I Am Lucky

April 19, 2017

Day 109: Whiskey-Soaked Promises:
"Some were fools; they rebelled and suffered for their sins...'Lord Help!' they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress." Psalm 107-17, 19

Anderson's advice for today is: "If you want to live a happy and healthy life, avoid excessive alcohol, brazen words, motorcycles and curvy roads in the rain, and sucker punches to the eye. For good measure, turn over a new leaf with God."

I, like the man in Anderson's anecdote today, have survived a fairly serious road accident—several, in fact. When I was a senior in high school, my friends and I were hit by a drunk driver. My friend who was driving received a concussion; my friend, who was sitting next to me in the back seat, hit her head on the driver's seat and busted some blood vessels in her eye; my friend, who was sitting in the front passenger's seat jammed his knees into the dash and was cured of the knee pain he got from playing football when he was in high school. I, on the other hand, saw the accident about to happen and tried to brace myself by holding onto the front passenger's seat. None of us were wearing seat belts; at the time it was not the law. I dislocated my right shoulder and broke my left wrist. All in all, we made out well, but I got the worst of it.

I lost my starting position on the Varsity Basketball team and could no longer play, which of course sucked because I had worked so hard to earn my position. However, what sucked even more was that my mom had to do everything for me for awhile. Here I was a senior and having to be bathed and dressed by my mother. The horror of it all! Lol. One day when I was complaining about that fact, my mother said, "Well, Kimberly, look at it this way, Bob, could be your only parent." I was truly horrified by that prospect, and I told her I'd go live with a girlfriend before I'd let my father bathe and clothe me. It could have been so much worse. I could have lost the ability to care for myself forever. As it was, I only had a few months of having to deal with my right arm being strapped to my side and stomach and my left arm in a cast.

So yeah, I was lucky.

I have had to have surgery on both of my shoulders to keep them from falling out of socket all the time, but even in that I have been lucky. My left shoulder has never fallen out of socket since the surgery and when my right shoulder does, I am able to roll it back in myself. It doesn't happen very often, but once in a while I move in odd way and knock it out—like sitting in the front seat of a car and reaching into the back seat for something, that will sometimes throw it out. So I avoid such movements. I have had it fall out when I have lost my grip of the rope while waterskiing and hit the water pretty hard. Let me tell you, climbing into a boat with your dominant arm out of socket is not so fun. I have also had it fall out when I flipped over backwards down a rocky hill while four-wheeling with my dad.

As you can see, the car accident has not stopped me from doing anything that I really want to do. Skiing, four-wheeling, biking, hiking, running, weight lifting... you name it, I can still do it.

I am lucky.