I was first to get injured- it happened while we were down in Utah for Caleb's wedding. The morning of the wedding, I was about to walk downstairs to leave and the heel of my stiletto snagged on the carpet just right and sent me falling head first down the flight of stairs. (Please note, in over 14 years of wearing high heels, I've never fallen before...) Anyways, I hit my head pretty hard against the wall and felt something in my neck kind of snap. I landed on my left side and had carpet burn on the tops ot my feet/ankles. Zane was already at the front door, but he came rushing back when he heard me simultaneously hit the floor and wall. Because I thought I had heard something in my neck snap, I was scared to move, but I immediately asked Zane for a blessing. He gave me one, then helped me slowly sit up and make sure I wasn't seriously injured. I was able to move my head and neck without any problem. I didn't hit my face, so no bruises or gashes... We were supposed to be at the temple in 20 minutes, so I wiped off the mascara running down my face (obviously, this little ordeal opened the flood gates and brought on some tears) and I changed into flat shoes. At the time, I knew I'd be hurting, but we needed to get to the temple...
On the way there, I texted my boss to see what she recommend I do (One of the benefits of working in a clinic...) She said to watch out for signs of concussion, but if I didn't have any, then to just take pain killers for the headache. So far, so good- there weren't any signs of concussion.
Well, my head was throbbing and my knees and ankles were carpet burned, but we got to the temple in time for the wedding. I was really grateful we did! Although I couldn't really concentrate too well on what the sealer was saying.. oh well. Not to mention I couldn't really carry on a conversation with anyone the rest of the day.. Basically, I was pretty slow. Literally- in walking, thinking, and speaking. Not cool and certainly not my normal.
Anyways, that night, there was a definite bruise on my left foot/ankle, as well as my left hip and I somehow managed to bruise my right knee too. My head was still hurting and my entire body was aching from falling, and to be honest, I was a little bit nervous about going to sleep- WHAT IF I DIDN'T WAKE UP THE NEXT DAY?!?!?! Good news- I did. :)
SO, other than having a couple minor scars on my ankles from the carpet burn, and the fact that my left ankle is still a little bruised and tender, I'm doing great.. and pretty much back to 100% just in time for Zane to get hurt....
YESTERDAY. Right now, Zane is working two jobs- he's still driving bus for the school district (until this Friday!) and between shifts there, he's working for the city of Laramie Streets Department. Lately, they've been working on sealing cracks in the road with tar, painting lines/curbs, and laying new asphalt on sections of road (side note: Zane got to drive the steam roller last week!) Anyways, yesterday morning around 11am, they were finishing up with crack sealing a section of road. Zane was working on getting some of the equipment taken care of on the back of the truck. The driver thought he was already done and started to pull away- which caused a bunch of 400 degree black and sticky tar to spill out on Zane's left forearm. On top of that, the cottonwood trees are blowing fuzzies in the air constantly, so one of his coworkers joked that now Zane knows how it feels to be tarred and feathered.
So from my understanding, Zane tried to get as much of the tar off as possible, to clean the wound, then wrapped it up and went back to work. No biggie. WAIT, no biggie?!? I'd say 400 degree tar burning off skin on my arm is a big deal. ANYWAYS...we got home around the same time for lunch, so I took him up to the Urgent Care where his boss told him to go. The nurse took off the bandage he had on his arm and it was evident that a couple layers of skin had also come off with the tar. After getting a tetanus shot and getting the wound thouroughly cleaned up, they dressed it and wrapped it back up. We got a cream from the pharmacy that he has to put on the wound twice a day for a week, with new dressing each time. He joked last night that the "worse" part about the whole thing is that now he's going to have a funny tan on his arm.. oh goodness.
SOO.. our many blessings- I honestly believe in the power of the priesthood and in priesthood blessings, and I think it's because of the blessing Zane gave me that I ended up not being more seriously hurt. (He's also grateful that I'm more leery of wearing high heels now, haha). But seriously, I'm especially thankful I wasn't badly hurt since I don't have insurance right now and didn't have to go to the ER or an urgent care in Utah. I also believe in the power of prayer and I always pray for Zane's safety while he's at work. Although he got burned on his forearm, we're thankful it wasn't his entire arm, face, or body. He might have a scar for a while, but it won't be anything seriously disfiguring or dibilitating, and so we're also grateful it wasn't any worse for him. The Lord sure does look out for us, and has recently reminded us of that- and that we need to remember that and count our blessings more often.
UPDATE:
So I wrote the initial blog before my lunch hour today. I got home and Zane was nursing another wound! Poor boy! He had been trying to scrape the tar off the bottom of his work boots with a screwdriver. And it slipped and went into his hand. I just don't know what I'm going to do with him ;) But now I just really hope we're done getting hurt for a while...
