth target (out of twenty targets), the boys hit the target, and I overshot the target. My arrow, hit a tree, and then another, and other and the last I saw it, it was heading off at approximately a right angle of where I shot it. I told Kim that we shouldn’t look for it off of this target, but we might find it by looking in the woods after the 15^th target.

Kim and I retrieved the boys arrows. The boys were in front of me going down the hill, then it was me, and Kim was pulling up the rear. The mountain was pretty steep here and the next group was already waiting for us to clear out. I was about half way back to the trail, and I heard Kim cry out behind me. Before I could really turn out, she cried out again. I knew something was really wrong at this point.

I ran back to her and she was sitting on the ground, crying out, holding her left elbow. It was either dislocated, or broken. Her elbow was not in the right place.

Other archers gathered around and were asking what they could do. I really had no clue at that moment. I knew that we needed help to get out of the woods. Kim said that she felt like she was going to black out. After a few moments of confusion, Kim felt as if she could walk back to the trail.

I picked her up by lifting from underneath her arms trying to be protective of her hurt arm. We slowly made it back to the trail. Other archers were saying that they had called 911, and that the 4 wheeler was on it’s way. We pulled up our archery stool and had Kim sit down for a bit. I got her a drink of water. By this time, the 4 wheeler had arrived. Let me say that the trail isn’t a gentle, groomed trail. It’s rough and definitely not smooth. We opted to walk out. The 4 wheeler tool all of our stuff out.

By the time we had walked out, the fire department was pulling into the parking lot. Several archers were flagging them towards us. They were professional and caring at the same time. They got the information, got her sat down, started taking vitals. Just a minute after the firemen, was the paramedics in the ambulance. The transfer of information was smooth.

While they loaded her up in the ambulance and got an IV in her, I asked another archer to help get all of my stuff into the car so that I could drive behind the ambulance to the hospital. A short ride later, we arrived at the hospital. North Georgia Hospital in Gainesville. They were great too. I was a bit panicked because I couldn’t follow the ambulance to the admission, and after we parked, I couldn’t find Kim. Never leave a loved one unattended in a hospital. One of the golden rules. It was just a few minutes later and I found her already in the emergency room with a nurse getting her admitted. The radiologist came not too long later and took her for x-rays.

My mother arrived from Alpharetta and picked up the boys. She was going to take them out for lunch and then take them home.

The doctor came in and told us that the arm was only dislocated and not broken, which was a plus. He described that we would get her into a private room to give us more room, that they would give her some medicine that would knock her out for a few minutes so that they could manipulate the arm back into place. It took a lot longer than I’m describing but finally we got the room, the administered the drugs, I was asked to leave, and three doctors put her arm back into place. Some more x-rays confirmed that everything was back in place and that there weren’t any hidden breaks. After some more morphine, we were discharged and on the road. North Georgia Hospital treated us great. As well as we could have been treated under the circumstance, that’s what we got. Amazing.

We were driving home and Kim started feeling nauseous. She really hadn’t eaten since breakfast and the morphine was probably making her sick. I stopped by McDonalds to get her some fries and myself a double cheeseburger. The salty fries helped a bit and we got home without further “incident”.

My mother, and Kim’s folks were already at the house. I slipped out to get Kim’s prescription filled. Evidently the nausea really hit while I was gone. Unfortunately it never really gave up through the evening and into the night.

Today, as I’m writing this, she’s feeling much better. The Gainesville Archery Club called tonight to check on her. Evidently, this is the first injury at the facility where an ambulance has needed to be called. Sure, there’s beens sprained ancles, but nothing ever serious.

Our head coach, Jeremy, from our 4-H team has also called to check on Kim several times. Everyone has been so nice and caring.

We’re still early in this process. Kim has an appointment with the orthopedic doctor on Thursday and we’ll know more then. The situation stinks, but it’s going as well as could be expected. We keep saying that this wasn’t an archery accident, it was a hiking accident. This could have happened in our back yard. We’ll be back out at the 3D shoots before you know it. Maybe next time, Kim will have her own bow, and won’t be doing something dangerous like keeping score!