Many are asking what happened to me, so I thought I would tell you all at once, so I don’t have to repeat the gory details so often
I put Reenie on the plane to Florida to visit her friend who has MS. Being alone, I was looking forward to some serious study and writing. Got up the next morning, dressed in my sleeper shorts and tee shirt, and decided to take out the trash to the curb. The temperature was 16 degrees. Half-way down the driveway, I hit a patch of ice and went down hard. My right knee buckled underneath me. In a split second I knew I had seriously twisted my knee or broken my leg. I remember thinking, “My knee has never been that close to my face,” and it was horribly distorted. My knee cap was off center.
I laid there for a second wondering what to do next. I straightened my leg with excruciating pain. I looked around and all the neighbor’s lights were off. No help there. I could not move my legs, but began to inch my way back up the ice on the driveway. It took me ten minutes to reach the door step. When I got to the door, I couldn’t reach the handle, but managed to push myself up enough to open it. Then I realized I was blocking the door from opening and had to maneuver my body around it. Every movement was agonizingly painful. Finally I made it into the house, pulled the phone off the shelf, and called 911. I told paramedics the door was open and I’m the guy on his stomach with this feet sticking out of the office.
When they arrived, turning me over was painful. They got me on a board and took me to the ER where I found out several hours later that I had completely torn my Patella tendon off the bone and my Medial Collateral ligament was in tatters.
After ER, I was taken to a nursing home for five days to wait for the swelling to subside. Surgery was performed to reattach the Patella tendon. Rehab will take at least six months which is a long process for an impatient man who is not used to sitting around. I have taught others to live in the moment, but now, I have to do it. The only way to get through something like this is to focus on one step at a time and not look too far ahead.
It is amazing how your life can change in only one second. One minute, I am starting a normal day. The next moment, I am clearing all things from my calendar and walking down a different path. It was disappointing not to be able to teach at the church, but God changed the schedule.
Sometimes, when I see skid marks on the highway, I wonder about other’s lives that were changed in a split second.
I have found three verses on affliction that have been somewhat helpful.
Ps 119:67 “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.”
Ps 119:71 “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”
Ps 119:75 “I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”
So now I am sitting in a nursing home trying to get strong enough to go home (hopefully Jan. 28), and begin the long process of rehab.
No need to visit. I have my journal and Bible and have plenty to do.
So that is what is happening.
Thank you all for your friendship and love,
Jim