No one plans to twist and fall flat on your face. In a movie scene I admit I have laughed or giggled countless time when a character has fallen in a less than graceful manner and managed to stand up, almost unaware of an injury and full of energy for the next scene.

Reality check…

when you really fall it hurts. You don’t happily gather yourself and shoot the next hilarious moment. No, you lay there injured unable to help yourself. A humbling and painful experience completely unplanned. That was me recently. If you have been following my blog I fell and broke a bone in my leg and have been in recovery mode since December 31st. I fully admit one of my fears has been to re-injure my leg. I have been so careful. Every step is thought through and movement slow and calculated. I honestly could not handle the thought of falling and going through the process all over again.

It was just me and our chocolate lab slowly going down two, yes just two steps. My good ankle went over on the bottom step and into a small unnoticed hole in the grass and I fell hard. My other ankle (the bad one) took the brunt of the not-so-graceful descent to the ground. I lay there with my dog licking my face (likely due to the salty tears). All I could think of was my ankle asking myself if I could move it at all. I could, but not without a crazy amount of pain. I was alone for a short period of time until I was found by my daughter’s best friend who happened to be walking toward the cottage from the boathouse. No, it’s not normal to see your friend’s mom on the ground is it?! Thank you Rachel my sixth child ♥.

Ice, Tylenol and elevation. I know that well. Round two here we go. It was bad and I knew it wasn’t broken, but I had to go in for an x-ray to make sure no damage had been done. My in-laws live right next door and came right away to help assess the situation. No questions asked let’s go take you in. Honestly, I was not trying to cause any drama, but needless to say I was taken in by my very gracious, loving and determined MIL to the local hospital and she took care of me! My FIL was in charge of driving four girls and two dogs back to the city. Papa of the year award! My husband was just returning from a fishing trip and literally landed, drove home, picked up his dad and drove a few more hours to come get me to take me home.

Beautiful people serving in a crisis. I am so grateful.

The ER was very busy and was there from 4-11pm.  A lot of waiting and I was tired, hurting and anxious to leave. These moments are always interesting as you are surrounded by pain, hurt, anxiety, frustration and eyes of desperation. Especially in the eyes of a young mom with her toddler. There were a few young ones and the moms looked tired and yet hopeful. It reminded me of the many times I have been in the ER with littles and how grateful I was to be taken care of despite wait times. I always leave the hospital with gratitude that we have a system (although imperfect) here in Canada that is really amazing.

Not only did I have support from family, I met a lovely lady that happened to hurt her right ankle too. We ended up having x-rays at the same time and into some wonderful and quite hilarious conversation. The doctor made a funny comment about trying not to interrupt our social time in the ER. I admit we were laughing quite a bit as we were both super tired and in pain. But we managed to be a unique support for one another at a very interesting time! Her name was Susan but the funny thing is she was supposed to be names Sandy. We giggled as that would have been really funny if we had the same name and injury! If you can’t look for the good, simply you won’t find it. We found it together and made the best of it. I hope I am blessed to meet her again one day (not in the ER though).

God meets you in times of need, he always does. It just may not be what you expected. He did that for me through my kids, husband, in-laws, new friend and great staff at the hospital. Oh, I had an older man take me to and from the x-ray room that was in full character mode as though he was pushing me in an airport off to a destination. He cracked me up and made my night that much better! Look for the good, it is there.

I don’t plan on falling again. But if I do I know I am surrounded by beautiful people.

 

Michael W. Smith – Surrounded is my song today!