Ryan has had a very eventful week. He gave me permission to say that he failed his first driver's test. He was quite glum and we felt so sorry for him. Jeff took him for the first one, so I took him again the next day and thankfully, he passed. Before he had much time to celebrate, though, life got a bit interesting for him.
He had just returned from a week at a Christian camp and told us that he had an adventure with a raccoon the first day of camp. Apparently, he was taking out the trash in the middle of the afternoon and there was a raccoon near the dumpster. He tried to scare it and then kicked it--whereupon it attached itself to his leg and wouldn't get off. He tried to get it off but wasn't successful, so he picked up a rock and killed it. He had some scratches that broke the skin, but no one thought to have the raccoon tested for rabies. When he told us the story, I told him that he would need rabies shots. I looked it up online, sure enough, he did need rabies shots. Poor Ryan!
I took him to our doctor who confirmed that Ryan needed the rabies series, but said that we would have to go to ER for the vaccine, because they didn't have it. We were fairly light hearted about it all until we saw the look on the ER doctor's face when we told him that eight days had elapsed since the raccoon encounter. It was then that it finally hit me that Ryan had been put in a serious situation since rabies is fatal for humans or animals. We don't know if the raccoon was rabid, but some of it's odd behavior was listed on "how to know if a raccoon has rabies." He ended up getting 7 shots--four at the wound site and then....ignominy of ignominy...he had to drop trou in front of mom and the nurse for 3 shots in his derriere.
We have been teasing him about wearing a raccoon hat with a robber mask and amusing his friends.
Today he and his buddies decided to go 'mudding' with the pick-up truck and dirt bike. Ryan promised he wouldn't ride--and he didn't until evening. He came home moaning and groaning, unable to put weight on the same leg where he had gotten the rabies shots. He crashed his dirt bike into a tree at 60 miles an hour. Sigh...He is in tons of pain. Jeff is out of town, so I was trying to decide if I should make another trip to ER when we had the brilliant idea to call our neighbor who is an ER doctor. Ryan called him--ironically, he is the same guy Ryan bought the dirt bike from. Good way to get patients...ha! It took us 10 minutes to get him out to the car, but thankfully, our neighbor doesn't think he has more than a hairline fracture or bad bruise. He suggested waiting a few days and if it still hurts Ryan can get an X-ray. I feel so sorry for Ryan--although his bellowing in pain, might start to get old. :) So far his siblings and I are willing to wait on him hand and foot, but I'm wondering how long that will last!?! :) Jillian is willing to wait on him but said that it will be fun having Ryan not be able to chase her around. ha.
I am very thankful that he is okay--things could have been so much worse.
