How It All Began

New Year's day 2010, began like any other New Year's day. Each year we spend the day with friends. We eat, play board games, play spoons, sometimes take a walk, it's just an enjoyable day. There are 4 couples along with their children who are mostly grown with a couple of exceptions. Each year we celebrate the day at someone else's house. I had made enchiladas along with a few other things and we arrived right around noon. Everyone was there except for a couple of people. The hostess had the food arranged around the kitchen and had put the desserts and drinks (non-alcoholic) in the sitting room. The sitting room was a room they had added onto the house. They used the existing cellar and built a small room right on top of it that adjoined the kitchen. The cellar door was still intact in case of a tornado and her teenage son had claimed it as his "Man Cave". He and my son were in the Man Cave playing video games. The door to the cellar was flush with the tile floor in the sitting room. The drink table was directly beside the opening to the man cave. Now the story turns and I am not going on memory, but by what I was told happened. We girls were sitting around the kitchen table talking when I decided I wanted something to drink. I got up and headed toward the drink table. While I was getting my cup I turned to add something to the conversation. When I turned, I rotated my body and repositioned my feet, however the place where I went to plant my left foot was the open hole to the cellar. I immediately fell straight back and down 10 feet. The stairs to the cellar were very steep and were at the front of the cellar. At some point during the fall I met the stairs as I tumbled and ricoheted off the walls and stairs. I landed with my head on the video game player (which was dented badly), my body was twisted around the bottom stairs. I landed at the feet of my youngest son. When they got to me my eyes were opened and fixed, I was unconsious, my neck was hyper extended to right so that my head lay limply on my right shoulder. The hostess was the first one down the stairs. When she got to me she said she knew I was dead and she began to cry, scream and pray. She moved my head thinking I would wake up or make a movement, but she said my head just flopped like it wasn't attached to my body. When the others got to me, my breathing kicked back in with a ragged "death moan" as they called it. I would not respond to them as they waited for the EMT to arrive. Due to the size of the cellar (very small) they had a hard time getting the EMT people down to me along with the equipment needed to get me up. They secured my neck and after much work managed to get me on the board. The had to lift me up vertically as careful as possible not to jiggle me any more than necessary. When we arrived at the hospital, the greatest fear was I had broken my neck. They also believed it was possible that my shoulder and hip was broken. X-Rays did not show any fractures which we contribute to prayer. The CAT scan showed bleeding in the front left part of the brain. The doctor was concerned about the bleeding and the fact that the left eye was protruding out.It was determined to be in my best interest to be taken by helicopter to Oklahoma City which was 90 miles away. They contacted a neurologist in the City who advised them not to fly me if there was cerebral bleeding. I was sent via ambulance instead. I don't remember much about being in the ER. I remember coming too when I heard my oldest son begin to sob when they told him I was being transferred to Oklahoma City, because there was nothing they could do for me here. The sound of that sob is what got my motors running. I realized in my semi-conscious state that I needed to get myself together and act as normal as I could possibly act. My entire body felt stiff and ridged. I felt like every muscle in my body was experiencing a major charlie horse. I was tense and couldn't move anything that didn't hurt. I dreaded the trip to the City, knowing it would be a bumpy ride. I asked for something to settle my muscles and calm me down so maybe I wouldn't hurt so bad. Luckily my husband had known the head nurse for years. He was terrified and she was extremely concerned. She talked to the ambulance driver who agreed to allow him to ride with me to the City. This is something they absolutely never do. My husband said when they got in the ambulance the EMT in the back told him that I was in God's hands because most people who have cerebral bleeding don't make it. My husband knew something that the EMT did not know. While we were in the ER, all of my friends began texting all of their friends, who sent texts to their friends and a prayer chain began. I truly believe the findings in Oklahoma City were a direct result of those praying people. I do not remember arriving at the Oklahoma City emergency room. I do know that they were going to release me as the bleeding appeared to have stopped. My family and friends did not want me released due to the type of injury and the distance. The ER doctor agreed to keep me over night for observation.I was released the next morning after the doctor got a consult on the CAT Scan from the previous night. The bleeding hand not only stopped but much of the blood had dissipated. I vaguely remember one of my friends taking pictures because I love to scrapbook. I remember my friends calling the next morning wanting to know what I wanted from Starbucks.I don't remember the ride home nor much else about that day. My husband told me that I had a very serious injury and that I needed to be very careful. In my mind, there was nothing wrong. Since I didn't remember much of what happened, and since they saw no need to keep me in the hospital, I was completely detached from what happened. I thought that if it had been serious I wouldn't be able to act so normal (which I was trying to do so my family wouldn't worry). 12 months after the accident, my husband still goes pale when we talk about the accident. He truly thought I was dead and had there not been many, many prayers, I believe I would have been.