Our First Desert Casualty

Well, today the desert plant life got the best of Patrick. He was out mountain biking and had a run in with a bee. It stung him between the eyes and then flew into his sunglasses. As he was trying to get it out, his bike hit a curb and he flew off and landed on a jumping cholla (or teddy bear cholla...not sure which one!). Pretty to look at...not so pretty to land on! Luckily, he was between trails and on a road so he was able to flag down help. A nice lady called me to let me know what had happened and called 911. They were able to remove enough to get him on a stretcher and into the ambulance (and get him some Morphine!). At the hospital they sedated him to remove the majority of the spines and gave him some fluids and more pain meds. His face and head luckily were spared as well as most of his back. But other than that...covered in tiny cactus spines. He is bruised and in serious pain but it could be worse! Luckily he did not break anything or have any serious injuries.
The boys were napping while Patrick was out so it took a while for us to get to the hospital. (Patrick kept saying "don't wake the boys" every time I talked to anyone on the phone about him!) Allen was not happy at all to see Daddy hurt - he cried when we walked into his room. Drew did better but wouldn't touch him - he stayed back from the bed and just talked to him. The hospital is new and very nice and the waiting room had a great play area for kids so they boys were much happier waiting out there for them to finish with Patrick. It was also not busy (I think there were 2 other patients in the ER) so Patrick received top-notch care and lots of attention. There were 3 nurses removing spines when we got there!
The photo is not of his actual friend, but you can get the idea of what he was up against...see how fuzzy it looks? That's not soft...those are tiny, individual spines! Thousands of them!!!