I have had plenty of life changing experiences in my almost 7 decades of life and breaking my back last fall was certainly one of them. Oh, how I wish it would have never happened as I daily am reminded through the pain I now experience from it all. Yet happen it did and for the past 9 months I've been working my way back to what used to be called "my normal".
For the record, I haven't quite made it there just yet.
Most of that fateful day is just a blur and I only remember a few of the things that happened right before the accident as well as the time right after it. I won't forget the sound of the ladder collapsing upon the roof and then raining down on me. As well, I am pretty sure I will always recall the feeling of the top part of the ladder swinging and smacking me right in the lower middle part of my back. If you have ever broken a bone, you know the feeling of a once strong bone cracking into many pieces. I felt that immediately. In my mind I can still hear me crying out to Mike,
"I need help Mike! I can't move! My back is broken!"
The quick arrival of our local EMTS in the ambulance with a firetruck accompanying them, a red light and siren run to the hospital in Ponca City , and then a helicopter ride to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita are truly most all of what I recall during the first 24 hours. Surgery was followed by a week's stay in the hospital and then a two week stay at a rehab center in Wichita. The days of mid-October went into the early days of November before I was allowed to go home once again. My late October birthday as well as Halloween were both observed from Room 7 at Ascension Villa Christi.
It was my first helicopter ride ever and I recall about 20 seconds of that 30-minute flight in all. The sweet young woman pictured alongside me below took such wonderful care of me in rehab!
In the second week of November, I was dismissed to return home and oh what a glorious day that was. It was here in our living room where the real work began as I made my way back to independence once more. I started out with a brace, a wheelchair, and a walker, and then gradually was able to start shedding them one by one. By the end of December, I was able to walk with a cane and although the pain in my back was always with me, I learned some strategies to help me cope with it. By Christmas break and into early January, I began once more to wish that I could return to the classroom even though it was obvious that I wasn't even close to being well yet.
One Sunday afternoon in early January, I asked Mike to drive me past a school that is just down the road from us here. He pulled in and I got out, asking him to take my picture there in front of it. Blackwell Elementary School is a wonderful elementary school where I had been subbing in the weeks prior to my accident. How desperately I wanted to get better so I could return there to help them out with whatever school days remained. As Mike took my picture, I vowed to myself that I would get there as soon as I could. I was one determined teacher.
I worked hard to get better each day and my perseverance paid off. By March I was able to step into one of the classrooms whose teacher was on maternity leave. I finished up the school year with her class for the final nine weeks. I kept a wheelchair in the classroom to get around quickly to each of the desks and a cane by my side as I traversed down long hallways many times throughout the school day. Being with the kids all day long proved to be the very best medicine I could have been prescribed and during the times I was with them, it was as if my body was happy to be doing what it had been used to for such a very long time.
In about another month more, it will be time for me to return to Blackwell Elementary once again. This time it won't be as a substitute teacher, but rather it will be in a classroom of my very own. My 45th year as an educator will be in one of the first-grade classrooms and I am most anxious to meet the children who will be in my care. My body is still getting better every day although I am a ways from where I want to be. Although I will still use a cane, I am sure that it will be needed less and less as time goes on. It would be nice to not have something in common with Chester of Gunsmoke fame (otherwise known as a limp), but even that doesn't seem too bad at times.
I worked for several hours at school today going through things in my classroom. I will return tomorrow as well to see what more I can go through. I try my best each year to make our room look comfortable and welcoming to kids and their families. I want them to feel like they are at "home" during the day. I have always tried to include personal touches from our home here and I'm sure the kids will ask many questions like "Who is that in this picture?" Our Christmas cactus (7 in all) are now sitting in the classroom window with the plans to bring a couple more different plants before school begins. I hope to teach them how to take care of the plants and perhaps even to start some of their own. I have a gazillion ideas about what to do this year but for sure not enough time to do them all.
When I left this afternoon to head home, I turned around to look at the tables and chairs already set up. I saw the proof of my hard work when I looked at the classroom library shelves filled with good books for kids to read. I caught a glimpse of the phonics and reading curriculum that I need to become familiar with very soon. So much more I could have done, but for today it was time to call it done for now. As I turned out the light and closed the door, I could almost hear the sounds of their voices and the laughter that will one day fill the air.
I always vow to try and keep it clean and organized but sometimes it just doesn't seem to want to work that way!
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