Here I Go Again On My Own

Really, REALLY wish I wasn’t writing this post…yet here we are. This time last Monday, I was planning on finally taking down the Christmas trees, (I know…I know) finishing unpacking from my warm getaway, (don’t hate me) and washing my hair (IYKYK)…I’ll give you 3 guesses which one of those would’ve taken the longest. :/ What I did NOT plan on was torpedoing my schedule and daily life by falling down the stairs in my house. THAT was definitely not in my calendar for Jan. 20th.

Here’s the sitch: For several days, I had been gathering odds and ends from unpacking, Christmas, etc into a clothes hamper at the top of the staircase. It wasn’t super heavy…just mostly awkward and cumbersome. On this particular trip down the stairs, I grabbed the hamper as there wasn’t much room to add anything else. Roughly 5 steps from the bottom, I must’ve missed a step? Maybe I tripped?That’s the only thing I can imagine because I don’t remember turning an ankle or anything. Next thing I know, there was MUCH screaming…no tears…just screaming. While the hamper caught my upper body, it also served to slam my legs against the stairs when I landed. I’m sure I would’ve broken a wrist if I had been able to try and brace my fall, but my legs took the full force. Silver lining feels a little tarnished.

When Chris and Zane came running, I couldn’t even tell them what happened or even speak any words…just scream. Chris knew the right leg was broken just by looking at it…bone hadn’t gone through the skin, but it was close…and he thought the left leg might also be broken. Who says you need a medical degree to do this whole “practicing medicine” deal?! Turns out, he was exactly correct. More on that later. He had to call the paramedics bc I couldn’t move at all. After much meds and bracing of the right leg, I was taken by ambulance to the hospital just a few minutes away. (If you’re new here, you can’t fully appreciate that Eva USED to be terrified of ambulances. The Eva you see before you now has…well…let’s just say, she’s come to grips with it.)

Pain meds, xrays, CT, nausea meds, more pain meds, referrals, and transfers…that just about sums up the following 7 hours. Add in having your pants cut off…ugh…and a bed pan debacle that shall not be named…SUPER UGH…and the eventual puke fest…DON’T ASK…icing on the cake. I ended up in the hospital 30 min. away where the much-needed ankle/foot specialist operates.

Contrary to what we were initially led to believe at the 1st ER, Dr. Tansey did not walk into my room with scalpel in hand on Tuesday morning. Instead, there was a motley crew called the Dooms Day Joy-Killers with nary an OR in sight. Hear me out…yes, I was on pain meds…but I’m pretty sure they were selling merch.

Essentially, here’s the 411. The left fibula is broken, although it doesn’t look bad at all. Even still, I was told it would take 4-6 weeks to heal. (Chris said the dr said 4-8, but sometimes Chris mis-hears things, ya know…must be an age-thing.) Initially fully non-weight-bearing, but after a couple days, they brought in a boot and said I could use that, in conjunction with a walker, for transfers…like bed to wheelchair and such. But no surgery is necessary on the left! So that was some good news!

Dear Lord, the right leg is another story. There are 3 bad fractures on the right leg, with both bones broken in multiple places. The fibula is fractured of course, but the tibia (the weight-bearing bone) is fractured is 2 hard-to-reach places. Tansey said he’ll have to go in from the front and the back to reach the fractures.

Back to that initial gathering of the Grim-Reapers…they said nothing could be done that day because they needed to try to get the swelling down enough to fully get in where they needed to for the reconstruction/repair. He said it’s just trickier because of the location of the fractures and the ankle not having access skin to cover internal fixators like plate, screws, etc. But he wouldn’t know what was possible until he got in there on Wednesday.

This was also the meeting when another lead singer suggested that I should probably not go home after surgery at all…and should go to a rehab nursing home instead. :/ Yea…those were the first tears shed in the whole ordeal. Chris Carr, a husband of almost 29 years, leaned over and said, “That’s not going to happen. We will do what needs to be done.” Not all heroes wear capes.

In short, surgery did not turn out as we’d hoped, as I woke up with 2 pins screwed into my shin and 2 screwed into my heel. They did give me 3 nerve blocks pre-surgery…which hurt like the dickens, I’ll say it…but which stayed solid until Thursday night! SO that definitely helped with pain management…until they wore off…then I’m like…umm…hey…somebody screwed these metal things INTO MY HEELS. Yea…anyway…I had to stay in the hospital until Thursday afternoon, but after a visit from PT and OT, it was proven that we could make it work at home. By the time we left the hospital, even my potty breaks were down to me and 1 other person…you don’t even want to know what was happening with the OG 5!

But in those 2 days, so many people were just showering us with prayer, affection, and tangible needs. I came home to a ramp built outside our home to deal with the 3 steps into the house. Someone had taken down my main Christmas tree and replaced it with a hospital bed, portable commode, 2 wheel chairs, a walker, and a shower seat. The food, the comfy jams/robe, the sweet cards, beautiful flowers, and thoughtful texts and gifts…my sweet Rachel @ Halo even let us come to the salon where she washed my hair for me (again, IYKYK)…so much to be thankful for and so many reminders of God’s faithfulness in the midst of great sorrow. Those are things I hope to remember for quite some time.

Tomorrow is D-Day when we get the band back together and take a look at the damage. If all goes well, and the swelling is down, surgery #2 will be on Wednesday. No clue about anything after that, but that’s enough on the horizon for now. Not gonna lie…would really appreciate some extra prayers these next couple days in particular…both for yours truly and for the husband, who may very well be rethinking those vows, at this point. Much love to you all!