Ben's feet have had an interesting past. In 1994, he was shot by some renegade soldiers while on his motorbike. He first noticed blood on his neck from a shot that grazed his adam's apple. Realising he was in trouble, and that the soldiers blocking the road were not friendly, he started swerving across the road. Somehow, a bullet shot from the right went through the wheel and hit is left foot, entering and exiting. He made it to the next village and was eventually taken to the hospital (after giving them $20 for fuel). He was medivaced to Bangkok the next day and survived. His foot is better except for a hole which dries up from his constant thong wearing habit.
Next, he fell down a well in 1998. From about 6 metres. Landing mostly on his feet. Somehow he lived through this. He fell because he had blasted the well and a pocket of the fumes trapped in a rock cavity overcame him and he blacked out. He survived that without any broken bones. There was gravel embedded in his wound and he couldn't walk for quite a while.
This doesn't really count, but in 2003, we were riding on his motorbike and a dog who was being chased ran into our path. We hit the dog. The dog died. Ben had a huge gash on his right knee. We went to the local doctor who cleaned it up and stitched it. That didn't work too well and being infected, we headed down again to Phnom Penh who sent us to Bangkok to a proper hospital. Ten days and three surgeries later (to clean out the infection and lots of sand, cow manure and other stuff), and IV antibiotics, we came back home, repaired yet again.
Then, we have a hiatus of almost 7 years. 2010. Ben builds a climbing wall at Jombok Haos. A nice pretty wall. And since we didn't have proper handgrips, a volunteer makes a whole bunch of grips out of wood. The wall is finished at about 5.30pm. Ben decides to try it out, bouldering low, at about a meter and a half above ground.. therefore with no ropes attached to his body. He hits one of the grips not bolted in tightly, it swings around causing him to fall, hitting the single block left on the ground with his left foot, spraining it or worse. Taking forever to heal. He must have torn some ligaments or something. That is better mostly now.
His feet have bunions. Big, ugly bunions. And lately, they have been causing some pain. Or at least the right foot. He can't hike! And that is a problem!! So he finally decides to go into the doctors here and see if they can do anything about it. We have been to this one private clinic here whose doctors are all from the Children's Surgical Hospital, a charity hospital that does some amazing things. It is run by this Irish Orthapedic Surgeon, so Ben goes into this hospital to see what they can do. He lines up behind a guy whose spine is all skewed this way and that, and a girl with all sorts of other serious problems. If you go there on any morning, there are all sorts of serious cases waiting for attention. They kindly look at Ben's foot, take x-rays. The Irish doctor says he hasn't done any bunions for 30 years but could probably work something out. He is scheduled for a surgery at the private clinic (whose profits go to the charity hospital) in October. So we come down in November. He meets up with the Khmer surgeon, Jim the Irishman and a visiting American pediatric spinal surgeon. Jim is the only one who has ever done a bunion before and that was a while back. They joke that they will watch how to do the surgery on youtube to see how it is done. So, Thursday, Ben gets his bunion cut off and his bone cut to straighten the big toe on his right foot. All was going well. He has a removable boot cast which is great.
So the other day, he goes back to Phnom Penh for the month-post checkup. He sees the doctor and he recommends keeping the cast on for another month. As he is returning to ADRA from the clinic on a motorbike (it is peak hour traffic) he comes up next to a big black car. A girl drives right in front of him, coming in from the front of the car (she is on the wrong side of the road) - and Ben hit her straight on. He does not have his cast boot on at this time. He manages to keep the bike upright, and the only part of his body that is injured, is his little toe. One the same foot as his bunion surgery. So, being Ben, he just comes home the next morning. He does take the effort to get an x-ray taken in Kompong Thom on the way home but he doesn't have the time to wait for the developing. The other day, one of our staff (who was also getting x-rays for her motorbike wreck) picked up his x-ray. The doctor looks at it and tells her that there is a screw in his foot (obviously, from the bunion surgery) and doesn't notice that the little toe is also broken. So, it is broken, not straight either. He keeps hitting it, the latest was last night on his computer case that was left on the floor. So, maybe after 15 days it still hasn't healed back up. We'll go tomorrow to the doctor in Phnom Penh to see what's up!
And that is the story of Ben's foot (or feet, or legs actually). I can write about his head later.
Love Sharyn.
