THE INCIDENT

Derek's family vacations in Laguna Beach every summer and this year we got to go! Wahoo! Everything was great...the weather, the games, the pool, the beach, good family company, etc. On Saturday, the day before we left to come back home, Derek decided to do something that forever changed our lives. I know dramatic, right? But it was serious business.

So this is how it went down. Derek is out in the water by himself while everyone else is lounging on the beach. Derek comes limping in and says, "Christie can you get some water, I got bit by a crab." He lays down on his surfboard and I poured some water over his bleeding foot. The blood is just gushing out but I got a look at a pretty deep cut after rinsing the wound. We applied pressure to try and stop the bleeding and Derek just has this awful look of pain on his face. "My foot really hurts." That's all he kept saying. The lifeguard came down and bandaged it up. He called his superiors who suspected it was a stingray attack.



Right when the lifeguards arrived, they had a look at Derek's foot and decided the puncture was too deep to be from a stingray. They bandaged the wound back up and then started asking Derek medical questions. This is when everything started to go wrong.

Derek's hands looked really weird, like this:



He started complaining that his abdomen was tightening up.
Then he said he couldn't breathe so we started taking off his wetsuit, but it was getting worse so we ended up cutting off his wetsuit.
I noticed that Derek's lips were really tight and his whole mouth looked contracted. He was starting to talk funny and said that his tongue was swelling up.

Time Out: I freaked out as soon as I saw his hands looking all funky. Derek's Dad and brother came over and gave him a blessing. His cousin, who is an RN, was holding Derek's hand the whole time encouraging him to take deep breaths. Derek's brother was holding his foot up and keeping pressure on the laceration. I started bawling and thinking that this was it, especially when Derek looked up at me and said, "I wub you Kwistay." It really seemed like we were saying our goodbyes. All of this happened in about 10 minutes, so it was pretty sudden and terrifying.

Back to the action. The lifeguards are beginning to get frantic because of how quickly Derek is deteriorating. They try taking his vitals but can't because of his arm and hand spasms. Finally, we decide to call the ambulance and a fire truck arrives pretty quickly. It was quite the scene with a fire truck and life guard truck on the beach surrounded by about 10 family members and lots of on-lookers.

I am trying to hold myself together on the outside, but inside I was a little hysterical because nothing was being done. Derek is all seized up and looking at me with a face of desperation and concern. All I did was pray my guts out!

The lifeguards finally decide to put an oxygen mask on Derek and this seems to calm him down. Slowly his symptoms start to reverse. His lips relax and he can talk more normally now. He says that his abdomen isn't as tight. His fingers and hands straighten out and relax. Now the only problem is still the wrenching pain in his foot.

Of course, the medics arrive just as Derek has recovered. They knew instantly that Derek has just come out of carpopedal spasm which is caused by hyperventilation. When the blood is being over-saturated with oxygen then the pH changes and causes your system to go whack, basically.

We declined the ambulance ride over to the ER, but gladly accepted a ride from the lifeguards to the top of the hill.

Derek, the stud he is, put on a smile for the camera despite the stingray wound killing his foot.

The ER took us back very quickly and put Derek's foot in a tub of hot water. This is apparently the diagnosis and cure for a stingray sting. If the pain subsides with the hot water then they know it was a stingray attack because the hot water neutralizes the venom from the stinger.



Derek kept his foot in the water for about an hour and finally felt some relief. They wheeled him away for an x-ray to make sure that the stinger didn't break off in his foot, which it didn't thank goodness. The nurse did not stitch him up because she told us that would only trap in bacteria and cause an infection. I was so happy that Derek was feeling better.



Derek was prescribed a pain killer and antibiotics. Surprisingly, he only took a couple of pain pills during his entire recovery.

It's hard to believe that such a little thing could cause such a big deal. In our case, life threatening.



When the stinger goes in it releases venom that stays locally and has an anti-coagulant factor in it. (Hence all the bleeding) The major damage occurs as the barb is pulled back out and the serrated edges tear up tissue. Most people get a nick on the ankle or foot because of the stingray's automatic reflexes from being stepped on. A stingray doesn't usually penetrate that far in to a person. The only thing we can figure is that Derek must have stepped right on the stinger!



I can't believe that this tiny little cut caused so much pain for my tough husband. Poor thing handled things like a champ! The laceration is all healed now but there is quite a bit of hard, scar tissue under the cut.

We talked about "The Incident" everyday for a couple of months after it happened and recounted how we thought we were going to lose each other. We learned a lot and created a new bond from this crazy experience! I'm so grateful that my Derek is ok and that Heavenly Father answered everyone's prayers.