Why You Shouldn't Wear Flip Flops in Overgrown Areas

I learned the hard way. Keegan and I went to the garden to see if there were any tomatoes ripe to have with dinner. While we were out there I was picking caterpillars off of the plants and giving them to him to feed to the turkeys. I picked up my foot to take a step and felt something strike my foot. It only took a glance to realize what had happened. I had stepped on a copperhead and when I moved it bit me. It was only a little over a foot long, but apparently it was big enough to do damage. Keegan ran inside and told Brad, who promptly called 911. Luckily I have a lot of experience with snakes and could not only identify it, but knew not to panic. I walked calmly to the front porch, sat down, and waited patiently for the ambulance to get there. Before I knew it, my yard was filled with paramedics, firefighters, and neighbors checking to make sure everything was alright. Brad and Keegan followed the ambulance to the nearest hospital.

At the local hospital, they kept an eye on me, did blood work, and measured the spread of the swelling. After a couple of hours they decided that it was spreading too much. They administered antivenin, along with pain medicine because it was smarting quite a bit by then. The doctor said that I needed to be at a hospital where they had a surgeon on hand in case the swelling got severe enough to cut off circulation. If that happened my foot would need to be opened. I was transferred about 45 minutes away to a larger hospital. That was Wednesday evening. They haven't released me yet. My foot, ankle, and leg are still swelling and they have me on bed rest until it stops and begins to go down. Thankfully everything seems to be going well. They haven't had to open my foot up, and only gave me 1 dose of antivenin so far. I have an IV in each arm. One for a steady drip of solution and the other for meds. I would think that they only needed 1 but they insist that they want another one ready "just in case". I've been on a steady supply of pain meds, benadryl, and Prevacid (not sure why). I'm hoping that I get to go home tomorrow. Not what I was anticipating when I went to pick tomatoes... Needless to say, there will be some serious mowing going on as soon as I'm up and mobile, and no more walking through overgrown areas in flip flops!