The good… the bad… and the ugly

I’m told by Eric, that since this blog serves as our family history/journal, I have to blog about everything… the good, the bad, and the ugly. Well, if you look back through our posts over the years, we’ve had our share of the good. I guess it’s time to document a little bit of the bad and the ugly. :(

Back in June, I went to girl’s camp for a week. I admit that going is always a challenge… getting everything and everyone ready, arranging schedules, getting babysitters, grocery shopping, packing, etc. However, it’s always a great experience! This year was especially wonderful. We had a new camp director who also happened to be a good friend, Rachel Buchanan. She did an AMAZING job of making sure EVERYTHING was taken care of, which is not an easy task, considering that we do real camping; none of this Camp LoMia business like we did growing up. Camp is whatever we haul in, camp in, bring with, and pack out. So it’s a major chore to get it all organized and ready. I also had my 2 YW councilors there for the week, as well as 14 great girls.

The attitudes of the girls were great, and as leaders, we had a BLAST! We even won the spirit stick on the 1st day because we had the task of helping the kitchen staff to get ready for and serve dinner, as well as clean all the dishes for the entire camp once dinner was over. I was SO proud of our girls. They jumped right in, even singing girl’s camp songs while they did it. EVERY SINGLE GIRL HELPED!!! Every single girl had a great attitude, and it really made a difference. Here’s a picture of our group with the spirit stick (the pic is missing our older girls who were 4th yrs and YCL’s. They had to spend most of their time with other groups as part of their certification/assignments)…

One day we were given the job of cleaning the port-o-potties. Not cool! However, instead of complaining, our girls jumped in and even made a few laughs while taking care of business (no pun intended).

One of my favorite parts about camp is the “ward time”. This was just a little time here and there when we weren’t running off to certification classes, or taking care of chores. This was time when we just hung out and talked, washed our hair, played games, and did craft projects. One of the things I loved most about this time was that our older girls would gravitate away from the wards they were YCL’s for, and back to our ward. I was so thrilled to see this happen. Those older girls wanted to be with us, and get to know us better. We really bonded through that time, and I am so grateful for the unity that “ward time” afforded us.

I spent my week hanging out with the 3rd yrs. I only had 2, but they were AWESOME!!! And so much fun. We went to classes, made fires, and spent the week acting pretty silly. But it was great! On Thursday of that week, the 3rd yrs went to a fire station about a half hour away. The station had donated all the water for girl’s camp for the week. That’s alot of water. So, the 3rd yrs went to wash their fire trucks to tell them thank you. It was a great time, like all the rest.

After washing the trucks, there were lots of pictures taken… of girls, of leaders, of everyone on the trucks. As leaders, we joined in the fun and took this picture…

After taking that picture, one of the leaders did a cute little toe touch off the back of the fire truck, and I decided, after much coaxing, that I would do the same. So, I did. And I’m told that it was FABULOUS! However, (here comes the BAD part) the way I landed wasn’t so fabulous. My foot went out and my knee went in. It felt like my knee cap shifted to the right, while my thigh and shin bones slammed together. NOT GOOD! Here’s the picture taken of me directly after landing. (See the height of the fire truck behind me? Yeah… I see now how stupid the whole thing was. Hindsight is 20/20, right?)

I immediately felt some pain, but thought I could probably just walk it off. After walking around for a few minutes, pretending nothing was wrong, I started to go into shock. AWESOME!!! I immediately dropped to the ground to sit for a while. I felt sick to my stomach, dizzy, flushed, pale… all of those symptoms we had talked about at our 3rd yr first aide certification the day before. CRAP!!! I knew there was something wrong, but was too embarrassed to admit it. So I carried on with the activity as best I could. Then, I drove my car load of girls back to camp and dropped them off.

After dropping off the girls, I realized that my leg was starting to go numb. When I pulled up my pant leg to see if there was any visible damage, I realized that it had swollen to the point that the pants were cutting off circulation, and that’s why my leg was numb. I panicked! I couldn’t get out of the car because it hurt so bad, and I didn’t know what to do. I knew at that point, that I had done something pretty serious to my knee, but was stuck in a place where there was nobody who could do anything. I called Eric on my cell and told him what I’d done, and asked him to help me figure out what to do. Eventually, Rachel Buchanan walked by, so I stopped and asked her to drive with me down to the nurses’ station to find the nurse and get her opinion.

The nurse helped me ice the knee, but the pain was pretty overwhelming. One of the other ladies at camp had some pain pills for her back problems, so she gave me one which helped a ton. I also received a blessing from a member of the Stake Presidency. There is only one specific phrase I remember from the blessing (which I’ll tell you about later) because I was so blown away at what most of my blessing was. It wasn’t about me, it was about what my injury would do for the girls under my stewardship. It talked about how they’d have to step up and serve each other, as well as me. It talked about how their testimonies would grow through watching me deal with my injury. I was floored by that. In my time of need, the Lord wanted me to know that those I was worried about, would be ok… that they would probably be better off because of my injury.

Over the next 2 days, that blessing was played out as I watched the girls jump in and serve each other in capacities that I would have normally filled. I watched the 3rd yrs become leaders to the younger girls, and I watched the younger girls gain admiration and respect for the older girls. I watched as the girls that I have served for 2 year, stepped up to serve me when I needed them. Some brought me food and drinks, some gave up their chairs so I could put my leg up, some said prayers for me, some just sat with me while I was icing my knee and made me laugh to get my mind off all of it. It could have been very easy for those girls to think poorly of me; like I deserved what I got because I did something so stupid. Instead, they chose to serve me. Nothing unifies and bonds people together like service. I will have a bond with those girls forever, and that never would have been that way without my injury.

The one specific part I can remember from my blessing directly after my injury was that he blessed me that I “would have the faith and patience necessary to be able to heal.” I’ve remembered that often as I get frustrated with my limitations. After MANY Drs. appointments, x-rays, and an MRI, it was determined that I fractured my tibia, tore through my ACL, and tore part way through the MCL. AWESOME!!! I’m feeling pretty functional, but, I constantly have to watch my footing. Not good for a mom on the run.

The Dr. determined that the best course of action for me is to have surgery to replace my ACL, and repair my MCL. So, on January 10th, I’ll have surgery, and THAT’S the UGLY truth!