Man Vs. Can

One Saturday in April, Jeff had a little face-off with a can lid and needless to say, the can lid won. I always, always, always put the lid in the can before I put them in the trash, but I was just getting ready to take the trash out, so I tucked the lid safely right on the side of the trash. Something happened right at that moment that caught my attention, so I walked away, leaving the trash can pulled out. Jeff noticed the trash can out and decided to just take it out. Of course, he had to push it down first and did it with a lot of force. I knew it was pretty serious when I heard him cry out.
He ended up with a pretty serious cut across his right wrist, and knew he would need stitches. I called our friend Ken Bassett who is an ER doctor, but they were out of town. So of course Jeff, being a doctor with all the supplies, and knowing how long it would take in the ER, decided to just suture his own wrist with me as his assistant.
Although I asked Jeff to just let me do it, he insisted on doing almost everything himself, with me helping with various parts. I was pretty impressed, it takes a real man to inject himself with lidocaine and then put in multiple sutures. He obviously couldn't tie the sutures, so I used his surgical tools and tied the surgical knots, then helped him use super glue to finish pulling the skin back together.
When Jeff was cut, he obviously knew he hadn't hit the artery, but he was a little concerned about one of the tendons in his wrist that he might have nicked it with the can lid. Everything seemed fine until a couple days later when he picked up something heavy and heard a pop. An MRI confirmed that a tendon had indeed broken completely through, and he would need surgery to repair it.
When Jeff met with the surgeon, we learned just how fortunate he had been. If his cut had been a few more millimeters he would have cut not only his artery, but the main nerve that supplies the feeling for his fingers. There is also a nerve for the palm of your hand that runs through the very same casing as the broken tendon that somehow avoided being severed. We were extremely grateful.
Jeff had surgery on a Monday-ironically in the very same surgical suite where he performs his surgeries. I told him it's a good thing he's always been nice to the surgical nurses. It was kind of funny to see multiple nurses say, "Dr Stevens! What are you doing here?!" I think Jeff definitely prefers to be on the other side of the knife.
My friend Shelly took the two youngest kids, and I was able to go be with Jeff. He had a blessing beforehand, and the surgeon seemed pleased with how the surgery went.  He was in a full cast/brace for 5 days, then they replaced it with a more free-moving, removable brace that he will wear for about 12 weeks. He's been really lucky that the whole ordeal hasn't been too painful, and he's been able to work and have almost full range of motion with his hand and fingers. He just can't flex his wrist, and he has to be careful not to lift heavy things. He's postponed his surgeries for a few weeks, but it won't be too long before he's even back to those. Through the whole ordeal, we've been very grateful that it wasn't more serious and that he's expected to make a full recovery. Everyone jokes with me now though that Jeff's taking-out-the-trash days are over!