So, yeah, about the broken leg…
I had first come to this town a day or two before. I was just floating from city to city to see how they treated me, if I could find housing and a job…I was going on the biblical saying when Jesus said if people don’t accept you, kick the dust of the town off your feet and keep moving…
So I was actually leaving this town, but decided to stop at a mountain stream that looked sooo inviting.
If you have never just sat by a stream and experienced the serenity and beauty of Creation, I highly, highly recommend it. They call it Grounding. Indeed. 🙂
So I spent the day there and was just having a great time. I was going down a ten or twenty foot hill, when I slipped on loose gravel, rolled my ankle, and heard a “pop”.
Instantly I felt immense pain and my leg swelled twice its size. Not a good sign.
There was a couple with two young ones next to me the entire day. I did not have interaction with them, although the man kept hovering around me, which bothered me because he was giving a negative energy off. Just how negative I would find out later…
So the little boy of this couple heard me cry out when I fell, and he came over to find out what happened. He saw me and I asked him to get his parents–that I needed help. Believe me, I don’t normally ask for help from anyone.
So this little boy went to his parents…and I heard the man say “she probably just wants money…”
Whoa.
Surely he had to have heard me cry out in pain? Could someone truly be that freaking heartless to ignore cries of pain?
So I sat there, not knowing what to do. Every time I moved, the pain was incredible. I tried to kid myself that it was just a bad sprain and everything would be okay if I just remained still.
Should I stay there all night, I wondered?
Nah, I thought, I needed to get help. The sun was edging towards the other side of the mountain and I knew it would soon be too dark for anyone to see me, so I had to get my behind up the hill towards the pavement so I could flag someone down.
So I scooched up the hill. Man, that was painful.
Just as I got to the pavement, I heard someone coming, and started waving my arms. It was a sheriff! This is why I no longer believe in coincidences.
He radioed for help. In the meantime, he kept me talking so it would take my mind off my pain. Good man. 🙂
When I told him about the couple next to me ignoring my cries of pain and asking for help, he got a look of disgust on his face and said that he had just a short time before he retired and he looked forward to it because of people behaving like that.
He said there has been such a change here in the last five years. Strangely (or not) the taxicab driver who brought me back to my truck said the same thing — only he said it has been fifteen years of rapid growth in this area. More thoughts on this below–
So I was pretty far out there and they sent a helicopter. But…wait for it…the helicopter could not land because the people who refused to help me were blocking the only available space for it to land. The sheriff told them to get a move on and get their stuff packed and out of there. They were absolutely dragging their feet in clearing the area…shake my head…
The ambulance took 45 minutes to get there to take me back to the city I had just left.
I sat there and thought…well, maybe this is where the Creator wants me for now.
I didn’t know what to expect with no money and no insurance, but I was given good care by the hospital.
An added bonus was that the doc seeing me was an Osteopath (D.O.) like my Dad. I can’t help but feel Dad was there with him (and me).
So the x-ray showed that there was a break. It was kind of in a corkscrew pattern — and the orthopedist said this was normal.
I eventually got a cast on later in the week, but I think they wanted to wait until the swelling went down a bit before applying the cast.
Man, I tell you what, breaking a bone is some major pain. I sat there thinking this is as bad a childbirth!
So I have two more weeks (she says hopefully…) until I get off crutches and can walk like a normal person again.
It has been a humbling experience, I tell you. I really appreciate the automatic doors and the improvements for disabled folks.
And the city that I wanted to leave? It has been astounding how differently people here have been since breaking my leg. Very, very nice and helpful in opening doors and asking if they could help in any way. Melted my heart. 🙂
So…about the changes here that the sheriff and taxicab driver remarked about…got me thinking about Indiana and the changes there, after 9/11….and I have to think that the same thing happened here that happened in Indiana –infiltrated by satanists–going by that man next to me.