Don't try this at home - the latest "adventure" in the frozen tundra

Last Sunday, I took the kids sledding. This would seem to be an uneventful occurrence in the frozen tundra. The kids wanted their dad to come along too, but he had recently hurt his back & didn't feel up to a sledding excursion. In retrospect this was an interesting statement.

When we arrived at the sledding hill, we had it all to ourselves. At the time, I thought this was a good thing. My four year old, S, refused to sled down the hill at all. This surprised me because he had been excited about going sledding. Perhaps he was remembering last years incident in which he sledded through a plastic fence with his sister. Perhaps he was just wiser than I was....apparently. The other two kids, 9 year old J & 7 year old K were having fun sledding down the hill alone on their own sleds. After a time, J asked if I would sled down with him (I had already taken an uneventful slide with K). Someone had made a jump on the hill. We weren't trying to hit it. Before either of us could react, we hit the jump and went sailing up into the air. I would be interested to know how high up we were - it felt like about 3 feet. Of course, the law of gravity was alive and well. I took the brunt of the impact, smashing into the ground and feeling a crunch all the way up my back. We both had the wind knocked out of us, and we were screaming. I was screaming in pain and fear that I had just paralyzed myself. J was screaming, "We knocked out the wind!" and "I need some water!"


(Here is a pre-accident photo of the jump that would later become my undoing.)

I neglected to mention that another family had arrived during the time we were sledding. This was absolutely an act of providence. The man of this family came down to us and asked if we were o.k. My first response was, "I don't know," (and I honestly wasn't sure whether or not I would be able to get up again.) After a few minutes, I asked if he could help me get up. He helped me up and helped me back to our car. I was so grateful that he was there.

I drove us home. I was crying the whole way because the pain was so bad, but I was so grateful to be walking.

Because a bone in my back didn't look quite right, my dear Schatzi advised me to go to the doctor on Monday. I got x-rays and discovered that I have a wedge compression fracture in my thoracic spine (which I was told is much better than having a fracture in one's lumbar spine). Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. And this is from a woman who has given birth to 3 children (one of whom took 36 hours to finally make an appearance) without ever using pain medication.

So, this has been an interesting week - filled to the limit with Ibuprofen and Tylenol 3 with Codeine. Thankfully. I have been advised not to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk which means (among other things) that Schatzi now has to do the grocery shopping (as if he didn't already have enough to do). My family has been wonderful. My children have helped me get up and walk around. J & K made their own lunches one day (although J complained, "Why should I make my own lunch?" My response was: "Because you want to eat?") My wonderful Schatzi has been cooking and cleaning up the kitchen, carrying around laundry baskets for me and telling me to sit down.

There is a blessing in this, though. The blessing of laying on the couch with 4 year old S, reading books, watching Lone Ranger and Partridge Family episodes on Hulu and trying not to devour his cheeks. There is also the luxury of being able to lie on the couch and not feel guilty because, for once, this is what I am supposed to be doing. :)