Still Thankful and Grateful
Image by Freepik
Last month on social media, I posted about a horseback riding injury I sustained 17 years ago that changed my life. I broke my back, but I still don’t regard it as a bad thing because I fully recovered without surgery, and the downtime I needed to recover became a gift. An opportunity to evaluate my life and make changes.
Why did the memory of the accident hijack my mind this year?
I hadn’t thought about that accident in years, but for some reason, this year, on the anniversary of the accident, it wouldn’t leave my mind. Why this year? Who knows. But trauma does that. You never really know when it will rear its ugly head and bite you in the butt. The accident happened the day before Super Bowl Sunday. My horse had passed away months earlier, so I was trail riding on my daughter’s horse near the town forest, not too far from home. It was a very warm February day and the sun’s rays were rapidly melting the ice and snow. As we ventured out of a shaded path and entered an open field, the sun’s rays bouncing off the snow, water, and ice made it difficult to see. And for reasons I didn’t yet understand, my daughter’s horse spooked. Badly. (We later learned that he’d developed cataracts and the glare blinded him.) I remember staying on for about eight bucks and then I went up in the air, landed in a U on my spine, and felt something give. I remained conscious and I could move my fingers and toes, but I knew I couldn’t walk out of the woods on my own because of the intense muscle spasms in my back.
Family and neighbors made all the difference
Luckily, the woman I was riding with had a cell phone, so she called my husband and then we waited for our small hometown ambulance. While waiting, I remember feeling grateful that the accident didn’t happen during the Super Bowl because the EMTs might have missed the game. And then I felt bad for them because I was out on the trails, which meant they were going to have to park as close as they could, trudge about a quarter of a mile through the snow with the backboard, and then carry me out. While we waited, my husband, children, and neighbors gathered around me, expressing concern, assessing my condition, and tending to our loose horse (Thank you again, Bill!). I remember the tremendous feeling of relief flooding through my body when the EMTs arrived. Thank God! They were knowledgeable, very kind, and even made me feel as though the only thing that mattered - was me. The hard part was the ride to the hospital because when the ambulance took a turn, the torque on my back sent it into spasm.
After the accident, when I was feeling better, I reached out to the EMTs to thank them. They said they had a bet that nothing was seriously wrong with me because I was talking and laughing with them during the ride to the hospital. They were surprised to find out, through a mutual friend, that I had a compression fracture. Evidently, my high pain tolerance masked the severity of my injury.
I’ll never forget how willing they were to take care of me
It’s not uncommon for us taxpayers to complain about how expensive it is to run our towns and moan about how much it costs for each department, including police and fire. We rationalize our thoughts by asking how often we need some of those services, especially in a little town. But when you do need those services, no matter how infrequently, my goodness, what a blessing that they’re there. When I heard that ambulance coming and then saw the red lights flashing brightly through the forest of winter trees devoid of leaves, it felt like a Godsend. Someone was there to take care of me. All these years later, I’m still so very thankful and grateful.
Until next time,
Jean AKA The Strategic Chicken - Making life’s journey one strategic step at a time
