Monday, February 16, 2009

trauma

Oh my land! (paying homage to my Grandma Lester) I had quite the traumatic afternoon. I survived it and my victim survived as well, thanks to Jesus for making it NOT as bad as it could have been!

My mom had ankle surgery about 5 weeks ago. She had her ankle fused and she has to be completely non-weight bearing on the ankle to give the bones a chance to fuse together for 8 weeks. She is in a wheelchair to get around. Sooo, on Monday mornings we are in a Bible study at her church together and one of the girls in our group picks mom up and brings her and I take her home. It is super fun because she has to eat lunch with Eli and I. We pick something up and then eat it in the car in the school parking lot waiting for the time that I walk Eli in. And then there is usually an errand to run to get her some groceries.

Today was like every other Monday morning. Had Bible study. Picked up Taco John's for Eli. Sat in the school parking lot. Took Eli into school. Stopped at Dahl's to pick up a few groceries. Drove to mom's house.

When you get to her house you have to park in the garage. Then get her in her wheelchair. Well, she can get into it herself. You have to bring the wheelchair to the side of the car for her to shimmy on one foot to get into it. You walk into the house through the garage door. Go unlock the front door and leave it open a bit. There is a ramp to the front door over 2 stairs to the front entry. You go back to the garage and wheel mom from the garage to the front walk (going over a corner of the steep driveway-scary-if I were to let go of her she would be going 30 mph down her driveway) and then to the ramp.

Here is where the trauma occurred. She says, "Okay, let's get a running start to get up the ramp." I take off pushing her (not going THAT fast) and I start up the ramp. We were about a third way up the ramp and I notice that her left back wheel is SUPER SUPER close to the edge. Before I knew it her left wheel was off the ramp. The wheelchair is tilting majorly to the side and then it falls off the ramp and mom falls out the the wheelchair into the mud and a couple rosebushes. I tried to keep it all on the ramp but with the momentum and my left foot slipping in the mud I just couldn't control it. It all happened so fast! I was trying so hard not to burst into tears. She immediately says she is okay-THANK GOD. She is stuck in this awkward position. On her knees. One ankle in a cast that she isn't supposed to put ANY weight on. Muddy. Thorny. I had no idea what to do!! Mom remained calm. She had me bring her a chair that would fit between this patch of landscaping and the ramp for her to get up into. Then another chair for her to put her weight on on the other side of her. The chair she is sitting in is sinking into the mud. The wheelchair it so huge that it won't fit anywhere convenient for her to climb into. After a couple failed attempts mom hoisted herself into the wheelchair and I pushed her up the ramp. Ugh. It was over. There was mud all over mom. All over the wheelchair. All over the other chairs. All over my shoes. But thankfully, seriously thankfully, mom was okay and she wasn't hurt at all.

Mom wheeled herself into her room to change her clothes. I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and I lost it. It was a combination of fear, relief, and guilt all rolled up into one huge breakdown. I came out of the bathroom and mom asked if I was okay. I clearly wasn't. I sat on her bed next to her and just held her hand thanking Jesus that she was okay. He is so good.

Not much later we were joking about what to tell dad. We both decided that it was probably better that he not know that I dumped mom off the edge of the ramp, out of her wheelchair into the muddy rosebushes. Ugh. What a day!

1 comment:

Meredith said...

i couldn't stop laughing at the picture in my head of you telling this story, after the fact. this would totally happen to me!!