WARNING: This story is ridiculously long, and also has gross gory details.
So
last Saturday my friend Nels had a party up at his cabin in Big
Cottonwood Canyon. Before I went, my mom was very insistent that there
had to be at least one adult there, in case a horrible accident
happened. I thought she was being slightly ridiculous and over
protective, because obviously nothing would happen, but Nels's parents
were there, so it all worked out. We were having a grand old time
hanging out in the mountains, in all the trees and rocks and undergrowth
around his cabin, and it started moving slightly toward evening, so we
started playing night games. We wanted to do ghost in the graveyard or
murder in the dark, but both of those work better when it's actually
dark, so we decided to play capture the flag till it got dark enough for
the other games. We were playing capture the flag, and it was getting
darker, but everything was still good. Almost everybody got a few
scratches and scrapes from all the bushes, especially because most of us
were wearing shorts, but they weren't anything big.
I was far in enemy territory, when Seth started chasing me. He
caught up with me and tagged me, so I set off in search of the jail,
because it was hidden somewhere in the woods. I had seen earlier that
there was some wire on the ground in places, but hadn't thought anything
of it. Not just one strand of wire, but several, like a fence had
fallen over or something. I was running towards the jail, when my foot
got tangled up between two strands of wire I hadn't seen, and I fell
over. I tried standing back up, but couldn't, and that was when I
realized it was barbed wire, and one of the barbs was sticking into my
leg, in my calf behind my knee. Whenever I tried to move my leg, I could
see the skin just stretching out, farther than I ever thought skin
could stretch. The barb was in at an angle, and you could see the
contours of it under my skin, but it was not coming back out. I reached
back there to feel what it was like, and my hand came away wet with
blood. Strangely, it didn't hurt, and I thought it should probably be
hurting like crazy, but I think it was my body's way of coping. It
wasn't like when the doctor gives you anesthesia and everything is
completely numb, but it was a different type of numb, probably caused by
shock and adrenaline. In the background of the numb I was vaguely aware
of a fiery burning feeling, but it just didn't hurt. However, my brain
knew exactly what was going on, and I started freaking out, because the
thought of being stuck in barbed wire is pretty horrific. I started
screaming, "Nels! I'm caught in barbed wire! It is inside of me! I can't
get out!" with a rising feeling of panic. Pretty soon Nels came running
over, along with Justus. Justus is adorable and innocent, and seemed
traumatized by this new turn of events, and went to go get Nels's dad,
and also a flashlight, because it was dusk and hard to see anything.
Nels was looking at the barb, trying to get it out, but it was a really
weird angle, and dark-ish, so it was quite helpful when Justus came back
with a flashlight. I've got no idea what happened to him after that, or
who else was there watching me, but I did keep screaming for a little
while that I was caught in barbed wire, because I had this strange fear
that the game would continue without me, and someone would come tag Nels
out for being on the wrong side, and he would have to go to jail, and
I'd never get out, so I had to let everyone know of my predicament. Nels
shouted, "Seth, get over here!" and Seth came running over, where he
was instructed to pull the barb out while Nels held the flashlight. Seth
sounded panicked, too, and his voice was all shaky, and asked if he
could hold the flashlight while Nels pulled the barb out. So, Nels
pulled for at least 5 minutes, trying to get it out, and it wasn't
coming. Shock was setting in, and I was trying to balance on one leg and
my hands, leaning backwards at a crazy angle, while not moving my other
leg, and holding it off the ground, and trying not to get stuck by any
more barbs. The numbed, fiery feeling intensified with all the pulling,
which seemed to last forever. Besides my irrational fear that nobody
would know what had happened to me and keep playing, I was afraid they
wouldn't be able to get my leg free and I'd have to be dragged to the
hospital trailing a sheet of barbed wire. After pulling hard for a long
time, Nels got the barb out, and his hands were all covered in blood,
along with his shorts, and I was glad I don't have AIDS. Two people
helped me back to the cabin, but it wasn't my injured leg that needed
the support; it was my other leg that was weak and shaky, from having to
balance on it for the ten minutes (at least) I'd been caught in barbed
wire.
At the cabin, Nels's dad had gotten all the first aid supplies
ready, and he and Nels started cleaning up all the blood, and cleaning
the puncture and cuts. I guess my screaming had worked, because
everybody else came in, and while I was being cleaned up, Seth told me
all about what happens when you get tetanus, ending in death. I was in
shock, and laughing a bit hysterically, while tears were streaming down
my face, and I kept saying I didn't know why I was crying, because it
really didn't hurt. Then Justus looked like he was on the verge of
tears, and said, "Just looking at you is making me want to cry," so I
had to calm down and be brave for him. After a while, I looked down and
saw another puncture and more cuts on the front of my knee, that I had
had no idea existed. I kept finding more insignificant cuts as well, and
asked Nels if he had cleaned every single one of them. He had, because
he's incredibly efficient like that. I was also so glad I had shaved
that morning, because there were a bunch of guys all looking at my legs
and feeling them, just to clean up the blood, but still. My injury put a
bit of a damper on the party, and we never did play ghost in the
graveyard. I called my mom to let her know what had happened, and while I
was walking around talking to her, my leg that had been in barbed wire
felt just fine, but a tiny insignificant scratch from a bush or
something was really hurting. We finally left the party, and I got back
to my house at about 11.
My mom thought I needed stitches, so we went to the ER, the only
place open that late. My leg still didn't hurt, but I had forgotten how
much hospitals stress me out, and as soon as I was led to a room, my
heart started pounding and I got freaked out again. But I was there for
so long that I got used to it, and we finally left at 2:30 AM. I told so
many people what had happened, it sort of lost its meaning, but when
the doctor came in and said, "Oh, these are just tiny little holes, and
these cuts aren't bad at all," I was indignant, and said, "Well I was
caught in barbed wire..." because he was trivializing my wounds! I ended
up getting a tetanus shot, antibiotics to take for 10 days, they glued
the worst cuts shut, and I got 5 stitches in each puncture, so 10 in
all. Apparently to give me the anesthesia for the stitches, the doctor
stuck the needle down into the hole and poked it around, giving me
several shots, which explained why it hurt so much. Afterwards my mom
said, "I learned something new about mending fabric from watching you
get stitches! When there's a triangular tear, you just have to cut all
the flaps off, and then you can sew it up!" Great, Mom. I'm glad my
wounds are so instructional.
Right as we were getting ready to leave, there was this insistent
pounding at a door, so the angry old male nurse got up and opened them,
and this drunk sounding guy said, "My buddy cut his arm..." while the
nurse was screaming, "No! Go away! You're at the wrong door! Gah! You're
getting blood everywhere!"
"My buddy cut his arm..."
"No, don't come through here! There's blood everywhere! Don't drop that!" *CRASH*
"He's hurt real bad..."
"Aaah! Don't go in there! You're naked!"
Finally he forced them through the correct doors, and came back into my room saying, "I hate grad night."
