The Fall

No, I'm not going to blog about the fall of man. Or, perhaps the fall of your favorite actor or actress. I have a much more interesting story than that. A story that will touch your heart. Whose story is it? Well, it is my own. *grin*

Out at camp we often say that our days are long, but the weeks are short. That doesn't mean that they are bad, NOT BY ANY MEANS, that just means they are BUSY. We start before 7:30am and go to bed anywhere between 11pm and 12pm. It makes for tiring days.

I say that, and it makes me feel like I'm making an excuse before I tell my story. However, I have zero excuse for what happened. One moment I was up, and the next I was down. You'd think that would be the end of my story, but (true-to-form) it's not.

The walk started after wrap-up on Day #4. I was walking with Ronni, Tanner, & Megan. Well, they were ahead of me and I was following. That's normal for me out at camp. I share the first night about how I walk slowly and for them to go ahead and not feel badly about it. I'm always talking to God as I walk. *grin*

So, they were ahead of me, and we were walking back to the cabin. We turned to take the shortcut path. The shortcut path is not lit, or paved. It is full of rocks. This path cuts off a lot of steps to go to the cabins. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention to where I was stepping like I should have been. I know better, I was taught better in Physical Therapy than that! (And boy did I hear that this week in P.T.! *grin*)

I fall a lot, I won't lie. The ground and I are one quite often. In fact, that is what prompted my doctor to get me to Physical Therapy in March...I told her I was falling A LOT. *grin* However, normally when I fall, I get right up. This time I didn't. *grin*

I fell on a rock that was sticking up out of the ground. I fell hard and mostly on my right side. I also landed on my water bottle with my neck. I had the wind knocked out of me, and I laid there a second. I heard Ronni say "Shannah?" when I went down, and put pressure on myself to get back up so that Ronni wouldn't worry. I didn't get up for a second because I couldn't breathe. I didn't stay down long after I caught my breath, but I had tears from the lack of breath, and from the scare of the fall.

I got up and Ronni was AMAZING with me. She walked back to me and took my hand. She led me back to the cabin walking slower than I usually walk, but I appreciated it because I wanted to take the walk slowly and was trying to hold in the tears so Ronni couldn't see them.

We made it to the cabin, let go of Ronni's hand, and disappeared to the back sink so Ronni wouldn't see. However, ALL the CIA's saw, and were SO KIND to me! They followed me to the back, and the nurses happened to be there delivering night time meds so I was checked out right away and given TONS of hugs.

All that hurt at that point was my neck, which had been scraped by the water bottle. I could swallow fine, so I was good-to-go. *grin* Then a CIA said Ronni wanted to come back to check on me. I said sure.

She came back and looked at my scrape on my neck and gave me the softest hug full of love! It was SO PRECIOUS! *grin* Then she moved her glasses down and said, "Hellow, Shannah!" in front of all the CIA'S and we all laughed. *grin*

The next morning, I awoke with pain with each breath I took. I had been told by the nurses the night before to let them know if anything else hurt the next day. Hum. I debated, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, I was in A LOT of pain, but it was day #5 of camp. Last day. All the FINAL things would happen that day. I wanted to lie. I'll be honest. But, I also knew something may really be wrong.

At breakfast one of our nurses asked me how I was feeling, and I led with, "Okay, if I tell you, can you promise me that you won't take me out of activities today?" She told me no. *grin* So, we talked and I explained the pain and she asked a series of questions. In the end, she said it was a bruised rib. Nice. She said I could do the activities, but to take it as easy as possible on the activities. I said okay. They also gave me Tylenol for pain at each meal and one for at night when I slept. It helped. It was hard to breathe and laugh, but didn't hold me down at all.

I awoke Sunday in so much pain I was in tears. I was surprised, thinking I'd be better, not worse. It was closing day, and that morning I talked to our nurse who told me that Sunday and Monday would be the worst days, which have been the truth.

I have thought a lot since camp about that fall. I came home and have spent the week in various activities. I was going to say that this is the most pain I've been in as an adult, but I'm not sure. Spraining my ankle was intense back in 2009.

The main difference tonight is that it still hurts to laugh, or if I lean the wrong way I feel it. We won't even talk about the pain if I forget to take Tylenol at the right time. *grin*

What I have come to in my pondering since camp regarding my fall is how blessed I am. Yeah, I got hurt, but I experienced God's love through the CIA's and Ronni. I don't want to repeat the injury to receive love like that, but I think God wanted me to feel that love that way.

I'll heal. Life will go on.

Breathing will be easier. Laughing won't hurt. Leaning will be easy again. For that matter, sleep will be easy again because I won't have to spend lots of time finding a comfortable position where I'm not tense anymore.

Never again will I take breathing, laughing, leaning, and sleeping for granted.

NEVER.

*grin*

By the way, I know you're thinking it. After the fall, I never took the shortcut path after dark again. I'm praying it gets paved before next year. A light would be nice too. *grin*

Life is an adventure, and sometimes you get a good story out of it too. *giggle*

*grin*
LIFE.
IS.
AMAZING.