OUCH!!

Hello there!

Well.... things happen when u least expect it...

As u all probably know my husband Pat has been down in Cordova, a small fishing community only reached by ferry or plane, tuning pianos. This time because the ferry broke down he was a day late taking it from Valdez (another fishing community and the place where the Oil Refinery is situated), so long story short, Pat has been gone for almost 10 days, which is unusual for him.

So I have been home with Annie (16) and Rob (11 and DS), Rob has been sick with a croupy cold and flu things that has been going around for the past few weeks...actually folks have been sick with it for quite a while ever since we came back from our trip down south. Staying at home was kind of a bummer but we managed OK I guess, knowing that everybody was going to come back eventually. Because of our almost 3 weeks down south visiting relatives, Rob has been out of school for almost a month!

Yesterday, Sunday, both my older kids Pat (21) and May (19) came back home from being at the clinic in Tok, working and getting more hands on experience as EMT 3's. Big Pat called saying he was on his way back home too.

Well.... everything was hunky dory and I was enjoying listening to the big kids tell me about their Tokian adventures. We had just come back from the Tab having enjoyed a scrumptious Mongolian Moose dish put on by one of the Sunday cook crews....

At about 10 pm. the big kids May and Pat went outside to do some hatchet throwing with May's new hatchet and I proceeded to stoke the wood stove one last time before we all turned in. I have been doing this for many years and what happened next is totally unprecedented for me...I consider myself an Alaskan- bush-mom-veteran by now after over two decades living in this semi primitive environment.

...But as the fates wld have it...when I opened the wood box door which is about 5 ft higher than the floor, two huge green pieces of firewood which were apparently propped up against the door (and shouldn’t have) attached me and came flying out of there and fell on my unsuspecting right foot....
The pain was severe as I hopped around the living room uttering unmentionables.... I finally hopped out on to the porch and summoned my two kids who were merrily playing with their tomahawks...

Fortunately for me, they are not both EMT 3's so they went into immediate medic mode and carried me into the house again. Pat was in command; he amazed me with his strength (I am no fairy princess) and efficiency, as did May who kept the records and vitals going. They called their instructor at the Tok Clinic and asked her advice as to what to do…I was given a morphine pill and the foot was elevated and iced accordingly. Amazing what a pain it is to have to hobble along with crutches especially at our cabin with all the different levels…. May helped me take a shower and then helped me get to bed. So in a few minutes my normal bedtime routine was turned into something short of a nightmare…

It was a weird feeling to be taken care of by my own children…I kept thinking of them as babies and when I was nursing them or taking care of them…. had these flashbacks of when they were all little and so dependent…and then I wld look at them and realize that my babies are all grown and responsible young adults…can I take some credit for that? I hope so…although it does take a village…. as the saying goes…

We tried to get in touch with BP who had disconnected his cell phone (bad habit)…and woke somebody up close to where he was staying thinking that he was there. Anyway word got around and he must have been notified of our family emergency and called us.

Anyway long story short is that after giving me the morphine pill I was finally able to get to sleep and then the next morning we asked Annie to miss school and stay with Robin so we cld get to the clinic.

The neat thing about it all is that because my kids are part of the EMT TOK EMT squad they have given our community a fully equipped and operational (second hand) ambulance, so Pl drove the ambulance to Tok and May rode behind with me checking my vitals. I found out that this was their first run in our own ambulance and that I was their first real patient. Together with Jon Squires they got me onto the gurney and into the ambulance.



The trip by ambulance was very bumpy, I think I prefer the chopper ride I got when Robin was born 11 years ago.

The staff at the clinic was quite efficient and after I was examined some X-rays were taken while May and Pat waited outside and filled in their paperwork and reports. It was determined that I suffered a bad traumatic impact and nothing was broken. Again, it was neat to see the rapport and camaraderie that my kids enjoy with the medical personnel at the Tok EMS clinic. Who wld have thought? My Kids? EMT 3’s…makes a Mom sooo proud!

So I was prescribed some pain medication, bought a nifty air Velcro splint and sent back home in the ambulance with Pat as my driver.

All in all quite the experience and hopefully my foot will be good not too far off, after some R&R…

So glad all this happened when May and Pat where here to take care of me….
☺