The Bastnagel Adventure Continues

I am having a hard time figuring out where to begin on this post. haha Lets see....we will start with yesterday morning. Gene had decided to take all three kids for a walk so I could get a few more minutes of sleep. (He is a really good hubby!) He asked Jack to unlock the deadbolt on the front door. Jack broke the key off in it trying to unlock the door. So, Gene informed me what had happened and told me that he and the kids were walking to McDonalds for breakfast (don't judge I know it isn't the greatest breakfast but he needed to take them somewhere).

I got up and showered and went to leave to go meet them there. I was going to drive though. :) After getting all ready the dilemma of getting out of the house started. Our garage door is messed up too. I have tried for months to figure it out and I guess I am going to have to get someone to come out and check it out. It will open with the opener but will not close. So normally when I leave I close the garage and have to go out the front door. Only this time I went out the back door and was going to leave through the gate to the backyard. I didn't realize till yesterday morning that you can not open the gate from the inside. I tried to go back into the house only to find out that the house key I have apparently doesn't unlock the bottom lock of the back door. So I was stuck in my own backyard!! I had to call my wonderful neighbor to come let me out of the backyard. I knew right then that we were going to have a bad day!

Gene was successful in getting the broken key out of the lock so we didn't have to call a locksmith!!

Fast forward a few hours....we were having Jack's end of the season party for Coach Pitch baseball that morning. The party was great! We had plenty of pizza as you can see by the big stack below. lol We didn't want to not have enough!

We had the party at a place called Buckhead Creek. It is owned by our church and is a great park/ball fields. The party we had was at one of the pavilions there and it was tucked away surrounded by trees. It is also right next to a horse pasture. The kids were having fun playing with this friendly horse.

After they got done petting the horse all the kids moved over closer to the pavilion and were hitting the trees with really big branches they had found. They did this for a good 30mins as the parents talked and got things cleaned up. Everyone had left but one family and us. Addison decided she was going to go back over there and play with the sticks some more. Well, I guess all that noise and vibrations the kids made stirred up the ground a little bit because next thing I heard was Addison screaming hysterically that a snake had bitten her.
We had to get her to show us where it was and Gene was trying to figure out what kind it was. We decided that it would be better if he killed it because we were not completely sure if it was poisonous or not.

 

This was the photo taken right after Gene killed it

 After kill the snake we bagged it up and finished loading the car. We then drove over to the ball fields to see if anyone over there knew what kind it was. Gene took it and the kids and I stayed in the car waiting. At this time the pain had slowed down and Addison was pretty calm but told me that she had a bump where it had bitten her. Right after telling me that I see Gene running back to the car. He informs me that it was in fact poisonous. It was a copper head! My heart dropped to my stomach and I thought I was going to throw up. We rushed to the hospital, thankfully there was one really close!

They took her back right away. The snake got her on the big toe of her right foot. She was wearing flip flops as usual and her feet were so dirty they had to clean them up just to be able to see the wound. lol The doctor commented about all the cuts, bruises and mosquito bites on her legs guessing she was a tomboy. haha They drew a line around the swelling on her toe and told me that if it got an inch past that line they would have to give her anti-venom. But in order to give her anti-venom they would have to transfer her to Lebonhuer Children's Hospital.

She was very brave while the nurse put her IV in and drew the blood but when the fluids started she complained that it hurt. I think she just didn't like how it felt cold going into her arm and it made her think about it. :(

They started an IV of fluid and drew her blood to run some test and make sure the venom hadn't gotten into her blood. Apparently copper head venom affects your blood and causes it not to clot which then in turn can cause internal bleeding. Her first set of blood work came back good and we just had to wait a few more hours for them to test again.

Addison had a visit from Ms. Vicki at church and she brought her this teddy bear. It sure did brighten her up!

It was a long few hours with her saying every 30mins or so that she just wanted to go home. :'( But, we have an amazing group of prayer warriors and praise the Lord her 2nd round of blood work came back good too!! 6hrs later we were being discharged and Addison was walking out of the ER!! The doctor said she did get some venom but it wasn't enough to cause her harm! If you look at the wound there are 2 puncture spots and one looks deeper than the other one. I am thinking that the snake just didn't get a really good bite in and that is what saved her.

So happy to be going home!

I am not sure what exactly God is trying to teach us with all of this but the thing I have taken from this so far is, not to take any precious moment you have with your family and friends for granted. We have once again experienced a miracle!! Addison was bitten by a poisonous snake and survived with no long term damage!! Praise the Lord because he was keeping my princess safe yesterday and allowed us to have more precious time with her!

-Now I have to schedule a hair appointment to cover up all the grey ones I acquired yesterday!