Power washer — Blog — leslie thomas

We got home from another trip to Asia at the end of September and had plans of putting our house on the market October 1st. As you do, we were racing to get all the things wrapped up and in consideration of everyones stress levels, we were going to plan to stay in our RV near by for at least the first couple of weeks on the market so people could come and go and we didn’t have to deal with the constant picking up, finding a place to go temporarily etc. We already had two showings scheduled for Wednesday October 1st and so Tuesday was our day to finish it all up and get “moved out”. We got the kids off in their different directions and came home to do a few more chores. The conversation went like this:
Me: “We need to leave here by 11:15 to go get the RV and get checked in at our spot and get set up. I’ll take care of things inside.”
Adam: “okay, I am going to run out here and power wash as much as I can until we need to leave.”

We both put our headphones in and got to work. Two chapters into my latest audible book I hear Copper barking like crazy, some sort of commotion and faint yelling. I pull my headphones out and realize it’s Adam yelling for me and Copper barking to get my attention. I run outside and just see blood and a very distinct line in Adam’s foot where the blood is pouring out of. Apparently, While power washing the backyard with his flip flops on, he bent down to pick something up off the ground and never let go of the trigger. The angle of the power washer moved to hit his foot at point blank range and cut an incredibly deep line through the top of his foot.

I grab a chair and get his foot propped up, his face looks white. We quickly asses the situation and I run to get the first aid kit and paper towels. I am trying to think quick, knowing that we’re for sure heading somewhere fast to get stitches (or so I thought). We get his foot bandaged enough to get in the car and I drive him to our closest Urgent Care. I say something along the lines of “How about a date to Urgent care? We can get some stitches and then maybe grab lunch…..it’ll be fun!” After years of dealing with crazy stuff like this, this is where we’ve landed with my sense of humor.

We check in, get in a room and the doctor comes in and looks at his foot and says “so our normal protocol here is that we call for transport to the hospital and they take you immediately into the operating room to open this up and clean it out because the risk of infection is pretty significant here and it can get ugly pretty quick.” Adam and I both looked at each other and I said “are you kidding right now?” The doctor explained that while this was the “normal course of action”, he would understand if that’s not the path we wanted to take. Adam was like “we really don’t have time for that today. What are the other options?” They told him that he would need to be on a couple of antibiotics for the next couple of weeks, keep the incision clean & open in order to fully drain the fluid he pumped deep into the tissue and watch it carefully to see if at any point it was looking infected. They did an X-ray to make sure nothing was broken and because he could walk just fine, we decided to leave the urgent care and continue on.

Fast forward two weeks. We are in the RV with two adults, three teenagers, two dogs and two cats. It’s as fun as it sounds. Our house has been shown about 35 times and we’ve had one offer we turned down (because it was dumb). Everyone is “home” but me. I am about an hour away with a bunch of girl friends for dinner and I get a phone call from Adam. I answer and he says:
”Hey, so uhm…. I think I hurt my foot pretty bad.”
Me: “well, it was already hurt, so what did you do this time?”
Adam: “I was taking Copper to the dog run and when we were coming out, he saw an armadillo. He took off so hard and fast that he broke through his collar and ran after it into the woods. I tried to stop him and I took a jab step to steady myself and when I did, I felt a pop and now I can’t flex my foot and my big toe is just hanging there.”
Me: “Awesome, okay. Babe, you’re going to need surgery. Are you in pain?”
Adam: “I already took something”

I took off and started head back and stopped by the house to get an ankle brace, crutches and a knee scooter (because these are the types of things we just have around the house due to previous injuries). Adam insisted on not going to the ER that night, and just wanted to sleep and wait until the morning. So we did.

The next morning (Tuesday) we went in, they took one look at him and they were like “we don’t even have to do imaging to know you tore this main tendon from your big toe to your ankle. Because there was no function, it was fairly obvious. Thankfully we had already identified a foot and ankle surgical specialist and with the help of the ER we were able to secure a pretty quick appointment with them. Adam left in a walking boot. In the meantime, Adam’s PCP was able to call in an MRI so that we could show up to our first appointment with imaging in hand move as quickly as possible towards a solution. After his MRI the tech came in and said to Adam “so, uhm, did you drop a piano on your foot?” Adam said “that bad huh?” MRI Tech: “Oh, I’m not allowed to say anything.”

Friday morning with MRI in hand, we saw the surgeon. As we expected, she said surgery was inevitable and told us that he has a 9CM (3-1/2 inch) gap between his tendon where it had completely torn and retracted in either direction. He would absolutely need a graft to bridge that gap (most likely with donor tissue) because he also has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome like me and Henley and taking his own tissue may not be the best plan, but she would make that decision during surgery. His recovery will look like 6 weeks completely non-weight bearing and then gradually getting back on his feet for the month-two months following. So basically, he should be fully walking again in January some time.

Surgery was originally scheduled for Monday (yesterday) but then we had to change it to Friday so they could get the donor tissue secured for the surgery. So that’s where we are.

We would love your prayers for this surgery on Friday (Oct 24th). Adam is super frustrated with the whole situation as I imagine we all would be. Thankfully, this is his left foot, so he should be still able to drive after the initial recovery from surgery. But his right leg, which will take all the pressure for the next two months is the knee that has already had 2 ACL surgeries & 2 arthroscopies. With our house still being on the market, that adds a whole other complication here. We’d love prayers for a perfect buyer situation and to be able to stay here in our house through his recovery. I called the kids and told them we had just entered another “Buckle Up Buttercup” season, which we are all too familiar with, but it takes mental preparation nonetheless.

Thanks for being a part of our community as we journey through this crazy life. We love you guys.

Below are pictures because I know some of you are curious.

I am putting them way down here at the bottom if you are that person who wants only words and zero photos.

***Stop scrolling now if that’s you.***
Mom, this is your warning.