Last Night's Adventure

My husband is -I hope- sleeping. He has taken theee ibuprophens, 2 sleeping pills and a - as big as a horse - antibiotic

He has a splint on his right thumb, stitches on his lip, fractured cheek bones, three front teeth gone, scrapes on his knees and abrasions on his nose and chin.

He is 82 years old and was determined to go to the Knox county fair near mount Vernon to see the tractor pull. He doesn't remember exactly what happened. He was walking down a hill to the grandstands with his bag in one hand and a corn dog in the other hand and maybe blacked out. Or something. He fell hard. On his face and he looks awful.

I had known something like this was going to happen. I have known that he has problems with balance and memory and driving. I knew something bad was going to happen and tonight it did.

I got the phone call at about 6. I was waiting for my daughter to come home and we were talking about a movie. Instead a drive to my Vernon and 5 hours in the emergency room and then the drive back home at midnight.

And now he is sleeping. In the hospital we commiserated with him and  I prayed, we talked, he cried, we cried, we ate Wendy's hamburgers, we laughed, we waited and waited to hear about the results of the x rays. He was in pain and pretty uncomplaining. There was a lot of blood from his nose and mouth and we just kept giving him tissues and throwing them away

At one point I looked in the cloth bag he had packed for this outing. . It had a pillow he had made to sit on, an orange crush and about 30 sets of earplugs. He brought them to give to kids in the stands. This is what he likes...the thrill of the power of machines  and the wonder of little kids.

He jokes with the nurses and is sweet with the EMT kid who comes to check on him.

As I write this tonight I am grateful that the "something"that happened wasn't catastrophic. It is painful to be sure but it is a definitive experience which will probably put an end to his solo adventures.

He had wanted me to go with him but I just couldn't or maybe wouldn't. I told him that I will do county fairs and demolition derbies but I draw the line at tractor pulls. He has - over the years- conscripted lots of different people into going with him to races, fairs and tractor pulls. But this time there was no one interested. So I "let him" go alone with lots of admonitions about his driving. Although he wondered if this would have happened if I had been there and holding his hand, he admitted that he can be bull headed. And that is surely true.

I will soon join him in bed and hope to sleep. It has been a long night but I remain grateful for all of who he is- a creative, cantankerous, charming, bull headed, adventurous, garrulous force of nature. His sphere of activity is becoming smaller but I pray  he can find ways to " gallivant" and experience the rush of discovery and excitement without any more nights like this.

Here is my prayer for Chuck tonight:

May the God of HEALING be with you, binding and soothing your every wound, moving you gracefully in a dance of nurturing love and lulling you back to wholeness and health.

May you be gifted with a healing gentleness and compassion with which you might touch the lives of others.  

May the HEALING God bless you.

Amen

(From BLESSING UPON bLESSING by Maxine Shonk