Injuries

One of the interesting things about living in the middle of nowhere is the sudden trips to town to the emergency room. I have two stories to tell in this regard.<br />n<br />nThe first story involves my Dad. I was just a kid in school at the time this happened. First a little ground work. We lived in town during the school year because there was no bus out here at the time and there was no phone service. Between that and my parents being divorced, my dad was alone out here and he had no hired man. That's the ground work for the story.<br />n<br />nIt was in the fall and he went out to do some riding. The horses and everything is about 5 miles away from the house so he took off to do his riding. He saddled his horse, Custer I believe, and took off. He was about 2 miles away from the corral when something happened. To this day nobody, including dad, knows what happened. All he remembers is coming to, laying on the ground in extreme pain.<br />n<br />nHis right side hurt like hell and he was having a hard time breathing. He lay there for a little bit recovering and decided he had to do something. It could be a couple of weeks before anybody missed him so there was no help forthcoming. Either he helped himself or he died. So he managed to get himself to his feet and started walking to the pickup about 2 miles away. Now I'm telling this from the stories he told me. He never talked about the walk very much but he did say that he wanted to sit down and rest so bad it wasn't even funny but he was afraid with the pain he would never manage to get up again. How long it took him to walk the distance he doesn't remember but it felt like a lifetime to him.<br />n<br />nHe finally made it to the pickup and it took him quite q while to get in. The pain in his right side and his inability to use his right arm all but made it impossible to crawl in to the pickup. He finally got in and got the pickup started but had a real hard time getting it in gear to get it going. He finally managed to reach across with his left hand and slip the pickup into granny low and start traveling. Oh, he said it hurt.<br />n<br />nThere were 5 gates, and 5 miles, between him and the help. As he was coming to the first gate he knew there was no way that he could get out and do anything about the gate so he said he aimed the pickup at the gate stick hoping to break it and knock the gate down so that he wouldn't get it tangled in the drive. He eased all the way to the neighbors house and as he got there at the last gate the neighbors hired man was on the combine cutting alfalfa seed. Dad was very glad to see him. He stopped the pickup and waved at the guy trying to get him to come over to the pickup. The guy just waved at dad and kept cutting the seed. It was a real small patch of seed and dad kept waving and signaling and honking the horn trying to get him to come over. The guy kept waving and working along. Dad finally started the pickup up and through all the pain managed to get it started again and drove the pickup into the gate, breaking it, and finally got the guy to stop and come over.<br />n<br />nWell needless to say the guy finally figured out the problem and helped dad. He got him scooted over and drove him to town to the hospital. Dad had somehow broken his right shoulder blade and collar bone and all his ribs on the right side. He also had a punctured lung which wasn't helping anything out. He managed to pull through but it was nip and tuck for a little while until they manged to get his lung re inflated and working. How he managed the walk with his right side caved in and punctured lung is beyond me but knowing that no help was forthcoming, he managed. I always wondered about this guy who couldn't get the hint that dad needed help. With all the signaling and waving didn't he get the hint that dad needed help? Now that I have met the man, I more understand. He is my present hired hand. A really good guy but a little thick once in a while.<br />n<br />nThe other sudden emergency trip to town involved me. I'm not sure how young I was but around ten would be my guess. My dad was taking his brother in laws hunting and I was riding along in the pickup. My one Uncle and I were riding in the back and my Uncle stood up in back and was leaning on the cab watching where we were going. Me being the big guy decided to do the same thing. We were going along when we come up to a fork in the road and I expected dad to keep going straight. He didn't. He turned to the right and guess what happened to me? I went over the edge of the pickup out.<br />n<br />nTo this day I can still see the scene in my mind. I lead the fall with the hardest part of my anatomy, my head, and I can still see the dry brown grass and ground rushing to my head until I hit. That's the last thing I remember for a little while. The next memory I have is seeing my dad running into the house for some reason. Oh was I in pain. My head felt like it was going to fall off. Real shortly he run back out of the house back towards the truck and I lost my memory at that point, passed out again. I remember coming to again near Custer's Battlefield and wondering why we were going to town, feeling the pain, and then I was out again. <br />n<br />nI know, not much of a story because I was passed out most of the time but I remember later asking my dad why he ran into the house. He said he needed to unplug the coffee pot. That always struck me as funny. I had a pretty bad concussion and they kept me in the hospital overnight for observation. It took me I fell out in front of the back tires and I've been told there was black tire marks across my forehead where the tire grazed my head. It was a near thing that's for sure.<br />n<br />nThere have been many more injuries and trips but those are the ones that stick in my mind. Even today with the phones, most of the time it's easier to load the injured up and haul them to town. It always makes for interesting conversations. That's life in the Middle of Nowhere for you.