A minor injury vs major injury
I accidentally hit dishwasher door that was left open (by me, not my husband) so hard last night or actually wee hour of the morning today. The moment I hit it, the whole lower leg felt numb then the spot I hit throbbed with this pulsation,,, likely indication, I hit a blood vessel. Within a second there was a huge pool of hematoma appeared. Just means the blood was not pouring out, was collecting under the skin. So, I quickly bandaged it to suppress the spread and went to bed.
This always amazes me, the power of bandage!!! I have no bruising and hematoma is gone.
It all reminded me of the days I used to work in the Emergency Room at a large hospital in SC where level 1 trauma center of the area was located . I was a brand new nurse then,
yeh it was years ago. I loved the emergency environment where you have no clue when something or someone is coming. Most gruesome things do not bother me for some reason and I felt sad with death of young but I also enjoyed the learning aspect of the busy ER immensely.
Working in the ER really helped me to fine tune my skills of starting an IV quickly and so on. That is also the kind of place that sharpens your mind to think critically and quickly to prioritize what needs to be done first or what the doc would order first so you can be one step ahead. The, ER always reminds me of a dear friend who passed away sometime ago.
One day my quadriplegic friend, Joe came in to the ER accompanied by no one. He had pneumonia, he could not breathe. He was so ill that they put him in the hospital. After my shift at ER was over, I went up to stay for a while. Poor thing can not even cough on his own. When you are a quadriplegic, you need someone to coordinate with you by pushing your diaphragm up manually with the timing of your effort for exhalation, catch his spit before he swallows it back down. I Was pretty good at that.
He was once the most gorgeous / handsome 6 foot 3 who enjoyed motorcycle trips everywhere. But when his neck made the more than 180 degree twist in a motor cycle accident, his healthy life was over. I can not remember how many years he had been quadriplegic when I met him but I went to his place quite often to visit, bring food, chat about school, and just to cheer him. My friend Janet introduced me to him. Joe had strong faith and he was surprisingly always very happy, no matter what. He did not have the resources like Superman had. His girl friend left him soon after the accident. OH yes, I would not deny, somedays, I would find him very very sad, under the cover. But most of the time he still had a mission and he tried to connect with people like us. I was just a student, did not have any fund to help him in any significant way, of course. Things increasingly grew tough for him financially. First he had to move out of his nicer apartment to a place that was in much less desired section of town. I continued to visit him so did some other friends of mine. We all felt so helpless, wished we knew a millionaire who may be willing to lend a hand of assistance.
Well, time moved on for me and I graduated from the university, (he was so kind to give me my first pair of nursing shoes!) and my life began to have a different pace. My friends and I continued to stop in and help when we could. Two years after I graduated, I was married and moved away to Knoxville. Joe had a significant health set back a few times during those years. Once, probably close to a year after we moved to TN, we had an opportunity to visit SC. So, my husband and I stopped at his place and knocked on the door. No answer and the door was locked. I thought that maybe he was resting? He always had a helper who stayed to provide assistance for him. So we simply thought that he may have been out visiting someone, like his mom. By the way, his mom was so crushed from Joe being quadriplegic, she did not visit very often. Joe's younger brother was also quadriplegic from yet, another accident. I know, very tough situation.
Some months passed and I learned that he had passed away. I also learned that the day we stopped in, he was most likely inside alone. All this does not matter to Joe anymore, because he is in much better place and he has no limitation of the earth. But it left me with a deepest regret. I know, I could have done just a little bit more to stay connected with Joe after we moved away. Joe left me thinking,,, cherish your friends. Make an effort to see them. When I think about the possibility that Joe may have thought that we did not think of him often any more after we moved away, it still digs in deeply to stir my emotion. I know he understood but I may not have, if the role had been reversed and if I had been the quadriplegic friend in bed.
I have to believe that Joe had a forgiving heart for his friends on earth.
So, my lesson for the day is that watch where I am going so I don't bump into unexpected obstacles and most of all to CHRISH my friends when I have the opportunity to. And I am counting the blessing of my very minor injury of the day. Well, it has been a while since I had the big accident and I do not plan on having another big one like that ever again. (although flying over the Idaho mountains in a helicopter certainly was a treat)
Joe hated being photographed for an obvious reason. But he allowed me to take this photo of us when my parents visited him on the rare occasion my folks were in the US. He has been gone many many years now but I still wish that I had knocked the door harder or done something else to reach Joe inside so he could know that we thought of him.
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