Six years ago it was a beautiful Sunday. My hubby and I had gotten up early to take our two race horses to the track about 25 miles away to train. They trained well and I was very excited. I love going to the race track in the mornings and when the horses train well it makes me giddy. There is no other way to describe it.
I believe that if you treat your race horse like a "class" horse he/she might just run like one (but that's a subject for a different post) so after we got them home from the track I began my ritual of rubbing and wrapping legs. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining and noises from the festival in town were drifting on the wind to our farm. I had one horse tied to the wall in his stall and all of the sudden a hail storm came through. It was downright weird. We had built a new barn and it has a metal roof. The sound was deafening to say the least.
After this squall passed through I heard my daughter yelling for me. "MOMMA!!!!" I knew immediately that something was terribly wrong. I ran to the old barn that we had not gotten torn down yet and found her lying in a pile of boards, straw, and dirt. While looking for a litter of kittens that had just been born she fell through the floor of the hay loft. Her legs were already starting to tingle and she didn't think she could move. I ran to the house to get my husband. Once he evaluated the situation he sent me back to the house to call for an ambulance.
It seemed like forever before they got there but I am positive they came as soon as they could. The town was packed full of visitors and I am sure it was difficult to manueuver through. And I am also sure they were competent EMTs but was grateful to see the son of good friends of ours respond too. He wasn't on duty but they had heard the call dispatched on their scanner and knew it was our house. They knew it was either our daughter or me that was injured and they sent him out to ensure things were okay.
Our friend made sure they put her on a back board and put her neck in a brace to be safe. He told me that he thought she probably just broke her leg or ankle but he wanted to be cautious just in case. He drove the ambulance to the closest hospital, letting me ride with my daughter. I was so thankful that I was able to stay with her. She was, by all accounts, a grown woman but she was (and always will be) my little girl.
After xrays were taken at the local hospital it didn't take them long to determine that the injury was more serious than they could handle. We had another friend that was an EMT on duty at the hospital and he wrapped a back board with blankets to pad it for her. His shift was coming to an end but he elected to work over so that he could personally drive the ambulance to transport her to a bigger hospital. Every where we went we encounter Angels. First our friend that came to the house and now this one. Eventually people as far away as Texas had her on prayer lists. It was incredible.
Once in the Trauma Center (that's scary enough to type) at the bigger hospital they began taking xrays again and evaluating her injury. It was determined that in her fall she had shattered her T12 vertebrae. She was beginning to be in a great deal of pain from pieces of the vertebrae touching her spinal cord. Just someone bumping her bed sent her into spastic pain. It was horrible to sit back and watch and not be able to do anything. Horrible!
Bless our friend that padded the back board because she spent a number of days in ICU laying on that very board. Flat on her back for days! We had to put a large note on her bed asking people to not touch it because any movement or bumping at all caused her excruciating pain. It was horrible to see her hurt so bad. Horrible!
Surgery was not an immediate option because of swelling. She was put on steroids to reduce that and xrays were taken every so often. Everywhere she went she left a trail of barn dirt. Remember that I found her lying in straw and barn dirt? It was still in her hair and eveywhere they took her..... on this back board on a bed with wheels....... she left evidence that she had been there. If she wasn't hurt so badly it would have been funny, but it wasn't.
Since she was in ICU, visiting was restricted. They were good about letting me stay but there also were times they had to ask me to leave. Then too, there were times that I had to get away, running from the room in tears. It was horrible to see her suffer. Horrible!
Then one time when I returned from a break my daughter said to me, "Momma, I was laying here with my eyes closed and I felt someone touch my legs and it didn't hurt! When I opened my eyes there was no one here." I knew right then that Jesus had visited her and had laid his healing hands on her. I knew she would be okay.
Several days later she was able to have the surgery to repair the vertebrae. They couldn't really get to it from the back so they went in through the front, moving her heart and lungs out of the way. They put a titanium basket in place of the vertebrae along with four screws to hold it in place. It was a 7 or 8 hour surgery, I can't really remember. All I know is that it was a very long time and I was so engrossed in prayer when my pager went off to let me know she was on her way to recovery that I threw it in the air!
The pain was not relieved immediately. The spinal cord had to heal. But it had not been penetrated by any bone fragments so that was a blessing. She was not paralyzed and that also was a blessing. What she needed now was time and tender loving care and hopefully that is what I gave her.
The day we brought her home from the hospital that ol' momma cat that had had the litter which started this ordeal deposited one of the kittens between the wall partitions in the old barn. That kitten cried and cried. I simply couldn't stand it. I was totally exhausted and listening to it cry unerved me to no end. I fished it out of the wall and brought it in the house. It couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks old so I bottle fed it with an eye dropper. I certainly didn't think it would live but I couldn't just leave it. It did live and ended up being good company for my daughter while she was healing.
Taffy is no longer with us but she was a good friend and something good that came from a very bad experience.
My daughter is a trooper. She never complains about pain now although I would imagine that she has some from time to time. It took her a little longer than most but she did get her college degree and has a job that she can be proud of . She has grit and determination that will see her through life and if you can't tell, I am very proud of her.
3 comments:
BOY THAT STORY STILL GIVES ME GOOSEBUMPS. TRENT READ IT ALSO
That is a momma's nightmare and it was awful.
She is a tough girl and has done well. God is good!
Yes He is!
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