The Canoe Accident
It was a beautiful Saturday morning, July 9, 2011, when we left for our annual Blue River Bruisers canoe trip. We were all glad Jimmy had decided to join us for the first time and within a few hours, I would be thanking God for that decision.
I had been apprehensive about going this year. I didn't want to irritate my shoulder, which after physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic treatment and a cortisone shot finally felt great. Why mess with a good thing? The irony of that worry was not lost upon me later that night.
Everything started out great. I asked the young man setting us off if he was a prayimg kid. He answered "Yes, mam" and I asked him to say one for our safety. He said he would. I'll believe he did.
Everything started out great. I asked the young man setting us off if he was a prayimg kid. He answered "Yes, mam" and I asked him to say one for our safety. He said he would. I'll believe he did.
We canoed for several hours, no mishaps or turn overs to speak of. We picnicked, floated and ran across some other people from our hometown. Soon our two merry bands became one and we continued on our way. One of the new found members turned out to be a nurse -- another touch God had planned for our day.
Awhile later as I sit in the front of the canoe dangling my feet over the sides, that my son in law, Jacob, paddled (so I didn't have to), our canoe turned sideways and I saw we were going to run into a tree. This has NEVER been a problem in the past. You just sorta bump the tree, push off and continue on, none the worse for the bump. That's the way it ALWAYS happens. Only it didn't happen that way this time.
Awhile later as I sit in the front of the canoe dangling my feet over the sides, that my son in law, Jacob, paddled (so I didn't have to), our canoe turned sideways and I saw we were going to run into a tree. This has NEVER been a problem in the past. You just sorta bump the tree, push off and continue on, none the worse for the bump. That's the way it ALWAYS happens. Only it didn't happen that way this time.
I told Jacob we were gonna hit it and he said just push us off. OK, no big deal. Except I couldn't. We were being sucked into a vortex of sorts between this huge tree that had fallen into the river. I had stood up to push us off, but then had to sit down to avoid falling out and then basically tried to lean back and just float under the tree. Except the canoe kept getting sucked further DOWN, not just forward. Our canoe flipped and I was sucked down under the log, with the canoe going right behind me, pinning my head between the canoe and the tree -- under the water.
Our canoe had been last in the line of our original 5 canoes and Jimmy and Andi were about 20 yards down the river. They ran back to help Jacob as he and I struggled to free myself, to no avail. Time passed and I was running out of air. I could hear Andi screaming "Momma" over and over, at the top of her lungs and it made me want to hold her and tell her it was OK - only it clearly wasn't.
It's strange how many thoughts you can think about when you realize you are about to die. I thought of how silly it was to die doing something so fun. I thought of all of my kids and how I hoped they knew how much I loved them. I wondered if Zac and Andie would get married and I thought of Benjamin and was sad that we wouldn't even remember me at his age.
I remember clearly thinking, "It's over, it's time to let go" and I let go of the branch I was holding onto. I started thinking of my dad and was picturing his face when the next thing I saw was Andi ~~ dunking under water and breathing air into my mouth.
She did this over and over and over. I don't remember finally being pulled out as the guys were at last able to get the log and canoe apart. I was unconscious and blue. Soon enough I was coughing and sputtering and ready to go get some dinner. Just kidding. I knew my fun day was over.
By this time, one of God's angel's, Nurse Michelle, from our town had come along and quickly took over. I managed to get into the canoe, because I knew I didn't want anyone touching my shoulder. It hurt like all get out. Only NOT the one that I had just had fixed. The one I had surgery on back in 2009. The one that had been in perfect shape. The one I was worried about seemed to feel OK.
There was no phone service, so Jacob rowed us down the river like an Olympian on steorids, with Michelle holding my head still and a towel on the sides of my head. I didn't know why exactly, but wasn't really in the questioning mood. I could see the blood flowing freely down both sides of my neck. As we passed our friend, Amy Willis, also a nurse, I hear her chiming in with instructions of her own.
About 20 minutes later, Jacob saw some campers who were waiting on us, flagging us down - they had been alerted to the situation by members of our party. We stopped there and waited on a kid who had run to get his truck which was about a mile away. I made my way out of the canoe and up the huge embankment to wait. As we waited, Susan prayed, thanking God for saving my life and asking him to look over me as I continued on my way.
I just about laughed out loud when the kid gets back and grabs his blanket to wrap me up in. A HUGE bedspread size blanket with a humongous pot leaf covering the blanket. Whatever, drowning victims can't be choosy, so I got into the back of the truck and we bounced our way across the cornfield, Stoner Dude, Andi, Nurse Michelle and me. Me, feet dangling off the back and them trying to get the blood to stop flowing down both sides of my neck. Jacob was behind me, kneeling and holding my head straight, praying for me.
We met the first rescue vehicle down the road, a Conservation officer who looked about 12. He was quickly flustered that his tiny emergency kit wasn't going to do the trick, but he was very kind.
We met the ambulance in the field, and from there I was strapped to what can only be described as a medieval form of torture - the back board - loaded into the ambulance and taken to a fire station. Andi rode to the fire station with me and I know I heard later that Jacob rode somewhere with young Conservation guy, but I'm fuzzy on that detail.
From there, due to dimished breathing and the fact that I kept passing out, I was lifeflighted to the University of Louisville Trauma Center. Within minutes my bathing suit and cover up were cut away, which I clearly remember thinking as being overkill and I lay shaking under about 8 blankets, wishing Andi was there to tell me it was going to be alright. I'm sure I could have gotten them off and obviously these men had no idea how horrid it is to go shop for bathing suits in the first place.
Over the next couple of days it was determined by my trauma team of many doctors that I had a burst eardrum, 3 bulging disks in my neck with specific damage caused by the accident, brain fluid leaking out of my ear, a severely fractured collarbone that required plates and screws during a surgery almost 48 hours later. I also had a puncture wound in the right side of my neck and my left ear had huge lacerations on it that were repaired by a plastic surgeon at 4 a.m., my first night there. Thus, the towel holding on the side of the head. It had been sliced by a piece of metal that was stuck under the tree as well.
The jury is still out on whether or not I have 2 skull fractures. The ortho team and the neuro team say yes, the ENT team says they don't think so. I don't know and it really doesn't matter. There isn't anything to do one way or the other on that.
My head was swollen pretty much beyond recognition on the sides and my neck and it wasn't until day 3 that my nurse commented on how I had looked like a hamster when I was admitted. "You know, how they have such big heads and all." I let it go witout smacking him because he was in charge of my pain meds.
When I went down for an MRI on Day 4, the tech asked what happened. As I was about to explain it for the umpteenth time, she jumped in as soon as I said, "I had a canoe accident." "You're THAT woman? I read about you in the newspaper."
HUH??? She pulled up the paper on her computer and indeed, for the most part there was an accurate recount of our day. I ended up having to change rooms and be put under an alias because a reporter wouldn't quit calling for a personal interview with Andi. As she said, "I know they want a feel good story, but it was the worst day of my life." I'm absolutely positive she meant except for the part where I survived :-)
Survive I did - now I just have to heal. I have a neck brace to wear that is sweltering hot in this weather, so if you come to visit, I have a stack of blankets handy because I am sitting in the equivalent of the south pole of a house. I can't drive or work until I'm released by the neuro team and I don't even go back to Louisville to see the neurologist for several weeks.
My left shoulder is now pinned and the surgeon told me that in 95% of the cases he just puts people in a sling and they are well in a week with a clavicle fracture. Me, not so much. I am under strict orders to not put my arm out sideways or even lift a glass of water for at least 8 weeks.
Which brings me to my friends. Good friends, who have prayed for me and with me, friends who have rallied to transport me and my kids where we need to go, to feed us, to run the shop and to make ice cream for as long as I need them to while I heal. When the surgeon mentioned that if I didn't mind him and insisted on bending my arm, don't be surprised when the metal plate broke, because "When you bend metal back and forth, that's what it does." And if I did that, I could expect it to pop through my skin and we would be at worse than square one. Kinda inspirational to mind, in my opinion.
I love my friends. I love my town. I love my family. I love my God and I'm so thankful that He "talked" Jimmy into going at the last minute. That on a river 70 miles from home, he brought a nurse into our life that would support my head and tend to my injuries as we went for help. That Andi just recently started a job that required her to become recertified as a lifeguard. And just because I always knew God had a sense of humor, I'm thankful to have the pot leaf blanket as part of my memories. It makes me smile every time I think of it.
From there, due to dimished breathing and the fact that I kept passing out, I was lifeflighted to the University of Louisville Trauma Center. Within minutes my bathing suit and cover up were cut away, which I clearly remember thinking as being overkill and I lay shaking under about 8 blankets, wishing Andi was there to tell me it was going to be alright. I'm sure I could have gotten them off and obviously these men had no idea how horrid it is to go shop for bathing suits in the first place.
Over the next couple of days it was determined by my trauma team of many doctors that I had a burst eardrum, 3 bulging disks in my neck with specific damage caused by the accident, brain fluid leaking out of my ear, a severely fractured collarbone that required plates and screws during a surgery almost 48 hours later. I also had a puncture wound in the right side of my neck and my left ear had huge lacerations on it that were repaired by a plastic surgeon at 4 a.m., my first night there. Thus, the towel holding on the side of the head. It had been sliced by a piece of metal that was stuck under the tree as well.
The jury is still out on whether or not I have 2 skull fractures. The ortho team and the neuro team say yes, the ENT team says they don't think so. I don't know and it really doesn't matter. There isn't anything to do one way or the other on that.
My head was swollen pretty much beyond recognition on the sides and my neck and it wasn't until day 3 that my nurse commented on how I had looked like a hamster when I was admitted. "You know, how they have such big heads and all." I let it go witout smacking him because he was in charge of my pain meds.
When I went down for an MRI on Day 4, the tech asked what happened. As I was about to explain it for the umpteenth time, she jumped in as soon as I said, "I had a canoe accident." "You're THAT woman? I read about you in the newspaper."
HUH??? She pulled up the paper on her computer and indeed, for the most part there was an accurate recount of our day. I ended up having to change rooms and be put under an alias because a reporter wouldn't quit calling for a personal interview with Andi. As she said, "I know they want a feel good story, but it was the worst day of my life." I'm absolutely positive she meant except for the part where I survived :-)
Survive I did - now I just have to heal. I have a neck brace to wear that is sweltering hot in this weather, so if you come to visit, I have a stack of blankets handy because I am sitting in the equivalent of the south pole of a house. I can't drive or work until I'm released by the neuro team and I don't even go back to Louisville to see the neurologist for several weeks.
My left shoulder is now pinned and the surgeon told me that in 95% of the cases he just puts people in a sling and they are well in a week with a clavicle fracture. Me, not so much. I am under strict orders to not put my arm out sideways or even lift a glass of water for at least 8 weeks.
Which brings me to my friends. Good friends, who have prayed for me and with me, friends who have rallied to transport me and my kids where we need to go, to feed us, to run the shop and to make ice cream for as long as I need them to while I heal. When the surgeon mentioned that if I didn't mind him and insisted on bending my arm, don't be surprised when the metal plate broke, because "When you bend metal back and forth, that's what it does." And if I did that, I could expect it to pop through my skin and we would be at worse than square one. Kinda inspirational to mind, in my opinion.
I love my friends. I love my town. I love my family. I love my God and I'm so thankful that He "talked" Jimmy into going at the last minute. That on a river 70 miles from home, he brought a nurse into our life that would support my head and tend to my injuries as we went for help. That Andi just recently started a job that required her to become recertified as a lifeguard. And just because I always knew God had a sense of humor, I'm thankful to have the pot leaf blanket as part of my memories. It makes me smile every time I think of it.
There have been a lot of pictures made, but I'm just posting two. The first is my shoulder after surgery and the second is my UNhurt right side. The bruising is mainly a representation of my upper torso, head and neck. You can also see bruising under my ear in that picture.
All in all -- Praising God for letting my live some more and getting my fair share of gentle forehead kisses.
Updated on November 4, 2011
I had my metal plates removed today because they were very close to the surface and really caused a lot of pain when anything (like a grandchild's head) touched them.
November 21st update....
Which might not have been the best idea because the next day there was a loud snap, a whole lot of pain and it hurt BAD for two weeks. I tried to tell them that it HURT, but just got the run around until a physician assistant ordered an X-ray and we could clearly see why it hurt.
The bone had snapped into two pieces again, resulting in a third surgery -- complete with a lovely row of staples instead of stitches. 
The bone had snapped into two pieces again, resulting in a third surgery -- complete with a lovely row of staples instead of stitches.
Amazingly, even that ugly scar turned out to look ok to me. The picture below was made December 26th - just barely a month after surgery.
So on November 21st, I received not only a bigger plate and more screws but a donor bone. I was once again ready to go. 
or not go as the case may be ~~ to work. All of this has made us rethink the ice cream shop. We have decided that it would be in the best interest of everyone for us to close the shop so that I can spend more time with the kids at home. God was gracious to give me more time with them and I intend to enjoy it.
So on November 21st, I received not only a bigger plate and more screws but a donor bone. I was once again ready to go. or not go as the case may be ~~ to work. All of this has made us rethink the ice cream shop. We have decided that it would be in the best interest of everyone for us to close the shop so that I can spend more time with the kids at home. God was gracious to give me more time with them and I intend to enjoy it. 