The Aftermath of a Serious Injury
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In a blink of an eye, your entire life can change, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.
A few years ago, my husband was riding his bike with our kids and was hit by a car.
Now, you don’t know my husband, so let me describe him a bit for you. He is what some people would call a ‘manly-man’.
There’s not a tool he doesn’t want or need. In the twenty-one years we’ve been together, I’ve seen him cry only 3 times. He goes to the doctor about once every ten years, and only when he seriously feels like he is dying.
So, seeing him lie in the hospital bed five years ago, with tears trickling down the side of his face, his neck in a brace, it was like a stab in the heart.
He is my rock. I don’t know what I would do without him, and seeing his pride completely smashed, knowing he was in excruciating pain physically hurt me.
Now, five years later, we are still dealing with the aftermath.
Serious injuries have serious consequences.
His neck never healed correctly. He went from riding his bike 25 miles a day, and training to run a marathon, to never being able to ride a bike again. He gets what he calls ‘zings’ down from his neck to his fingertips on one side. His pinkie finger and ring finger constantly have that tingling ‘falling asleep’ sensation and he has no other feeling in those two fingers.
He sleeps with a specific pillow because if he sleeps wrong, he can’t turn his head for days and has headaches.
Last night he was playing with the dog. He bent over, and the dog headbutted him in the head.
I swear my heart stopped as I watched him drop to his knees in slow motion.
Immediately I grabbed a hold of the dog who was still in play mode and held my breath.
There is nothing to prepare you to see someone who is so strong be in so much pain that they can’t talk, can’t move… the only thing they can do is try to survive the pain they are in until it subsides.
