Thinking about it…

It was Thursday a week ago.  My macho logger tree farmer husband and I had just returned from town where we had happily ordered our new hot tub for the patio. 

He decided to take advantage of the warm afternoon, and a break in the rain, to finish up the roof over the new patio.  I headed to the laundry room to put a load of dirty laundry into the washing machine.  The water was pouring into the clothes washer and, of course, I didn’t hear a thing.  Just as I stepped out of the laundry room, I heard Jim’s voice calling me…urgently and loudly.

I ran outside to find that he had fallen off of the twelve foot orchard ladder…all the way from the top step!  Unfortunately, his boots were muddy and his foot had slipped on the top step as he made his way off the roof.  His foot had become entangled in the ladder on the way down.  I assessed the situation (I’ve been a Registered Nurse since 1978 and can’t help assessing).  I determined the rest of him was okay, but his ankle was, most likely, broken.  I managed to get him up without his putting any weight on his left leg and into the house.   I’m 5′3″ and he’s 6′ and 200+ lbs. so that was no easy task. 

We got him into the car and off to the E.R. where it was determined he did, indeed, have  a bad break about 3 – 4 inches above his left ankle.  We would see the orthopedic surgeon on Monday, and he would have surgery on Wednesday…six whole days later!  In the meantime, of course, it was ice for 48 hours, elevation of the affected leg and pain pills as needed.  The next few days were spent trying to make him comfortable, trying to do my usual tasks at home and a few of his…

He usually feeds our two cats, Biscuit & Triscuit, at the crack of dawn each morning.  Needless, to say they would be getting their breakfast later each day now.  On Sunday morning, Triscuit came running as usual but I couldn’t find Biscuit anywhere.  She had been acting a little under the weather for the past couple of days, so I thought maybe she was resting somewhere.  I found her on her bed in the utility shed.  She was dead.  I dug the grave as deeply as I could and buried her…crying all the while.  Poor little Biscuit.  I’m not real fond of this part of farm life.

Biscuit...2007-2009

We saw the orthopedic surgeon on Monday.  He ordered a routine EKG as a preop procedure.  We stopped by our doctor’s office rather than fight the long wait at the hospital.  The nurse completed the procedure twice and went for the doctor.  Two EKG’s indicated a “probable lower ventricular infarct” or prior heart attack.  He was scheduled for an echocardiogram for Tuesday morning before surgery on Wednesday.  Thank God the echocardiogram was fine…the EKG(s) had rendered false positives! 

Surgery went fine except for the fact there were more “fragments” than anticipated which added another week to the “no-weight-bearing” rule.  So now, Jim has two plates and a few screws in his ankle and after a few more months will be fine. 

How great the GRACE of God is.  As a former neuro-trauma RN, I knew Jim’s fall and injury could have been so very much worse!  Thank God it wasn’t!  I’ve been in a short 5-week Bible study (Keeping Your Focus When Your Dreams Are Shattered) on Joseph this month…remembering again another picture of the grace of God.  You remember Joseph…the much loved son of Jacob.  Joseph with his coat of many colors and the jealous brothers who threw him into a pit where he was found and sold into slavery to the pharoh of Egypt.  Joseph wound up years later, after an innocent stint in an Egyptian prison, as ruler of all Egypt…and the reason that Egypt was saved from famine.  He came face to face with those brothers, years later, when they came to buy grain during the famine.  It’s an amazing story when Joseph tells them who he is…their brother…and they are reunited.  Can you imagine the fear in their hearts?!  He is the most powerful man in all of Egypt next to the Pharoh!  He tells them…”you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good!”  It was how they were all to be saved during the seven years of famine.  In God’s grace and time…He had a plan.  (Genesis 37-50)

 Although it has been a week I don’t want to repeat, we’ve learned these past few days to slow down and take another close look at life…and be thankful for what we have.

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