SADIE AND PAUL'S BIG ADVENTURE

POST #19

To all of my blog readers, I must first take a moment to apologize for the fact that there was no blog last week on March 7th. As you will soon be able to tell, I was no where near a computer on that, or many other days, until today. So let's get on with the story shall we.
Sunday, March 4th dawned a beautiful spring day here, and I felt like it would be a good day to do a different walk with Sadie the dog. My first few days here we had done a walk out to the end of the road and back, with me throwing the tennis ball and Sadie having great fun chasing it, and then waiting for me to catch up and throw it again. She has boundless energy, so there was no chance at least from her point of view, that this was ever going to be boring. Still on Sunday the 4th, I decided we should trek up the hill that is situated directly south of the property we're on. We hiked up the north facing slope closest to the house through the snow, and after about 15 minutes or so we found a great spot to sit down and relax and take in the view looking west across the river towards the village of Niagara. This was bliss, sitting in the warmth of the early morning sun, a faithful happy dog at one's side, and surrounded by trees, water and mountains. What a great way to start the day.
I could have remained here for hours, as I was very content, and Sadie seemed to reflect that mood as well, however I decided that it was time to head home and get some oatmeal going for breakfast, so with that, I said, "Come on Sadie, let's head home shall we?"
She started down the slope with me following. It was very steep at the top and if I were to have to guess I would suggest about 40-45 degrees. However, the slope, being on the west side was dry and was a mix of solid ground with rocky outcrops. I had only taken a couple of steps and was about to take the next one onto a rock and my gut instinct told me that I shouldn't step there, and even though in latter years I have been good at trusting this instinct, this time I didn't and as a result would face some very serious consequences.
As soon as I put my foot down, I knew it was the wrong thing to do, because a split second later I was going forward head over heels plunging down the slope. I do remember thinking right then, "you stupid idiot Paul, you shouldn't have stepped there" but of course by then it was way too late. I continued to bounce down the hill head over heels, sometimes seeing sky, then dirt and rocks, then sky again. I am not sure how many times I tumbled over but my guess would be at least 3 times but probably up to 6. As you can probably imagine, I wasn't concentrating on counting how many. All parts of my body made multiple contacts with the rocks and I do remember hitting my head but only once, and thankfully not hard enough to knock me out. That would be my first blessing.
I came to rest finally near the bottom of the slope in a pile of snow. It took me a few moments to try and get a grip on what had just happened to me and again I was mad at myself for not listening to my gut. But there was no turning the clock back now,and as I sat there, the pain began to rise, in many places all over my body but specifically in my right leg. I eased myself over the lip of the snow so that my legs were hanging down and I moved my right leg. Right then I knew that something wasn't right. Instead of moving in unison with my leg, my right foot just flopped around on it's own accord, and just watching that put a very sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
NOW WHAT? If I don't get back to the house I am in serious trouble here, as nobody knows we're out here.
Sadie is standing beside me with the tennis ball in her mouth, and an expression on her face which implied something to the effect, "OK so you've had your fun so can we go back to playing throw the ball now?"
Needless to say, I had more pressing issues on my mind, like how in the hell am I going to get back to the house? Relatively close to where I ended up was an old cabin that the owners have on their property, and so ever so slowly and gently I struggled along the snow covered ground to get to the cabin, where I managed to find a stick and an old spade shovel that I could use as makeshift crutches. As the pain level continued to rise, I managed to get myself upright on these "crutches" and begin the very slow trek up the hill back to the house. I was slogging through heavy snow which didn't make my task any easier, and with the sun beating down I was rapidly overheating and my mouth had become dry as a bone. Each step was a challenge, and with each step, Sadie would grab the ball and drop it down in front of me hoping I guess that I would pick it up and throw it, or at least kick it ahead. "No Sadie, we can't play ball right now." Ever so slowly and very painfully I made my way back up the hill. I wanted to just sit down and wish it was all a bad dream, but I really had no choice at this point. I had to get home and get to a phone and call for help.
It probably took me at least a half hour to get back to the house and as soon as I did I fell over on my bad leg, which certainly didn't help my mood. I managed to get up the stairs on my rear end and into the house and called next door for help.
"Hi, I am your new neighbour, and I wonder if I could bother you to come over and take me to the hospital, as I think I have broken my leg."
"We'll be right over was the response." Another blessing to count.
Greg the neighbour arrived almost immediately and after a quick introduction he drove me straight to the Grand Forks Hospital, where after x-rays and some morphine to help ease the pain, I was informed that I had a very serious break. How serious?
Well three breaks of the tibia near the ankle, a break of the same bone up near the knee and finally one break in the fibula for a total of five. Funny, the day before was my birthday, and I could proudly proclaim that I had never broken a bone in my body and then one day later and I've really gone to town.
By the following day I was heading east to Trail to have an operation done, and the journey over was nothing like I've ever experienced as every little bump along the highway, and there are more than you ever notice, caused major pain in my leg. By the time I was admitted at Trail I was certainly in the mood for some more morphine.
To make a long story short, I was told not to eat anything after midnight as I was expected to go into the OR the next day, Tuesday. Finally on Friday, I had the operation. But this was only the first of two as it turns out. There was so much swelling in my leg that they had to stabilize the leg first. So as I type these words, my right leg is propped up on a stool in front of me and it has what is called an "External Fixator" attached to it. Basically I have four metal bars through my leg, two near the knee, one in the heel and the other in the arch of my foot. The bars are anchored in various bones in order to keep the broken bones stable and help the swelling subside.
I only found out today that the next operation takes place on March 20th, so for all you blog followers, I won't be doing one on March 21st, as I will still be in Trail Hospital. During that operation, plates and pins will be put in place and then I am looking at about two months before I can put any weight on my foot.
In the meantime, I have plenty of great pets to keep me company and a priceless view looking up the valley, so I really can't complain. Things could have been much much worse, and so I am counting my many blessings every day. One of those blessings is my neighbours who have cared for the animals during my absence and I will be forever grateful to them for being here and helping out at total stranger. In fact this past 10 days I have been surrounded by very caring people and it warms my heart to know that so many of them exist.
So over the next few months at least, I guess the thoughtful part of my blog will play first string to the wanderer part, but such is life as it throws lessons at us, and no doubt something good will come from this one, even though the price of the lesson was rather high this time.
My leg needs a rest, so I will end this now and write again on March 28th.

All the best,
Paul
The THOUGHTFUL wanderer

And a PS. Happy birthday Bill

And one more final thought. During my last housesit I was nursing poor Felix the cat back to health as he had injured his right leg. Maybe old Felix was trying to tell me about my future.