Miracles

We have pretty much been rocking along for a few months now. When my dad was so weak in the spring we ordered him a golf cart to use around our local area so that he wouldn’t have to walk as far and just for something fun and new! It’s a four passenger cart, so we figured it would be fun for all of us to use and take friends around the area. We had hoped it would be ready in early May, but it was delayed. My dad has gotten stronger, is playing golf regularly, recently he shot a 71 and 73! My mom had her final reconstruction in June and has been doing great. A few days after that surgery I took my niece to Maine for her graduation trip. Youth summer camp happened and my nephews came to hang out a couple of times before the summer ended. Then I returned my focus to work and preparing spiritually for a trip to the Holy Land. I leave at the end of November. The golf cart finally came in September. We have all enjoyed it. October looked to be a month that was typical, busy but not crazy busy, and with mostly the normal things in my schedule, work, Bible Study, youth, trying to see my niece and nephews play, etc. The first week or October proved to be incredible. The Lord was moving and working. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings that week I was seeing Him work in big ways! On Thursday, October 6th I was at the fourth session of a Bible Study on Spiritual warfare. Parking can be limited at the site so my mom, my aunt, a friend, and I all met at my parents’ house and rode down on my parents’ golf cart together. After the Bible study ended we hopped on the golf cart to leave. My mom and aunt were in the front seat and my friend and I were in the back rear facing seats. Somehow, we went forward out of the parking lot instead of reverse. We hit a curb first and stopped and then went forward quickly again. When we started to move forward my friend jumped off. That was a smart move! I stayed on because while I knew there was a fairly steep hill in front of us, I also knew the lake was ahead as well and I didn’t want my mom and aunt to end up in the lake. I had hoped to coach my mom to steer toward the beach area to the right to slow the cart down, so while I was still sitting rear facing I turned my torso to the inside to talk to my mom. Before I could even get a word out we started to roll. What I hadn’t realized when I decided to stay on the golf cart was that the hill was a very steep rocky embankment. Through the entire first roll I saw everything circle around as we turned, but during the second roll I couldn’t focus on any one thing to know exactly how we were turning or what direction we were going. I don’t remember impact, but the next thing I knew we were all on the ground. The golf cart was sitting right in front of me, on its wheels but the top was gone and the bars that hold the top were bent. The worst of the damage to the cart was where my friend had been sitting. Praise the Lord that she jumped off! I was at the bottom of the rocky area, laying on my back but slightly turned to my left. I knew that I was bleeding because I saw blood, but with the amount of wound care I have done in the past two years that didn’t phase me. I also knew my right hip area was hurting. It wasn’t excruciating pain, but I didn’t want to move. I could move my right foot and I had feeling in it so I figured this wasn’t a major injury, something I could definitely recover from. I could see my mom about four or five feet from me, a little to the left and further down the hill. She was moving and talking, and also bleeding. I could also see my aunt to the left and up the hill when I turned my head. She was talking as well and moving a little bit. Many of the other ladies at the Bible study were still there and saw the whole ordeal happen. Some rushed down to help us, others called 911 and security, and the others immediately started praying. The ladies were concerned about the amount of blood (there was a lot) but my mom and I could see each other and weren’t too concerned about the blood on the other one so we weren’t too concerned about it for ourselves. The first responders were on scene very quickly, two whom I know from church were not far away and were the first on the scene. They called me by name and let me know that they would take good care of all of us. A friend who was at the Bible study called her husband who is a friend of my dad and he found my dad (at the golf course) and brought him to where we were. My dad was calm the entire time. Over the next {amount of time that I don’t know} the whole team of 15-20 first responders took great care of us. They put us in neck collars (I would suggest you avoid one of those if at all possible) and helped each one of us to the ambulances. Because of the rocks, stretchers couldn’t be brought right to us and even the back boards weren’t too helpful. The first responders were actually able to help my aunt walk to a stretcher. They helped my mom walk to one of the chairs that they use for some terrains, and they ended up picking me up to put me on the stretcher because I could not walk. They rolled my stretcher up a concrete ramp that is way too steep to be an ADA ramp but was made to roll coolers up and down the hill. They told me the ride up the hill would be a little bumpy. I told them it would probably be less bumpy than my last ride on that hill! My mom was able to sit up so she and I went to the hospital in the same ambulance. My aunt went in on a separate ambulance. When we arrived at the hospital the EMTs that I know from church were right there to take us in and make sure we were comfortable. We were all three in different rooms. My dad showed up not too long after we got there. He was supposed to have stitches removed later that afternoon so a friend took him by that office to have them removed and then they came to the hospital. Over the next few hours I had family and friends in and out checking on me. They were also in the rooms with my mom and aunt. They just roamed from room to room! In the early part of being in the ER my main concern was getting the neck brace off. Do you remember the old TV shows (think Matlock) where someone faked a serious injury by wearing a neck brace? I’m not sure how much money they were trying to get but its not worth it! That collar was not fun! The ER doctor asked if I needed pain meds. I told her I didn’t but I wanted some water. Since they still needed to rule out needing surgery I couldn’t have water, but she told me I could get a small drink if I took some Tylenol, so I decided to say yes to the OTC pain meds. Then she told me that we needed to get my jeans off for the CT scan. She asked if she could cut them. I told her No! Her next comment was about how much blood was on them, but i reassured her that I could get it out. She told me she would try to help me get the jeans off without pain but she couldn’t promise it. These are some of my favorite jeans though and she understood the willingness to go through a little pain to save them! We were successful. They finally took me back for a CT. Some of my dad’s friends were also at the hospital and they went back and forth between my room and my mom’s to stay with us when my dad was with the other. That was such a huge blessing! No one mentioned my upcoming trip to the Holy Land, but I knew we were all thinking about it. I didn’t panic or even get really upset about all of it, I’m just waited to hear more from the doctors about what my recovery would be like. Probably 30-45 minutes after the CT the ER doctor came back in to talk to me about the results. I did not have a head or neck injury so I could have that collar removed! That was the good news. The bad news was that my pelvis was broken in two places and I had two broken ribs. I also had a very small air pocket outside of my right lung and a very large hematoma on my right hip. We also still had to figure out the exact source of the bleeding on my head. Once the collar came off, the ER team was able to focus on my head wound, and then the trauma team took over the rest. The ER nurse told me they might have to shave part of my head to close up the head wound. I did not like that idea! I told her I didn’t want to do that and when the ER doc came back in she mentioned the same thing. I told her I was sure she was so good that she could close it up without shaving me head. I guess this was the encouragement she needed to try. Six staples (but 0 razors) later my head was not shaved and the large gash was stapled together. The trauma doctor came in and introduced himself. The next thing he said was “I heard you sweet talked the ER doc into closing up that gash without shaving your head. That’s impressive.” I told him I did do that. He also said, I heard she had to bribe you to take Tylenol. I let him know that was also true. Haha! He said it looked like the hemorrhage at my hip had stopped and there was only a large hematoma, but they needed to keep me overnight to monitor that and the air pocket on my lung.

At this point my aunt had been released from the hospital and I knew my mom would be released soon. The ER team made sure that she could come see me before she went home. At about 5:30 the staff took me up to a room on the trauma floor and the trauma surgeon and the orthopedic surgeon came by. I learned more about the breaks from them. All four fractures were closed, meaning they lined up together as though there was no break, which meant my body would heal the breaks on its own with time. The exact placement of the pelvic fractures meant that I could bear weight immediately (although I couldn’t move much because it was incredibly painful!) This was when I decided to ask my doctors about my recovery time, but I didn’t mention my upcoming trip. They told me 6-8 weeks to be feeling pretty good. I started counting the days; 7 weeks and 5 days until we fly out! I’ll be ready without question! The enemy would not thwart my trip to the Holy Land!

I had some friends come to visit that evening and I was feeling pretty good. Right after they left, the nurse tech came in to help me go to the restroom. At the very first slight turn to the side I was in the most immense pain I have ever experienced though my entire body. At first I thought it was just momentary, but it continued even after I was flat on my back again. This went on for around 30-45 minutes. Ezekiel 37 was fresh on my mind because two days earlier the Lord had out it on a friend’s heart to share it with me. The only thing I could do in the moment was tell my bones to heal in the name of Jesus. About 15 minutes into this my cousin walked in. She came to stay the night with me. She immediately started to pray and put on worship music. The nurse came in to let me know that I could have morphine and I approved it and he got it started. That helped to dull the pain so that I could lay back down completely and finally rest. My mom insisted on coming to stay with me the next day and night and a sweet friend stayed with me the next day. That afternoon the doctors told me that I could go home. My friend who was staying with me happens to have a handicap seat in her minivan. She bought the van used and the seat was already there so they never had a different seat put in. That was a huge deal for me. Transfers were so hard and making that happen at my level instead of figuring out how to get into a car was amazing! A week after the accident I saw this picture. I didn’t even know that rock was beside my head. It’s miraculous that my head didn’t hit it. I have no doubt the Lord placed me on the ground right where I needed to be. The first couple of weeks after the accident were tough. Transfers were painful and I could really only transfer to the right. I had to sleep in the recliner (it’s power so I didn’t have to do any of the work to recline) and I used a potty chair and a wheelchair. My mom and my sister-in-law washed my hair in a basin on the table and you would not believe how much blood there was caked in it. I had road rash in one area and that was also very painful. With time the transfers became easier and easier, and then I started to walk a few steps with a walker. The fourth day of walking just six to ten steps a day with a walker I decided to go a few more, the next thing I knew I had made a couple of laps around the house with it. I never used the wheelchair again. I did the same thing a few days later with a cane. I tried it a little while and then switched to only the cane, another few days later and I was walking without it. Three weeks after the accident I went to see my orthopedic surgeon. He said everything was healing as expected. I told him about my upcoming trip to Israel. His response was, “You are going to have a wonderful trip!” Praise the Lord! I had to go head to travel!

As the pelvis has healed I have felt more of the pain from the rib fractures. I think I wasn’t moving enough to feel the pain in that area for a little while. I’m still feeling some when I stretch really far up, and I can’t lay on that side or on my stomach yet. About 6 weeks after the accident the muscle pain really started to take hold. That had my mom worried about me on the trip, but I was sure I would be better. Another week later and I was really feeling good again. I still have muscle issues to deal with, but that is all healing up.

I’m typing this post while on an almost 11 hour flight to Israel. I have no idea of what the Lord will do on this trip, but I know it must be big because the enemy has tried hard to keep me from going. I have read books, watched shows, and done specific devotionals to help me prepare for this trip, but I don’t think anything will prepare me like the accident and injuries have prepared me. The Lord is doing big things! Stay tuned! I’ll share as He reveals them to me!