Le Jour Vingt-Six (Day 26)

Oh, man. What a day today was, and one I will never forget. Today was our trip to the top of a mountain, Mount Titlis, to sled and tube! We are all split up in different hotels because they couldn’t get us all in at one, so we met at the Flora hotel at 7:45, dressed in the closest thing to ski attire any of had (my old cheer shoes that I’m throwing away did a decent job), ready to rock N roll!

The whole way up was THE absolute most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life: green rolling hills, many sporadically placed orange-roofed houses, majestic mountains with snow-covered peaks, a blue sky, and clouds barely kissing the tops of the mountains. It was a scene that no words can describe, and I felt so spirit-filled and blessed to behold such a sight. I’m the luckiest girl in the world to be doing what I’m doing. At the top after 30-45 minutes, we took dozens and dozens of pictures in the snow!! What’s the weather like in Texas? No big deal, I’m just playing in the snow across the pond here in the Swiss Alps! We had snowball fights, laughed, and took our time making our way over to sledding, expressing our (or at least I know my) desire to just be in the moment! Everyone was joyful and thankful for these precious 3 hours we were given up there!

In line waiting to go tubing, I looked over and saw lots of people sledding, which was much, much shorter of a line than the one we were in. anxious to go down, Kell and I decided to bail on the tubing and just sled instead. She went down first, and I got an awesome video of her! Not being able to wait any longer, drew and I took a quick selfie picture with kell’s camera before I gave all my stuff to brady to hold and get a video of me going down. I asked drew to go at the same time as me, but he said he wanted to watch but will come shortly after! I grabbed a sled, waved at Brady, and was flying down the steep hill full speed in no time. It was extremely hard to steer, and I felt like I was going out of control, but the upward sloping hill caught my speed as I slowed to a stop, facing the opposite of where I came from. That was fun!

Here’s where everything changed. The next thing I knew, I got hit HARD on the left side of my upper body from my sweet friend who came after me. My first thoughts were wow, that’s embarrassing, and my brain told my body to jump up and shake it off….except, I couldn’t move it…at all. “Oh no, oh no, not real, not happening; you’re okay!” I started trying to convince myself of in my head. But I knew something was hurt; I couldn’t feel my whole left side of my upper body, mostly around my shoulder and collar bone area. I laid there in the snow for a long time just trying to breathe and not scream or panic, and I could feel a crowd surrounding me sort of freaking out…

 

I heard lots of German, and was being asked if I was okay. Oh, no, I don’t think so because here came some tears and finally some normal breathing. They tried picking me up by my arms… not a good idea. OWIIIEEEE! They stood me up and felt all over my arm, but nothing really hurt. He began pressing on my collarbone. Oh, yep. That’s it. AAAAHHHH!!!!! He looked at me in the eyes and said, “I think it’s broken.” I wanted to vomit, pass out, or at least wake up from this bad dream. Not now! Not today! I’ve never broken a bone in my body! God, what in the world are You doing? I was fighting a negative attitude and lots of tears…

They loaded me up in this huge, bumpy snowplow machine contraption to help me up the mountain. Dr. Mac got in with me, although I told him he didn’t have to. That was the longest 5 minutes of my entire life, for the pain was almost unbearable. In the snow plow, before carrying me to a wheelchair, my sweet moutain rescue man gave me a sugar cube with numbing juice in it…mm, a little better. I could feel the pieces in my collar getting caught on each other, TMI? The sweet man that carried me everywhere and sat my finally in a wheelchair asked my name so he didn’t have to keep saying “lady.” I asked for his through tears. Edwin. It was an even longer 45 minutes allllll the way back down the mountain, having to change gondolas 3 different times in a wheel chair. We even had to crowd in with everyone else, and the Chinese took pictures of me, like they do for everything else. Why not the handicapped American girl too? Sorry, not being racist. We love the Chinese, and the inside jokes are harmless and with love, of course, but they were on my  nerves this time.

 

It was really rough, and the pain was increasing with every bump. I decided I might as well make the best of it and asked God for an attitude change, although it was hard. I wanted to make the best of the situation for Dr. Mac as well because I felt bad taking him away from everyone else, including his wife. So, I gritted my teeth and tried to act the most like myself I knew how, so, through tears, I asked Edwin to tell me all about his life. Him and Dr. Mac both laughed, and that made me laugh too, but when he realized I was being serious, he proceeded to tell me all about himself: his two kids, his wife, his job, his travel experiences. Down, down the gondola we went, and his answers to my many questions had me intrigued with this 38-year-old mountain man’s life and what Switzerland was like. Toward the end, Dr. Mac told me this might as well just be my interview! Score. The Lord always provides… after he was done telling me about him, he asked me who I was, and I was pleasantly surprised by his interest and compassion. Bless his heart. During our whole ride back, as I explained who I was, he frequently kept bending down, looking at me in the eyes, wiping my tears, pushing my hair back, and telling me I was going to be okay. After a snowplow ride, 3 gondola excursions, and placement into a van, I asked Edwin if he was going to leave me. He was taking such good care of me, he knew how to hold me and what my injury was, and he yelled at people to get out of the way. He asked me if I wanted him to stay as long as he could and I nodded my head. He laughed.

We finally arrived at the medical center at the bottom of the village, and I immediately had attention from a doctor, a nurse, and Edwin. We had finally got to the part I was dreading the most, the part I knew needed to happen before anything could be done: taking off my clothes…all my thick clothes surrounding my arm/chest. I sat on a tiny stool, took a big breath. One by one, they pulled each of my four layers off my arm and over my head. I cried the entire time. And poor Dr. Mac was just in the corner helplessly watching. They finally got down to my last piece: my sports bra. Heck, no, ya’ll aren’t about to take this sucker off! They didn’t. Edwin wiped all my tears off, then I was asked by he young doctor man to stand and turn multiple times as he took several X-Rays of me. I was so thankful I made the bra choice I did this morning. I already felt violated enough standing half-naked in front of three men, including my professor.

The results were back. Four fractures in my collar bone. He explained that I would need surgery because the left side of me has been crushed and shortened, and plates and screws would reconstruct it. They called a taxi to take me to another hospital. Oh, Jesus, Jesus, REALLY? REEEALY??! I thought I was going to pass out. Literally. They laid me down on a bed and let me just take that info in and pray. Okay God, I’m not going to ask why, but WHAT are you doing? How do you want to be glorified in this? Edwin came in then. He sat on my bed, and told me in a soothing voice how strong I was and how after surgery, I will be as good as new; he said I will heal so fast and the pain would go away! When I nodded, he told me he had to go back to his job. I nodded, and he helped sit me up and put my fleece around me. He wasn’t about to leave without taking a picture with me! This was my interview…and I wanted to remember him; I didn’t care how awful I looked. “Dr, Mac! Please take our picture!” we even got one with the other Dr., and they did Gig’em with me! Edwin wrote down his email and stuck it in my back pocket. “E-mail me after your surgery so I know you’re okay.” He patted my head, said goodbye, then left.

On Dr. Mac and I went to the hospital. They put me in a gown, laid me in a room, and the cute little nurse poked me 3 different times before they were able to draw blood/put IV’s in, but she told me all about herself while it happened so I was semi-distracted. Before I knew it, I had 3 nurses in there with me, and they were all so young! They were so cute pretending they could talk perfect English, and I could tell they were fascinated when I talked. I knew all their names.

Edwin

My new doctor came in; he was young and blond. He told me I had the option of having surgery today, which means faster recovery, instant pain relief, and 4 extra days in Switzerland; or, dope up on pain meds, grit my teeth, fly home, and do it in the states. He told me that medically, I could even wait 10 days before having surgery. Oh, this was a hard decision. Poor Dr. Mac offered for himself to stay with me if I chose surgery… relief sounds so good… but I went with what would benefit EVERYONE: to wait. I was stinkin’ still in Europe! I’m not spending the next two days in some hospital when I could be getting everything I was supposed to out of this trip. The rest of the activities were do-able, and I was about to tough it out. I only get to do this trip once in my life, and I wasn’t about to end my time with my new family like this! I would have highly regretted it. Also, the rest of the 77 students need Dr. Mac; he’s their leader and hero, and it wouldn’t be the same him not being there just because he was tending to me. If I waited, I would cause no inconvenience with changing flight schedules or all the systems they had all worked so hard to carefully plan out. My parents, I figured, would much rather take care of me post-surgery and would only worry about me being in a foreign country, being operated on, with hardly any form of communication. Finally, my travel insurance will sill cover all my expenses 30 days after arrival to the states without a deductable! The answers were all coming from God, exactly the way He ordained them to. I felt confident in my decision. We all agreed it was the best decision. They gave me 5 boxes of meds written all in German, and released me. The doctors and I waved a big goodbye as I walked out the door. I like these Swiss people.

 

Daddy Mac and I went back to the hotel. I hadn’t eaten all day since breakfast, the pain killers were in full swing, I was car sick, and I felt like I was going to puke. i went straight to my room and ate a granola bar…ah, that was it. I need food with this stuff. Got it. As soon as I was done reading the sweet card Kelly left on my pillow, now alone in our room, she walked in, and I was immediately relieved and comforted by her presence. Our sweet roommate from Italy, Amber, was with her. They both have a nurturing, motherly, hospitable gift, even though Amber explained she got a concussion right before my accident. Looks like Mount Titlus dominated us all… Kelly told me she would help me literally do everything, she learned how and when to take my meds, and they even went and got me a smoothie!

 

I went downstairs and called my parents, was comforted by the thoughts of all my study abroad friends, and by the eventual presence of Kelly, Brady, Sydney, Garrett, Landon, and Allison. Brady, Landon, and Garrett all wrote me their own version of a get well note/poem/song that made me feel loads better! My friend who crashed into me, Drew, wasn’t there, and I prayed he wasn’t upset or blamed himself. It’s not his fault! He’s so sweet…

The Lord told me I must be a light through this; I didn’t know what that meant or looked like, but I knew it had to start with my attitude and actions. Praise be to the One who deserves all the glory! James 1:17 (Every good and perfect gift comes from above, and no matter what I think now, this was a PERFECT gift to me). I HAD to finish Europe strong…

Tonight, we had what Sydney termed as “Spa Night.” She talked in a Japanese accent and told me to step into her office (my bathroom). I told you these people were my family: Kelly and Sydney made an executive decision to…clean me up. This consisted of me sponge bathing, them washing my hair and feet, Kelly washing my face in bed, and Sydney brushing my teeth in bed. You can’t ask for better friends than that, I don’t care what anyone says. WOW!!! They have taught me so much about selfless service, and I pray I am obedient in this way too. Afterward, we had a long pillow talk, and it was wonderful, enlightening, and straight from Jesus. I love these women.

Eventually, I took meds and went to bed… I’m doing everything tomorrow.