My Story-"Just Wait Till I get Home-Please!"

"Just Wait Till I get Home"-these words are burned into my mind forever and almost  sixteen years later, I can still hear them as if my Husband was saying them to me yesterday.  I have written a lot of postings about my Chronic Pain, how bad it hurts all the time, my anger and sorrow at seeing my body change daily and all of this because I refused to pay attention to a simple request made by my husband.

It took me years before I was able to sit down and write about Falling out of that Tree-those moments were stuffed very deep and I dreaded trying to recall that Terrible Day-why I fell so suddenly-and it has been one of the hardest things to do.  But it hit me recently as I was blogging about my "Burning Butt" that I have never spoken about that day-and something "moved" inside me, telling me "You must talk about awful Day!"


My heart was telling me that if I could find the courage to tell my story-perhaps one person will read this and just before they are getting ready to climb up a tree, suddenly a memory will come to them "oh yeh, I remember reading about that gal in Texas who fell out of a Tree and is in Constant Pain!  So-Maybe I should back away from this tree-just to be safe!"

So here is my Story:

We live on a farm in the middle of a small Texas town-the oldest home on our place was built in 1917 and we use it as a Guesthouse now, but a lot of work was needed on it before we opened the doors to our friends.  There is a tree that grows here in Central Texas-its called a Hackberry Tree (known here as a Trash Tree-folks don't see it having much value for anything)  and one of these trees stood in the old yard-limbs would drop with a strong wind and there was one particular Limb  I wanted out of the way-fast!  It was blocking my view as I would sit and watch the old Well pumping water into a cistern-something I really enjoyed doing!  My husband worked long days as a Robbery Detective in a large nearby city and I kept after him to "get that limb cut down" and he would remind me to just give him a bit more time and it would get done.


That morning as he left for work, his last words were "Now listen, just wait till I get home Today and I will take care of that limb!"  Of course I would wait-thats what I told him but the second his car was on the road-I was moving fast to grab the ladder, saw, water-and something made me bring the portable phone outside, leaving it on our patio-just in case I needed to call somebody.  I was up that tree within minutes-heck I had climbed so many trees as a young child, this was a piece of cake for me and I started hacking away on that one Limb-shouting with joy was it crashed to the ground!  


Just as I was enjoying my victory, the ladder fell- my mind told me  it would still be so easy to get down-and for some reason-I decided to climb higher and was a full 12 feet from the ground.  Everything got suddenly quiet-no breeze, no sound of cars passing by, even the birds had scattered, and our family dog had gone into hiding.  I recall pausing for a second, then another limb caught my attention and I leaned out to start cutting it-and that was It!  I began falling, recall screaming GOD HELP ME and then landing on that hard ground, my butt taking the full impact of the fall and yet I still had the saw in my hand, holding it straight in the air!  The breath had been knocked out of me and I struggled to find some air, tears were streaming down my face-as the shock had settled in that I had just fallen out of a tree-this was a First for Me!


I started trying to move my legs and had my First Hard Meeting with Pain-It was so horribly intense-I felt sick to my stomach-but was  thankful my legs still moved,  a sign everything was working fine!  No-nothing was really working and suddenly my eyes found the telephone and my brain was telling me "Gee Martha-don't you think it might be a good idea to call somebody!"  So I tried to stand and again, a Pain hit me that told me-"Now its time for you to learn all about Pain-looks like you had better think of some other way to reach that phone!"


Suddenly-the "child" within me seemed to say "You know how to crawl-just give that a try" and crawl I did-but a short distance that would have taken only a minute of time, now took me a full hour to do.  My body was covered in sweat, dirt, tears-and with each movement I made, the Pain throbbed so loud-that I had to stop, catch my breath, and then start again to crawl-knowing my one goal was to reach that Phone!  Finally I could feel the concrete patio underneath my wounded body and thanked God over and over for helping me get to this spot, but one more task lay waiting for me-I needed to turn my body over so I could reach up for the phone.  Seemed like a simple task, but when I attempted to roll my body over-All I can say is it felt like HELL had shown up and was laughing at me-this stupid woman-who just had to cut one Limb from a tree and was thrown to Earth with such Violence!


It took another thirty minutes of a back and forth rolling motion before I finally landed on my back, looking upward to a sky that seemed to be swimming around me as the Pain grew by the second.  Finally I called a friend and very calmly asked her, "Uh, would you mind dropping by to check on me?  It seems I fell out of a tree and just thought somebody needs to take a look at me to be sure I am okay!"  She must have thought I hit my head on the way down and within minutes I heard the sound of a car driving up, as she was suddenly standing over me and all she could say was "Oh my God Martha-what happened?"  


I made light of my recent disaster-shook away her begging me to call an ambulance and thanked her for stopping by.  Somehow I knew-this was the biggest mistake I had ever made and nothing in my life would ever be the same again.  My husband never knew what happened until three months later when all the toes on my foot went numb and I knew, the time had arrived for me to tell him what I did-and I shall never forget the look on his face.  It had hit him that our married life had also just changed, as a strange Face was now with us-the face of PAIN.


This is my Story-my Prayer is that someone Learn from these words-and Never Climb a Tree or a Ladder or anything that will throw your body to the ground.  Life changed that day for me in a split Second and now I fight each day to battle through the Pain and God has blessed me with a husband who is right here beside me, lifting me up when I grow so weary from fighting.  Yes-I wish with all my heart things could be different but they are not-so that is why I say "Pain Won't Beat Me!"  God be with you all and thank you for allowing me to share my story with you.  Martha