I told a concerned friend a bear was the reason I was on crutches following surgery to my knee. The tale spun included being on vacation in Highlands, North Carolina, with my wife, Pat. It was our first day. A spattering of rain that afternoon had limited our activities but as evening came on the sky was clear and the air brisk.
We decided to hike to Sunset Rock, a popular overlook in Highlands that allows one to visually feast on the beauty of the Appalachians as the sun drops behind the mountains. Fall colors were not at their peak. It was only Oct. 9, but there were pockets of reds and yellows and oranges splattered across the mountainsides.
Pat and I carefully strode across the rocky ledges from which one looks down on Highlands and absorbed the changing hues of the leaves created by the fading light. The scene was prettier than we expected.
It was almost dark as we began the mile and a quarter trek down the narrow gravel lane leading back to the car. That is when it happened.
Tale of a bear
The tale I told my friend had us making a sharp turn in the lane and coming face to face with a black bear just coming out of the woods on my side of the road. We startled the bear and the bear startled us. Pat screamed and I jumped and when I did my foot slipped. I fell hard on my left knee on top of tabletop rock and my knee rolled up underneath me in an unnatural way.
The bear, as surprised as we were, turned and ran back into the woods as other hikers quickly came up to see what had happened.
The tale I told my friend is true except for one part. There was nothing as sensational as a bear. The truth is I stepped on loose gravel atop tabletop rock and my foot went out from under me. I fell and fell hard.
Slipping is not nearly as exciting as being startled by a bear but it is what happened.
As quickly as I could I rolled to a sitting position and felt my leg. Where the kneecap had been moments before there was nothing. I told Pat I was hurt, handed her my cellphone and asked her to call 911. About 10 minutes later paramedics arrived complete with blinking lights cutting through what was now darkness in the North Carolina woods. The ambulance brushed the bushes on both sides of the road at the same time. Behind the paramedics came two local volunteer firemen prepared to carry me off one of the adjoining trails had I not been lying on the side of the narrow road.
The paramedics stabilized my leg and soon I was on my way to the emergency room of the local hospital. The knee was so swollen that my trousers had to be cut away. X-rays were made and electronically sent to a hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, about 80 miles away where they were read. They confirmed my kneecap had been fractured in several pieces. The recommendation was surgery the next morning.
Postponing surgery
I declined. Instead I asked for pain medicine and Pat and I drove back to Birmingham to see a surgeon who had previously operated on the same knee. When he examined it he postponed surgery to allow cuts and abrasions from the fall to heal and reduce infection. That meant a week at home in a knee brace locked for zero movement and hobbling around on crutches.
Thanks to modern technology I was able to connect with my office computer, and from my bed, work about half a day each day including researching and writing editorials.
On Oct. 20 the surgeon put my kneecap back together with wire and screws and stitched damaged tendons so they could properly heal. By Oct. 26, I was back in the office working half a day.
On Nov. 2 the doctor removed the staples from the incision and prescribed about six weeks of physical therapy. Damaged tendons have to heal and be stretched slowly. My first goal will be to regain 30 percent bend in the knee, then 60 percent, then normal use. Crutches will be my companion until near the end of the year.
Everyone has been understanding. I was scheduled to preach in two churches in the past few weeks and both allowed me to keep the appointment and to sit on a stool while delivering the sermon. Out-of-town engagements had to be canceled because of travel limitations.
Pat, a professor at Samford University in Birmingham, adjusted her schedule to take me to doctor’s appointments, physical therapy, the office, haircut appointments and the myriad of details one takes for granted until unable to do them for oneself. All of that was on top of her full-time responsibilities.
Care and encouragement
When she was out of town family members lovingly cared for me in addition to their own families. Co-workers looked after my every need at the office including taking me home at mid-day. They never made me feel like a burden.
Meals came from church organizations along with encouraging notes, calls and prayers.
I confess I needed all the encouragement. It says something about one’s worldview when the day’s greatest accomplishment is being able to put on or take off one’s shoes and socks.
There were moments of fear. Not being able to dress one’s self, losing mobility, not being able to do the things one is used to doing, being too weak to do what one expects of one’s self, causing others extra work — these are humbling situations. Even frightening.
But God provides. Thursday following my surgery the devotional reading called me back to reality when the Psalmist asked, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God” (Ps. 43:5). Later Paul’s familiar words in 2 Corinthians 4:8–9 brought encouragement. “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed: we are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed,” he wrote.
Hope in God
My soul replied, “Amen.”
I still hobble around on crutches. I spend about two hours a day, three days a week in physical therapy plus exercises at home. Time in the office is increasing. More importantly my hope is in God who never abandons His children. There is not a better remedy for self-pity than that.
Thanks to my family, my co-workers and so many others who have ministered to me during these days. May God bless each of you.
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