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Friday, December 24, 2010

'Tis the night before Christmas, and all through our house...

is the sound of Kay coughing.
(Now, what rhymes with mouse?)

Yep, I'm sick. Same cough/cold/sneezle thing I acquired in Hawaii, or possibly on the plane going to Hawaii.
So I've been feeling very sorry for my silly self, until I read something today that snapped me right out of it. Not out of the coughing, but out of my ridiculous self-pity. There are people starving tonight. There are people dying, and people suffering unimaginable pain. Cars are crashing and boats are sinking, and no one has found the answer to poverty, or put an end to war.
I'm a wuss, or worse than a wuss, and it isn't as if I never had a less-than-perfect Christmas.

Just before breakfast, December 25, 1992, my parents and my brother Rob and I were walking through the obstacle course that is my sister's driveway. I tripped over the tongue of the utility trailer and crashed, head first, into the side of the motorhome. Then I found I couldn't stand up straight.
My dad told my mother to go inside and call 911.
She ran inside, then came out again to ask, "Should I tell them we need an ambulance?"
Dad said yes, muttered something else under his breath, and Mom went back into the house. My brother took the things I was carrying, so I could lean, bent in half, on the hood of the nearest car.
My brother-in-law came out, wearing a Santa hat, and carrying two pillows, which he put under my hands so I could lean on the car without freezing.
Then the fire engine arrived. All the neighbors heard the siren, so they came out to see whose house was on fire.
Meanwhile, my niece Jodi was filming all the action from up on the balcony, to send to America's Funniest Home Video.
An ambulance arrived. Two paramedics jumped out and rushed at me with a backboard, forcing me to straighten my back so they could carry me away. My sister would tell you I screamed. I say I squeaked loudly. Whatever, I was rushed, screaking louder than the siren, to the hospital where I waited, and waited, and waited. "Triage" is the word they use for interminable waiting like that. People in danger of dying are dealt with first, while clumsy screaky females are put to the end of the line.
Throughout the day, various family members showed up to visit me. At one point, my father, brother, and brother-in-law in his Santa hat, were lined up at the end of my gurney, making me laugh. It hurt, a lot, to laugh. "Go away," I gasped. "I'm not ready for Peace Arch Hospital Meets the Three Stooges."

In due course, I was X-rayed, and was told I had, by hitting the motorhome with the top of my head, suffered a compression fracture in one of my vertebrae.
"What do you do for that?" I asked, expecting a body cast or, at the very least, Crazy Glue.
"Nothing," the X-ray tech replied.
"Nothing?" I gasped (it was a gasping kind of day).
"Well," he allowed, "they'll probably give you a shot of Demerol, so your family can fold you into the car to take you home."
                                                           Photo by Richard Schear
They didn't take me home. They took me to another town, to my brother Clint's house, where his wife Ria told me to sit in a big comfy chair and point to anything I wanted, so one of the teenagers could fetch it for me.

Now here we are, 18 years later and I'm married and living in another province, but, whenever I cough, I can feel a twinge in that one broken vertebra, right between my shoulder blades.
It makes me feel humble. Deservedly so.
It's the night before Christmas, and even if my husband brought home far too much fruitcake and too many fancy cookies when he went shopping today, I am at home, safe and warm, with a dog to cuddle, a family to call on the phone, hundreds of photos of Hawaii to edit on my computer, and there was a beautiful sunset here in southeastern Alberta tonight.
Merry Christmas, everybody!

7 comments:

Verna Luga said...

awww that hurts.. really! are you OK now? Sounds like you are .. hahaha... but take it easy... few days more and you'll be spending new year in style... lol.

Rest Well Kay, Merry Christmas..

Leslie said...

Oh, Kay, I'm so sorry you're sick. And that it still hurts to cough! Hoping tomorrow brings some ease for you, and that your Christmas is merry even though... eat one of those fancy cookies for me, will ya?

Here's my secret recipe for a bad cold/cough. Thyme tea: Add one teaspoon of dried thyme to one cup boiling water. Steep for ten minutes, then strain and add honey. You can have up to three cups per day. Thyme is naturally antiseptic and anti-bacterial, plus it eases bronchial spasms and helps to clear sinuses.

Anonymous said...

It's sad that you suffered then and are suffering now. Hope you are on the mend, though. I pray that you are.

Take care and God bless!

Fran said...

Oh, I hope you feel better today and that everyone is running round after you, looking after you. If not a large whiskey mac should sort it (or you'll be too drunk to care!). Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family xxx

Jo said...

Oh my goodness Kay. What a thing to have happened to you! Did your niece ever send that video in? (lol!) I feel for you with the pain of the broken vertebra in your shoulder blades. Yes, you make us all aware of how blessed we are and that there are millions in this world (many of that number here in Africa) who suffer unbearably. Cuddle up to your hubby and Lindy and keep warm. Blessings and merry Christmas, my dear friend. I'm so glad to have met you this year. Amen! (((Hugs))) Jo

Anvilcloud said...

Cuppa has had a compression fracture in her back for ten years, and it has never gotten all better.

Just in case misery loves company, let me confide that I've been a little under the weather with a very nasty cold.

Kay said...

I got sick from the airplane ride coming back from Illinois in June and then got even worse sick after the plane ride to California. I was sick the entire time in California. It's scary. It almost makes me wonder if I should wear a mask on the airplane!