What Happened on May Day 2017
It was a beautiful beginning to May. The kind of day that makes you run to the local home improvement store to buy flowers and plants to pretty up your yard or outdoor living areas. I had done just that and had just picked up our youngest from high school. He was 19 days away from taking his driving test. He was about to help me unload the plants but first he had to use the bathroom as Wax kids rarely use public ones. I proceeded to begin to unload the car. I had left a few plants in the car that were to go by the backyard pool, figuring Michael could easily handle those while I tidied up the front porch area to begin planting. I was in no way dressed for such a thing, but thought “Eh, I can do these few things and change later”. I wanted to reposition a heavy iron door mat into a spot between two large flowerpots as you go up the two steps onto our porch. I couldn’t lift the mat, but I was able to stand it up on it’s edge and figured I could “walk” it into place. As I made it take it’s first “step” my flimsy sandal tripped me up and I flew, with no way to brace myself, nose first into the top step. I shattered my nasal bone. I immediately felt cold on my face. I lifted my hand up and blood was pouring into my cupped hand, along with pieces of bone. I knew it was bad. I felt like I was going to faint. I did not want to pass out there, where Michael may not find me for a while yet and I didn’t know how much blood I could lose or how badly injured I truly was. I somehow calmly walked the length of our house to the side where the garage is and sat down in the driveway as I didn’t want to fall down again and screamed for Michael to call 911. He did immediately as he was already heading out the door to help me with the plants. I was having trouble because I couldn’t lie down. I felt I was drowning, but I felt leaning forward was making me lose more blood.
Michael did exactly what EMS said to do and tried to keep me calm and remain calm himself while trying to keep the dogs off me and give me towels to soak up my still profusely bleeding face. It seemed that it was less than 10 minutes that EMS arrived and the EMTs were amazing. They calmed me as I panicked a bit and told Michael what to do and he told them he’d call Tim who met us at the ER as we backed into the unloading spot. It’s so difficult to see the pain in someone you love’s eyes as they see how hurt you are. I almost lost it again, but I was a bit calmer because by then I’d been given pain meds and I was a bit floaty at that point. We were triaged but then there were no rooms for me and since I looked so hideous, they didn’t have me wait in the waiting room, they had me in the hallways outside of the rooms. I technically was waiting on a room to come open, but apparently there were a lot of heart attacks and strokes and more pressing health problems so I wasn’t given a room until right before I was to be transported to Charlotte. The plastic surgeon on call there happened to be an expert in noses. Tim looked him up. He was Yale educated, so that was a plus. I took another ambulance to CMC-Main ER and was told the OR wouldn’t have a spot for me until 3am. It was about 11pm at this point in time, I think, but I was floating on morphine for a lot of this, so who knows? After a few odd encounters with a surfer-dude-bro intern and his supervisor who took off my bandage to use me as a teaching tool (which I really didn’t mind, the teaching tool part-we all have to learn, right?) but then she failed to bandage me back up, with literal bone protruding out of my face, mind you. Radiology appears and wants me to be wheeled over for a pre-op chest X-ray and they are about to wheel me down the hospital corridors with a gaping face wound and I’m like, “I can’t go like this!” The whole reason I was having emergency facial plastic surgery to begin with was the compound fracture and we couldn’t wait due to infection worries. There was no doctor to be found at this point, so Tim just rifled through the drawers in the ER room until he found enough gauze and tape to cover me and off I went to X-ray. As they wheeled me out of the room, I said quite loudly in Tim’s direction, “Thank God you're a doctor!” That was the only real issue I had with anyone in the whole ordeal. Why did they leave me uncovered? That was weird.
So we had accepted the fact that we were going to have to wait until 3am for surgery. They decided to move me to a quieter area of the ER because there was a lot of loud activity there…especially one pregnant woman with pancreatitis (poor thing). We were moved to the quiet area and within 5 minutes of being there, a sweet little orderly comes in and says the OR is ready for me!! At this point it’s like 12:30 am and Tim and I look at each other like…what??? I looked at her and said, Jeanette Wax, me? I was sure she had the wrong person. But it was me. Miraculously I got bumped up and we soon met the plastic surgeon who was very reassuring and calm and his anesthetists were great too. I remember coming to in recovery for a brief bit and them saying I would go home soon and I thought, yeah, right. The next time I woke up, all the bleeding had stopped and I was recovering well enough to go and so by 9 am Tuesday I was home. I can’t believe that was a week ago this afternoon when this began. It seems like yesterday. It seems so fresh in my mind. I’m making small progressions everyday, and I still relive that moment a lot in my mind, especially when trying to fall asleep. But that is happening less often and I pray that I continue to forget that.
I am ever so grateful to my son, Michael, my husband, Tim, EMS, staff at Northeast and CMC, all the nurses, techs, janitors, various workers and orderlies who all stopped by to say they were praying for me or to offer an encouraging word or two. Several people apologized for not having a room for me there at Northeast, but I said that had I been hidden away in some room somewhere all day, I would not have had the privilege and honor to have so many people reach out to me and tell me they were praying for me. It was exactly what I needed at a very difficult time. I was where I needed to be. The Lord works in mysterious ways...
I am also continuously grateful to all my other children, Jenileigh and Jared, Davis and John, who are calling and texting often to check in on dear old, clumsy mum. My sister-in-law (in love also), Susie, who keeps me constantly in prayer and is in contact with me just as constantly. My parents who call frequently and seem as upset about it all as though I were a child again, proving that we never grow too old for our parents not to see us that way. My sweet brother calling and texting, who also sees me as his childhood sister, in many ways, and isn't that how it should be? My neighbors and friends who have called, come by, sent cards, sent flowers, sent food…I am just overwhelmed by it all. I am so undeserving of such love and compassion, but please know it means the world to me. The Goodness that is in the world has been shown to me through your kindness, thoughtfulness, prayers and reassurances when my spirit is weak. I feel more hopeful today. I don’t think I could have written this yesterday. Someone suggested taking it one day at a time, and I am truly trying to do that. Looking at what is ahead is overwhelming. But I know, with love and support and God’s grace, I’ll get through it. Thank you.
I am ever so grateful to my son, Michael, my husband, Tim, EMS, staff at Northeast and CMC, all the nurses, techs, janitors, various workers and orderlies who all stopped by to say they were praying for me or to offer an encouraging word or two. Several people apologized for not having a room for me there at Northeast, but I said that had I been hidden away in some room somewhere all day, I would not have had the privilege and honor to have so many people reach out to me and tell me they were praying for me. It was exactly what I needed at a very difficult time. I was where I needed to be. The Lord works in mysterious ways...
I am also continuously grateful to all my other children, Jenileigh and Jared, Davis and John, who are calling and texting often to check in on dear old, clumsy mum. My sister-in-law (in love also), Susie, who keeps me constantly in prayer and is in contact with me just as constantly. My parents who call frequently and seem as upset about it all as though I were a child again, proving that we never grow too old for our parents not to see us that way. My sweet brother calling and texting, who also sees me as his childhood sister, in many ways, and isn't that how it should be? My neighbors and friends who have called, come by, sent cards, sent flowers, sent food…I am just overwhelmed by it all. I am so undeserving of such love and compassion, but please know it means the world to me. The Goodness that is in the world has been shown to me through your kindness, thoughtfulness, prayers and reassurances when my spirit is weak. I feel more hopeful today. I don’t think I could have written this yesterday. Someone suggested taking it one day at a time, and I am truly trying to do that. Looking at what is ahead is overwhelming. But I know, with love and support and God’s grace, I’ll get through it. Thank you.
*photos below. I left out the very graphic ones. You're welcome. ;)
These pics are seven days apart. Bruising and swelling actually got worse than the left photo, as well as the pain. Yowza! Today I'm on Advil, and I'm not even watching the clock for it, so I know all that's improving. And just for comparisons sake, here's a photo of me and Tim on our way to a wedding the Saturday before I fell:
