My Misadventure | From Plank to Plank

by Elouise

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Dear Friends,
This is NOT a goodbye post, despite the lovely blessing above. Do you know what a condyle fracture of the jaw is? Neither did I until last Thursday when I was on my way to get a haircut. It wasn’t my heart, dizziness or anything like that. I tripped over uneven pavement and landed smack on my chin.

I’m home from the hospital, have an appointment with an oral surgeon coming up, and am probably looking at a wired jaw and liquid diet for more weeks than I want to know.

I’ve gone back several times to read my last Emily Dickinson post, I stepped from Plank to Plank. I haven’t died or fallen into the ocean. Nonetheless, I’m in a brand new world, feeling my way along with “…that precarious Gait Some call Experience.”

One thing I know: I need and want to write and post as I’m able. I’ve felt numb since last Thursday morning. Trying to get my emotional, spiritual and mental balance. There’s no rush. One day I’ll be grateful for this additional Experience.

Right now I’m grateful for many things –

  • The woman who came out to help me and called the ambulance
  • Her neighbor across the street who also came out and rubbed my back gently
  • The ambulance that came quickly and took me on my first ambulance ride as the injured party
  • Unnumbered friends who’ve been praying and sending notes and encouragement my way
  • An intact neck, a cut beneath my chin, and no other damage to my head, teeth or jaw; just wounded pride
  • CAT scans, head x-rays and other ways of measuring damage done and not done
  • The outstanding care I received from the moment the ambulance arrived, in the emergency room and in the hospital – the same hospital in which I had a pacemaker procedure just over two weeks earlier
  • My Vita-Mix, bought a couple of years ago at the insistence of my children. Who knew I’d get to take a crash course in preparing liquid food?
  • Friends who’ve offered to make some of my favorite soups, ready for transformation in the Vita-Mix
  • Music, hymns and Psalms that played in my head and heart when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore
  • Family members near and far who’ve been in touch
  • My husband of more than 50 years whose life was also disrupted in order to do double duty on my behalf
  • Sweet Smudge, our 3-year old cat, with his mostly calming, cheering presence

I’m sure there’s more, but that should give you the picture.

Before this misadventure, I’d been wondering what life with Lucy, my pacemaker, would look like. Never in a million years did I think about a wired jaw. If anything, my thoughts were more toward the unwired jaw scenario.

I believe God doesn’t waste anything that happens in my life, whether it’s good, bad or ugly. Nothing gets thrown out. Instead, it goes into piles of building blocks for whatever God is making of my life. As always, I’m grateful for your support. In fact, I can’t imagine my life just now without my blogging friends and visitors. Many thanks for stopping by and reading!

Elouise♥

© Elouise Renich Fraser, 24 April 2016
Irish blessing with photo from http://www.zazzle.com