The Waterfall, Part 2

I didn't expect my blog posts to become so 'heavy' and touching on some tough subjects quite so quickly....so I'd like to just get back to the beginning and talk a little about my life, and my 'faith journey.'

In my first post, I talk about my accident, back in 1987, when I fell off the waterfall....I left you hanging way back then, as I sung praise to God in the ambulance on my way to MGH from Hancock.  I had just tumbled approximately 60 feet or so into the base of the Douglass Houghton Falls, and was ALIVE!

The thing is, in the ambulance I was praising God that He had saved me and I was alive, yet in my youthful naivety I didn't realize that oh so much pain and struggles were ahead of me.  As it turned out, I had shattered the bones in my left upper arm and had a compound fracture in my left calf.  I needed emergency surgery.

A plate and two titanium rods later and I was 'good as new'!  I wish the end of my story were that easy.  But it was definitely the start of my healing.  So I settled in, thinking I was safely out of the woods, resting in a hospital room in Marquette General Hospital.  I had a great nurse who seemed to always be there.  She was a Christian, and probably my mom's age at the time.  I was a very new Christian, so was eager to be around another Christian, even in such a grim setting.  Looking back, though, I know it made all the difference in my recovery, so I know God's hand was in her being there.  Did she realize what a huge difference she was making?  Probably not, but I kept that in mind all my years as an RN myself.

So one afternoon as I lay there in my hospital bed, I remember feeling sleepy and just starting to close my eyes to nod off.   But the odd thing was that I suddenly found myself thinking "I'm just going to go to sleep and die now..." as if it were the most normal of all things.  I actually felt very peaceful and felt no fear whatsoever. For a brief moment, anyway.  Then something kicked in and I kid you not,  I yelled within myself "But I'm not supposed to DIE!"  So I was sort of jarred awake and realized I couldn't breathe.  I really couldn't breathe.  I pressed the call button to get the nurse and I vividly remember the look on her face when she walked into my room and took one look at me.  That woman's mouth dropped open.  Apparently, as I found out later, I was already quite blue when she came into  the room.

Soon the room was full of medical people, working on me.  They put an oxygen mask on me, got an IV in, and sent me off for radiology for tests.  Diagnosis:  PE, more specifically a 'fatty' embolism.  It occurs when a blob of bone marrow that is released from the bone during a break, finds it's way into the blood stream where it circulates before it finally lodges into one of the arteries that feed blood to the lungs.  Cure:  None.  You have to remember this occurred back in 1987.  The only treatment was a Heparin drip, which would do nothing to rid my body of this fat blob, but would prevent blood from collecting on and around it and making in larger.

I had a serious talk with my doctor.  The first thing I remember was him saying that this is odd, because this type of thing usually happens right after the break, not days afterward.  Then  I was told it was 'watch and wait.'  I remember waiting and wondering if I was really going to die.  You can't possibly describe to someone who hasn't been there, what it feels like to know your death is imminent.  First I felt the quick revelation, in the fall itself- now I was faced with the prolonged, waiting, and wondering...

Obviously I survived.   Another true miracle of God.  I give Him all the credit.  But I also know that He saved me for a reason.  He has a purpose for my life.  In a way, this whole thing seemed to give me a new lease on life.  I was ready to move forward and serve Him.

If only the rest of the story were that easy....