The Vacation.

I would be lying if I didn't say that the beginning of my vacation was fabulous.

There was a whole lot of this;

A little of this;

Drinks at the Salty Dog

But more importantly, tons of this;

All of the "kids" and Popop!

Until Thursday.

Then there was this;

Clearly hopped up on too many painkillers.

As most of our group is sitting outside in our fabulous gazebo, my brother went to move his chair in so he could have a better view of the game we were playing. As he put his weight back down on the chair, his hands were still underneath the X that the folding chair was in. The chair collapsed, taking with it a piece of his finger (it wasn't a huge piece, but it was down to the bone!). 911 was immediately called, but I will never forget the screams and the look of terror in his eyes as we waited for the ambulance to come. They had to remove the tip of his finger at the hospital, about halfway between the top and the first knuckle on his middle finger (thank GOD on his non-dominant hand) and the 12 stitches make this wound look entirely worse than it is, but that doesn't stop the pain and how scared he is to take off his bandage on a daily basis. I wish that I could still be there with him now, and even as I am typing this, I keep thinking about how his life is going to have to be slightly altered just for daily tasks such as typing. I am forever grateful to the amazing doctors and nurses at the hospital in Hilton Head who sat with us until 5am when my brother was finally discharged offering us blankets, pillows, coffee, snacks, and hope. I think we were all terrified that he was going to lose an entire finger that night, and I know we are all so lucky that he is not. While his pain seems to be under control, and my Mom has been staying with him at school until he feels better, the memory of everything happening still haunts all of us in our sleep. I know that it will get better over time, but right now, it is all so raw.

While I wish I could say that my vacation was super amazing, it wasn't.

I can't wait to get down to North Carolina soon to see the little bro, and hopefully that will be sooner rather than later!

Have you ever had a vacation gone bad?