Tag Team!

Butch has decided to join the bloggy world with his own blog! Find him here at http://dabutchersworld.blogspot.com/

This is one of Butch's Instagram pics....this is overlooking the stern of the tugboat as it sails downriver.  That's the Talmadge Memorial Bridge in the background and the Westin Harbor Resort on your right.

Just wanted to share a pretty picture with you....one of the many reasons I love the river life!!!

Another Potential River Hazard?? And who knew you had a lymph nodein your ELBOW???

Butch began complaining of a lump under his arm about 2 weeks ago. He was on the boat, so I told him I would make an appointment for him for Friday when he got home. His typical caveman response was "Let's wait...it will probably go away...let's see how I feel when I get home." (insert caveman grunt here) Later that week, he said that his elbow was swollen and hurting. I again said that I could make him an appointment and again he told me "Let's wait and see how I feel."(grunt grunt)

When I picked Butch up Thursday night close to midnight, he couldn't move his left arm from beside his body. The lymph node under his arm was the size of a golf ball and his elbow was swollen, red and warm to the touch. We got home, and part of our church homegroup was still here at our house so they prayed over him and claimed that healing would manifest quickly in his body. By one o'clock AM Butch had pain shooting into his hand and numbness in his fingers.

I entered Mama bear mode.  I called our 24/7 nurse hotline and the nurse who triaged him said that he needed to be seen within 4 hours so we headed off to ye olde ER.

When the DR  saw Butch's hand, he ordered a CBC and blood cultures. They gave him Clindamycin in an IV and a shot of Toradol for pain and a shot of Phenergen for nausea. Dr said that because Butch chews his nails, he had contracted an infection that had traveled up his arm into the lymph nodes.  Did you know you have a lymph node in your elbow? Yes you sure do! Here is a photo to explain it!

Isn't it amazing what cool pics you can find at google.com? (Side node: Our family doctor later explained that in layman's terms, "gland" is used interchangeably with "lymph node")

They sent us home with a prescription for  Motrin  800 and Clinaomycin pills.

This is  what  Butch's  hand looked like that night: (eew)

                                          

By the  next evening, the lymph node  under the arm was baseball sized (NOT an exaggeration at all) and Butch was in excruciating pain. He still had the weird bump thing, and he was also dealing with fever and chills.

We went back to the ER, this time to a different hospital. This time the ER dr suspected a huge abscess under Butch's arm and sent him for a CT scan with contrast and had his nurse arranging for a surgical consult. He also hooked up an IV and drew more blood. When the  CT scan was normal, they began to look more closely at the hand. "What's that you say? You work on the river?  Oh my, there is no telling what type of bacterial infection you may have!"  My biggest concern was that since he handles lines that fall into the river, and lines from ships from all over the world, there truly was NO IDEA what this might be or where it came from. Add to it the recent water release from the dam upstate (see previous post) and you figure all of that stagnant, old water was flooding down our river......moving on.....

Enter more IV drugs, this time Penicillin. And more pain drugs, which I didn't get the name of  but wish I had because they KNOCKED MY MAN OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As Butch rested in a  peaceful, magical world of unicorns and rainbows,  I visited with one of the pastors from our church. We discussed hymns, and how we love contemporary praise and worship songs but they just don't take the place of the old hymns.

Finally, blood work was back and the dr was befuddled. He decided it might be fun "to lance that thing open and see what we find".  A local pain shot or 12 and off he went, lancing and digging and poking and prodding. My poor man :(

Eventually, we were sent home. This time he was prescribed Doxycycline pills and given Percoset for the pain. His finger looked like a small mummy.

The next few days were rough. The pain was bad, the swelling kept him from putting his arm by his side or finding a comfortable position to sleep in. The fever and chills did not return, thankfully, and slowly Butch began to feel some better.  The ER dr had us follow up with our regular doctor a few days later  who added Prendisone to the mix  because the wound was not healing as well as he would have liked and the swelling was still pretty bad.  He was also quite annoyed that neither emergency doc bothered to swab the bump/incision for wound cultures.

Thursday  came and it was time for Butch to go back to work. Praise God, his hand is almost back to normal and the lymph node under his arm is almost normal sized again too.  I  spoke with him about an hour ago and by the grace of God he is doing ok. He has been working but the jobs have so far been relatively easy and he has managed fairly well.   The hand and armpit are ok, but the elbow is still VERY sore. Who knew we had lymph nodes in our elbows????

So tonight,when you pray for your spouse, would you do this tugboat wife a big favor and say a prayer for my man too? Butch thanks you, and so do I!

Here are a few Scriptures  to reference for God's healing:

Psalm 41:3
The LORD sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness. (NIV) 

Psalm 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (NIV) 

Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (NIV) 

Isaiah 58:8
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. (NIV) 

Jeremiah 17:14
Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. (NIV) 

  Jeremiah 30:17a For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord (NIV)

A Rear View I Don't Mind Seeing

Spanning the Savannah River is the Talmadge Memorial Bridge. It connects Georgia and South Carolina and ends up in a whole lot of tugboat pictures :)

Usually though, I am shooting upriver to catch the tugs sailing to or from  Georgie Ports. This past weekend, we rode though the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and I was able to catch this "back view" of the bridge. This photo was taken on the refuge, facing toward the East and catching the opposite side of the bridge.

Happy Monday....Enjoy!

Gettin' All Up Close and Personal!!!!

We had family in town this week! Actually, it's Butch's family by blood, they just got stuck with me in the deal.( I can assure you I came out on the winning end of that equation!)

Anyway, since most of the crew had never been to our fair city, We spent some time down by the river. Butch was off work for most of their visit, and he was more than happy to explain river life to them as best he could. For people who don't live the life, it's a hard life to explain!

While we were walking from the parking lot down to the river walk, I saw one of the familiar yellow tugboats cruise by. (OK! OK! GEEZ! He isn't even here and I can hear Butch yelling at me no, more like correcting me , no........ hasseling me no, it's just "assisting me with proper terminology" that the boats are not yellow, they are BUFF! Whatever Mr. Man, they look yellow to me.

So here comes the yellow buff tugboat and of course I can't get there in time and corral the gang to identify which tug it was, but from a million yards away Butch quickly called out "It's the Florida!" which is his boat and in typical fashion, we were a day late and a dollar short. I looked upriver and low and behold, another  yellow buff tugboat was heading down river! It was Tug Bulldog! 

And because we are so veeeeeeery speical, some good fortune brought the tug very close to us, which delighted me and the two 5 year olds with us! I love tugs...truly I do. I love this life, and I love being a tugboat wife!

Time of Tides

This weekend we were preparing for extremely high tides in Coastal Georgia. Water was released from the Strom Thurmond dam, which sent water our way. That, combined with a full moon, all the rain we are getting, and an above average high tide last night left officials with the task of warning us of flooding on River Street and low lying areas.

I went down to River Street a couple days before the highest tide and took some photos. I thought you might be interested!

Storm clouds overhead. That's the Talmadge Bridge, which spans the Savannah River.

Warning signs on River Street

More warnings

Looking upriver towards Georgia Ports

The water was moving rather swiftly, although it doesn't look like it,

You can see how far the water was expected to rise to cover River Street

More water!

Luckily, Butch did not experience any hazardous conditions or have anything bad happen during the ensuing river rising! This is just another example of what people don't have to think about when they don't live a Tugboat Life as a Tugboat Wife! :) SO thankful to God for His protection!

Here is a link to the local news story on the flooding   .http://www.wtoc.com/story/22869123/us-corp-eng-warns-of-potential-savannah-river-flooding

It's been a while.......

 ..and this is why.

Tugboat life is not easy. It is also very dangerous, and that is something most people do not realize. In the 8 years Butch has been part of the tugboat world, we have had a few accidents and deaths within the company. But none have affected us so deeply or shaken us as hard as this.

Early in March, I received a call from a friend of mine who liives about an hour away. The conversation went tike this:
Me: Hello?
Friend: Hey, what are you doing?
Me: Not much, you?
Friend: Have you talked to Butch today?
Me: No, not yet. Why? (side note: this is not highly unusual. I usually let him call or text me first in case he worked overtime during the night and is asleep)
Friend: You might want to see if you can call him.
Me: Why? What's wrong?
Friend: You may want to turn on the TV. The news is reporting that a rescue operation is underway at the tugboat dock.

I'm not sure I even said thank you or goodby. I hung up. I called Butch. And praise God, Butch answered.
When I heard his voice I cried, and when he heard mine, his voice broke. He told me that his co-worker had died that morning. Seems he fell overboard. He was 20 years old.

I asked Butch if he needed me to come out there and he said no. Like a good wife, I said ok. Then I threw on a clean shirt and jeans and raced to the dock. The gates were closed, police cars were everywhere. News crews were crawling by, cameras raised, hoping to get a shot of some "breaking news".  My phone was blowing up. Names and details had not been released yet, so everyone was beginning to hear what I had heard. On the way to the dock I had called my parents, Butch's parents and Butch's brother, so they wouldn't worry  hear the news and freak out. We hugged, and Butch told me what he knew. Details were sketchy, no one knew exactly what happened. The coroner's van arrived, and we turned away while they worked, The draped body was lifted from the dock and taken away.

That weekend,  we went to the visitation. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. The line to pay respects was out the door of the funeral home, down the side of the building, looped back by the dumpster and across the parking lot. We stood in line almost an hour and had only moved up a few feet. We had to leave to go pick up the Princess at work. On our way out, we signed the guest book.

It took a long time to be able to write this. No one has said exactly what happened. It was just one of those crazy accidents that happen when you are living life.  It wasn't a crime, it wasn't neglect, it was simply an accident that happened in a routine workday. That is what makes it so scary, knowing it was a routine day. It could have happened any day, to anyone, It could have been Butch,

I looked up the young man's Facebook page that weekend, and it was overwhelming how many people were writing their disbelief and goodbyes on his wall. Butch didn't want to look. Men deal in their own way I guess, and Butch dealt by taking us out of town for a couple of days. A change of scenery can do wonders.

It's been a couple of months now, and life on the boats is returning to routine. I'm sure it's still pretty fresh in everyone's mind how quickly things can change. It's a dangerous job that few can understand. It's a life full of the prayers of wives and families.

April 12 would have been the young man's birthday. He would have been 21. A beautiful life that ended far too soon.