The Coles Notes:
Sunday afternoon 10th November I fell 18-20 feet from a tree onto my left side.
I sustained fractures to my left ribs 3 through 9 that resulted in a punctured lung (pneumothorax) and left pelvic fracture (ischiopubic ramus).
After a brief visit to Welland Emergency, I spent 2 ½ days at Hamilton General where they inserted a chest tube to correct a 35-40% collapse of my left lung.
Healing is progressing well and will continue over the coming weeks thanks to much prayer and support.
I’m back at work now because I am called to serve and because I want to share in this amazing gift of life that we’ve been given – to give you the best opportunity to heal, to overcome, and to live the best expression of the life you’ve been given!
The long version…
I work hard, but it is the grace of God that is within, enabling me to press on. While I’m very detailed, structured and disciplined in the clinic as I serve you, getting jobs done at home there have been times when I am overzealous, out of order, rushing ahead without the proper foundations or safety measures. I can look back over my life and see how the Lord has been gracious, and while my overzealous impatience has not been overlooked this time, I am so thankful that he is working it out for my good and I desire that he gets the glory.
My good, you’re good, is God‘s ultimate goal for us. But what does that mean? Having the ability to listen and respond to his grace at work within us! In other words, he wants us to grow up to maturity… and this takes longer for some of us than others.
God allows us to experience challenges in order to grow and refine us. Count the patience of our Lord as salvation! Such was the challenge I faced on Sunday afternoon, November 10. I was warned that morning not to trust the branches (or what was left of them) on the evergreen tree that we found ideal to put a tree stand in but to use climbing pegs that are screwed in the tree. While I did use 1 climbing peg to get me started I found that the branches were spaced ideally and thought myself to be a lightweight with enough climbing experience to get up and clear some branches with a small hand saw. I was going to be using the climbing pegs, ropes and harness when installing the tree stand… I just wanted to do the prep work. I made it up with ease to a spot I thought would be ideal and pulled out the tape measure to see how high up, I was about 18 to 20 feet. With my handsaw, I cut two live branches above then twisted downward to get two smaller dead ones. That was when the stub of a branch I was holding onto snapped, and I fell through the two branches I was aiming to remove with the saw. Because they were dead they offered no resistance and I heard the pop pop as the ground came flying toward me… or so it seemed. I believe I tucked up as I fell, so it was a hip and shoulder impact that left me winded like I’d never experienced before.
My 2 boys Malachi and Zephaniah were with me and came running to my side asking if I was OK. Unfortunately, because of the wind, I couldn’t answer to reassure them so Mal told Zeph to stay while he ran back to get Mom. It may have been a minute before I was able to take some small gasps of air and let Zeph know that I was going to be OK, I then reached into my pocket and grabbed my phone to let Sarah know and reassure her that I wasn’t dying as Mal had been communicating. She situated our 2 girls before coming out with Mal on the quad towing our small trailer and bringing a snow sled for the rescue mission. I was able to roll onto my right side enough for her to jam the snow sled under. With the boy's help and me pushing some with my legs, Sarah slid me up the tailgate of the trailer.
Sarah rode back slowly with me and the boys in the trailer, Malachi being our speed moderator as he gauged my cringing. Because transferring was relatively easy on the snow sled, I encouraged Sarah to take me straight to Welland Emergency as the thought of a couple of paramedics transferring me without the same sort of care scared me. So in much the same fashion, Sarah Mal and I slid me across a 2 x 6 placed between the trailer and the side of our Kia Carnival and gently transitioned me onto the floor in the back. Sarah got the kids situated in the car with a snack and an orange tablet from the Welland library (these preloaded educational tablets are great for such times) and we made our way carefully to Welland Emergency. It was a slight ordeal once there because they were upset that we didn’t call the paramedics and told Sarah they weren’t going to help get me out of the car. Thankfully some nearby paramedics overheard the conversation and stepped in to help.
It was while in the Welland Emergency that I first coughed up some blood, an indication that it was a bit more serious than just some broken ribs. Because of this I bypassed an x-ray and went straight to CT which identified several fractured ribs and a partial collapse of my left lung along with the fracture to my left pelvis. I was transferred to Hamilton General where the extent of the injuries was determined and the pneumothorax (collapsed lung) could be fixed.
So much to be thankful for!!!
Everything is from the hand of the Lord, a loving God who has entered into the suffering with me, and this I know to be true. I’m thankful for the expectation of healing and overcoming, resurrection gives us the assurance of this! Now when considering what I deserve, God was so very merciful toward me… My head and neck were largely free from injury. I landed on my left hip and shoulder and both of those are largely free from injury. I fractured my pelvis at the inferior pubic ramus meaning my superior pubic ramus is intact and so considered a stable pelvic fracture. I fractured seven ribs and partially collapsed my left lung and while serious in the moment, these can heal without any significant long-term complications (and this I am continuing to pray for).
As I’ve said so many times to patients I care for; force enough to break a bone is sure force enough to damage a joint. With an already vulnerable middle back from past injuries, I know there’s a need for chiropractic care to get me moving and healing optimally, and due to the compounding of injuries a greater need to maintain appropriate function.
I’m very thankful for the power of prayer and a loving community willing to pray and practically help in many and varied ways. I know my recovery has been accelerated because of this.
Lessons learned!!!
It hangs etched into wood as you enter the clinic, “the one who orders their way rightly, I will show the salvation of God”. That’s Psalm 50 verse 23B, and I have known this to be true… along with the consequences that can arise when I get things out of order. This truth has gone in on a deeper Level.
If I’m going to be putting climbing pegs in the tree to put up the tree stand, then it would make sense I put them in to clear the branches where the tree stand is to go… the importance of vision.
We have moved recently and there have been, and still are, a bunch of projects to complete. Some that are necessary and some more for aesthetics/recreation and pleasure, either way, I have this tendency to want them all done this weekend. This tendency could be better be defined as impatience… and a Proverb that I need to pay more attention to in my life is this; Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way. I encourage the people I care for in clinic not to rush the healing process – some think that because they are pain-free that their function has been restored and stop doing what they need to be doing to achieve lasting results while others are so fixated on the desired outcome (pain free) that they too are not doing what they need to do to embrace the healing journey.
Given the right environment, the body has an amazing ability to heal and overcome. I communicate this in practice and I’m encouraged to have the opportunity to live it out. When should I be adjusted after an accident like this? Thankfully, I was visited in Welland Emergency soon after arrival by my good friend Dr Mike Lewis who adjusted my upper neck and again adjusted me soon after I returned home from hospital. I continue to get adjusted as my healing continues because it is vital in order to give my body the best chance to heal and overcome. This is done with great care aiming to remove nerve interference without unsettling fracture healing.
The importance of rest… And keeping rest relative to capacity. Initially, like when there is a tube in my chest to reinflate my lung, rest is bed rest. Now with the tube out, it’s important I get more upright and active, within a threshold to optimize healing while allowing for the fractures to heal. Thankfully, the pelvic fracture is stable so by day 4 I was walking without a cane and within the week, I was walking twice a day, slowly at first, focusing on breathing and posture. In the second week, I was challenging my strength and mobility in order to optimize healing.
Work OUT your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who working IN you both to will and to work for his good pleasure… the most significant adjustment happens in our thinking, our attitude to what has happened, and why, and what needs to happen, and why. It’s so easy to slip into a victim mentality (why me?), or to play the blame game (I deserve it because I’m an idiot). And the reality is if we all got what we deserved, we wouldn’t be here… So what’s the alternative? 2 Corinthians 4:10 gives us the answer; always caring in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. This is to know that all the time I’ve missed the mark have been laid on him on the cross so that none of what I’m going through is retribution/punishment/payback from God. Now I can embrace the life of Jesus in me today, and here is the opportunity to experience the healing and overcoming power of Christ, his resurrection power. Knowing this gives me the freedom to take the next step forward with the aim to work out what he works in… to walk in alignment with the way he created me to be.