Crashed and Burnt

I last wrote on Wednesday before the fall..... Hubby was pretty good at that time and was iimpressive about going to bed. I was quite pleased when he managed to get himself there on his own. I made my way to bed shortly after for a long winter's nap. Ah but that was not to be. At three in the morning Hubby tried to roll over and couldn't. He had overdone it during the day and his back went into severe spasms and there was nothing I could do to help him. I rubbed his back..... I got pillows for him.... I tried to give him pain killers but nothing worked. And so at 4:15 a.m. he said I should call the ambulance. This scared me.... when Hubby says get the ambulance I know it is bad. The one and only time before this occasion that I was allowed to call for help, he had acute appendicitis.

Twenty minutes later, I was showing the ambulance attendants to the bed where Hubby was groaning in agony. I had managed to get him from near nakedness to decency in PJ bottoms but it almost killed him. At 5:30 a.m. in the morning with the two Daughters crying in fear, the ambulance left for the nearest hospital an hour and a half drive away. I reassured the girls that everything was going to be alright and then proceeded to doubt myself the truth of these words. There was nothing we could do till he was assessed in several hour's time and then a decision would have to be made as to whether I would be driving to the small city where they took Hubby. We went back to bed having only slept a few hours before our rest had been greatly interupted. Facing a drive on three hours of sleep is not my idea of fun and to my surprise I did sleep... some.....

At 8:30 a.m. I called the hospital only to be told that Hubby was being released after having received medication in the form of pain killers, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories. With the Daughters not getting a lot of sleep, I decided they could stay home from school and so together we drove to the hospital to pick up Hubby.

He is home and hopefully staying that way. He sleeps a lot, having tons of medication in him. He seems to be getting around ok but there is still a nagging pain in one hip. Hopefully a week of bedrest and the pain killers will get him on his feet again, enough to get him back to work.

It has been a worry and not to mention a great endurance for all of us as well. The freezing cold temperatures have not let up and I am frankly tired of freezing my buns off. I have hauled water, fed animals, hauled more water, fed more animals all with great difficulty and planning in order to make it all work. I have not got the physical strength that Hubby had and so I have had to figure out ways of doing things that he would do without a thought. I can not lift and carry the way he can and so I am compensating. So far I have been successful in all that I have done. I only haul water in the middle of the day when it is warmest that way the hose on the tank doesn't freeze. A frozen hose would be a major catastrophe let me tell you. It would involve lifting a 200lb tank out of the back of the truck which I am pretty incapable of doing. Feeding animals is an ongoing battle. To fork hay over fenses is never easy.

My greatest success to this point though was bringing home our lost llama. Honeydew the llama got out of our paddock in September and has been, dispite our best efforts, avoiding capture for nearly 4 months. On Friday I was able to bring her home. That's a story onto itself, which I will probably write about in a day or two.

Friends have been so helpful and we appreciate all that everyone has done to help us. It is what makes living in a small town so wonderful..... people help others when they are in a pinch. We have had our share of help. We have our share of friends.

Hubby is getting frustrated with staying in bed but stay there he will until I allow him to go see the doctor in a week's time. If the doctor says he can go back to school then he can go but not before. Until then I will keep on doing what I do best and that is managing, and he will just have to suck it up Buttercup....