I'm sure most of us can look back on our lives and pinpoint a day or activity or occasion that changed our life forever -- a marriage, a birth of a child, a death of a friend or family member. Well my cousin Natalie, on her blog today, challenged my cousins and I to remember (and produce photographic evidence of) one of My LIFE CHANGING MOMENTS and it involved a swimming pool. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my most life changing event to-date, involves an empty swimming pool. For those of you who may not know the story, here's the Cliff-notes version (AND I win Natalie's challenge with my photographic log of events, yahoo! -- although we are still missing THE picture of the actual deed, which I would love to find).In March of 1996 I went up to UT with my cousin Natalie to visit my sister Kiki and our other cousin Kimber who were attending BYU. It was my last hurrah before I was to enter the MTC to go on my mission to CA. While in UT we spent time with Kimber's sister Melanie and her "new" husband Kevin, as well as hanging out with Kiki's awesome roommate Aimee (she would also be my roomate 4 years later). Here are some of the shots...
Breakfast at the Golden Coral in Provo with Aimee, Me, Natalie, Kimber and Kiki.
A little shopping in Park city with Natalie, Kiki, and I.
Hanging Out with Melanie, Kimber, Natalie, Kevin, Me and Kiki.
As you can tell from the photos, we liked to "ham-it-up" in front of the camera. Little did we know that this would lead to my near demise. Anyways, on the last day of our trip - March 11, 1996 - we went out to lunch at the Training Table and decided to take some photos along the Provo River behind the restaurant. Here's what some of those photos looked like...
Well, had we stuck to the bridge over the Provo River we would have faired much better. However, being the adventurous and suffering from terminal naivete of youth, we headed over to the Raintree Apartments where we found an empty swimming pool. I'm sure most of you are now thinking what we were thinking at the time..."What a great setting for a photo shoot. We should do the "Toyota Jump" into the swimming pool and have someone take our picture." Agghhh!!! This is the moment I wish I could travel back in time to and smack myself up side the head!!!! Anyways, back to the story, my sister, Kimber and I gathered around the pool to do our big jump into the shallow end of the swimming pool (just FYI, my ankle is hurting as I'm remembering this). I believe that my cousin Natalie was taking the picture. So, we jumped up and I remember distinctly as I was coming down thinking "I don't think my legs are supposed to land that way". I came down from my "Toyota Jump" with my feet perfectly planted on the ground and my knees and upper body came straight down too. There was no give, no rolling of the upper body, nothing. So essentially my right ankle just snapped and I tore all the tendons and ligaments in my left ankle. After impact (now all of this is kind of fuzzy, cause I apparently was going into shock)...I laid back and tried to push my legs out from underneath me and couldn't. I had to grab my thighs and drag my legs out...I think I leave the rest to your imagination, because it gets a little graphic from here.
Needless to say I ended the UT trip in the hospital undergoing major surgery. I was the recipient of 1 metal plate and 9 metal screws in my right ankle. And here are the cheery photos as proof...
I was in the hospital for about 3 days, my cousins, sister, and Aimee, kept me company the whole time. Eventually I was wheeled on to an airplane for one of the most excruciating flights of my life back to AZ.The one little "jump" has changed my life. After the surgery, I did not walk for 2 months because one leg was in a cast and the other was immobile due to the torn ligaments and tendons. I was either flat on a recliner or in a wheel chair. My mission was postponed, and I went through 3 months of physical therapy. I was forced to ice my ankle every night for the entire first year of my mission, as the "swelling" from my injury took that long to go away. To this day I still have ankle problems and am now dealing with arthritis.
I'm now a strong advocate for NO JUMPING INTO, OFF-OF, or FROM ANYTHING and I stay away from all empty swimming pools.
3 comments:
Oh Megan, I hate thinking back to that day. I think the jumping thing was my idea and I felt and still feel horrible! I think I might have the actual picture, I'll have to look. All the other pictures are lots of fun, it took me a minute to recognize myself.
Megan--I'm glad you won, since you were the one that suffered from the stunt. That was so crazy of us, and I feel so bad that it changed so much in your life. You are a great person Meg, and I hope you know we love you! Just as you posted though....we all have those incidents that drastically change our lives....I think we all just wish for the ones that don't hurt as bad as yours did. (I can still remember your foot dangling in the wrong direction). Check back tomorrow for your surprise!
Megan, If you would have asked me for permission prior to doing that, I could have saved you some of the grief!
Post a Comment