Our family tradition is to go sledding on Christmas Eve. This year being so busy it looked like we weren't going to make it happen before I had to go to work. But like always mike doesn't give up.
We found a nice size hill at our local high school. So we grabbed the sleds and were anxious for the snow to fly in our faces.
Mike and our kids went down once and pressured me to go next so I grabbed the inflatable sled and went to the top of the hill. Not wanting to go down by myself I asked Lily if she wanted to hop on with me and go down with me. She wanted to join me so I waited for her to get the the top where I was but my sled started to make it's way down the hill. I don't know why it did; it just started to go. Lily grabbed my hood of my coat to try to stop me but I just kept going. So for the first 4 seconds it was really fun. I felt so free with the cold wind hitting my face. THEN.... I hit a jump. I didn't see the snow jump but once my sled hit it I went up 5-6 feet up into the air. I knew something was wrong since I kept going up and wasn't going down as soon as I thought.
Anyways when I hit the icy ground I felt pain. I rolled, tumbled, and landed on my face. Some says I hit my bottom only. Others say I hit my bottom, back, then face. I don't know what I hit. I just felt pain.
Anyways after I stopped falling I screamed in pain. I mean SCREAMED! Mike tells me that he's never seen me in so much pain. He's seen me doing laundry around after a c-section or walking around with a broken toe so he's told me over and over again that I have a high pain tolerance. And I would agree. But at this moment I felt pain I never felt before so I cried and screamed. Mike came rushing over to me and tried to pull me up and I screamed even more. He tells me that he wasn't sure what was going on with me. His first thought was I got my wind knocked out of me but when he heard me scream he knew something was wrong.
While I was laying on the ground the other family that was at the hill as well came over to check on me. The wife called an ambulance while the husband, who's also a doctor, started to assess me. His family member held my neck still in case of injury. He helped put me in a comfortable ( or somewhat comfortable) position. Gathered my info so when the EMT's came they can be filled in ASAP.
While this all occurred Mike, being himself (tunnel vision and sometimes not thinking of my feelings) told me to be quiet. That my screaming was freaking our kids out causing them to cry/scream themselves. Granted I thought it was really rude but me being a mom I bit my lip and kept silent.
When the EMT's arrived the doctor filled them in on my situation. The wife took our kids to our truck so they can buckle up. While mike talked with the EMT's to find out where I was going to be going our kids immediately said a prayer for me.
So while in the ambulance I still didn't make a sound. At this point I was too scared to make a sound so I kept quiet. This made it hard to answer questions but I was conscience and they knew stuff already so they just let me be.
Meanwhile mike dropped off our kids at his brothers and made it to the hospital right as I was being admitted.
Now things are hazy for me since I was really drugged up. I mean really, Really drugged up. I was crazy talking. I had a X-ray and MRI from a cursing tech within minutes of each other.
I broke my lower back. Vertebre L2 and L3. One vertebre was broken in several places and the other was compressed to much ( squashed like a sponge) that the top chipped off.
So the doctor told mike I wouldn't need surgery. Only pain meds and a brace. And since the brace people were coming to fit me in a brace if I could get up and walk and stay awake long enough to answer questions I could go home. But since I was so drugged up I couldn't stay awake. So this lead me to being admitted to the hospital for the night.
I was sent up the the wrong room but then to my correct room. (The er doc seen fluid around my right lung so he wanted me to be on a floor with less patient ratio to staff. )
So mike set up his chair bed and went to sleep. Poor guy went to work at 3:30am to only be awake til 1am.
Around 4am Christmas morning I finally came too and asked mike to fill me in on everything that happened. He told me everything that I wrote plus how I insisted our bishop come give me a blessing. Mike was hesitate since it was Christmas Eve but he called anyways since it's what I wanted. The bishop came within 15 minutes and assisted mike with giving me a blessing.( He actually visited me a couple of times while I was in the hospital)
Anyways the plan for Christmas was to open gifts in my room then be discharged when the doc came.
So this happened.
Mike left around 7:30am to pick up our kids along with all of gifts and breakfast from mcdonalds. Hey if I can't make breakfast at least we can eat together.
After eating we opened gifts. This year our family pulled names. So each kiddo got 1 gift from mike and I, their stocking, and 1 gift from the person who got their name.
Hailey got my name. She brought me a birthstone family locket and this family photo. I love the electrical tape. It makes the photo more precious to me.
Mike pulled Lily's name and gave her a figure set from Big Hero 6. Our parent gift was a remote control car. She loved it all!
Mason had Ducati's name. He gave her an elephant plush and two princess books. She loves her Dumbo!
Mike and I gave her this shopping cart. This thing was hard to find. Most stores sold out so I ordered it on line. But then I got an email from amazon that it wasn't going to be delivered in time for Christmas. So the day before, before sledding, I found her shopping cart on a yard sale site so mike picked it up after his shift. She loved it so much that it was worth the extra work in finding it.
Hailey received an art set from mike and I. She wanted her own art kit (paints,crayons,pencils,brushes,etc) and some grown up coloring books so that's what we got her.
Ducati pulled her name and ordered Hailey an "angel" toy from the Lilo and stitch series. She loved it!
Mason was easy to gift. All he wanted was lego ninjago sets. So mike and I got him one. And Lily who got his name also got him one. He was happy to have these sets.
I pulled mikes name. I ordered him a Star Wars hoodie but yet again it was going to come in late so I got him a new pocket knife.
Ducati.... She's such a sweet girl. She wanted to give everyone a gift so she went around the house and gathered things that were her's and regifted them.
Mason got some crayons and pencils. Lily got one of Cati's old headbands. Hailey got her angel. Mike got a back scratcher. She's so sweet.
Everyone's stockings were filled with stuff I got for free. Cokes, candy, hair ties, Chapstick, mints, socks, coloring books, stickers,etc. so each person got their own stash of treasures.
Anyways as we waited for the doctor our girls sat in a corner and colored in their coloring books.
Then the spine specialist came in and delivered some bad news. The brace I was fitted in was wrong and I should have never gotten out of bed. This all could cause permit damage. The medication I was given gave me an allergic reaction but the dumb nurse didn't believe me and I was never suppose to be on morphine pump. So I needed to be fitted with a new full upper body brace, got off the pump, find a pain medication that won't cause me to itch and not get up.
Plus more bad news is that it's Christmas Day I won't be able to get my brace until the next day. So now mike and I needed to make new plans.
What to do with our kids?
Mason and Hailey went to their dad's earlier than planned.
Lily and Cati went back to their uncle and aunts house.
So once I was kid less again things started to unfold at the hospital.
I got new medication. I was bed bound til the brace came which drove me crazy. The staff had no idea about repositioning me so I had to tell them every 2 hours to move me to prevent bed sores and to help my sanity. I instructed them where to put pillows, how to adjust me, and to move my foley. If they didn't do it I had mike do it.
Anyways when the brace people came the next day I was excited to be discharged from the hospital. But then again the staff goofed up. I wasn't given any physical therapy or occupational therapy so I had no idea how to use a walker, how to walk up stairs, how to get dress,.... Really how to function. So my awesome spine doctor gave the staff a piece of his mind and within 20 minutes people who had the day off where in my room. Equipment I didn't have was now stacking up in my room. It's great to have someone with a degree speak up because no one was listening to mike and I.
While I was signing paperwork mike picked up Lily and Ducati from his sisters house. They came to pick me up and it was very nice to be home finally.
Mikes mom made dinner for us while he ran to fill my prescriptions. That first night was awful. The couch was too low for me. I can't do stairs so going to my bed was out of the question. But masons bed worked just fine. So for now I'm in mason queen size bed which is in our living room since being in his room is really lonely.
The spine doc says I need to visit him in 2-3 weeks to see how I'm healing. My overall recovery time table is 2-3 months.
So I'm on extended leave from work which is nice that when I do heal I'll have a job still. Mike is on fmla. My family has been helping these past few days which has been a blessing.
Everyone keeps telling me that God has a plan for everyone and everything. That there's a reason why this happened. Yeah! I'm waiting for that to be revealed to me.
Oh well... I'm thankful that Lily wasn't with me. I'm thankful my angels pushed me down that hill. I'm thankful that there was a doctor at the sledding hill. I'm thankful that the spine doc came in and corrected everything before it was too late. I'm thankful that I was able to be silent so my kids could calmed down. I'm thankful I wasn't paralyzed. I'm thankful I don't need surgery. All is good so far.
