The Maui Event

Earl and I headed to Maui for an early Fall month.  Warm weather, a pool for swimming, lots of reading, TV watching, eating time and Earl could bike to his heart's content.  We had dinner with our neighbors and enjoyed the beautiful sunsets 😎.

A week in (9/18/2018), Earl left for an early morning bike ride and I enjoyed some solitude,  checked my email while listening to Pandora music – all was right in my world.  I received an unfamiliar, but local call on my cell, answered it, and was greeted by a cheery female voice.

"Hi, is this Tammy?"
"Yes,"  I answered, thinking 'who is this?' 😁
"Are you related to Earl?" 😐
"Uh, yes," my heart began to pound...
"Are you his wife?"
"Uh, yes," I knew then that she wasn't calling to ask me to meet Earl somewhere for a beer. 😨
"Well, Earl's fine, but he did have an accident on his bike and this is the Maui police calling.  He was talking to us before being transported to the hospital via ambulance.  We put him on a backboard and neck brace as a precaution, and he is moving all his extremities.  I just need an address so we can bring his bike back."

Oh, jeez!

In retrospect, this woman clearly knew how to deliver bad news designed to minimize panic in the recipient (I'll remember her fondly always) 😌.  Fifteen minutes later, she and a man were at our front door, Earl's bike and helmet in hand.  It was reassuring to see minimal damage to the bike. 😅 How bad could've the accident have been?  Turns out, Earl's body bore the brunt of the damage, rather than the bike. 😮 The policewoman provided more details, again stressing that Earl, though injured, was speaking appropriately to the paramedics.  So did I ask important questions?  Nope, I just nodded dumbly, grateful to not be a widow.   My neighbor drove me to the hospital and wheeled me to the ER where we located Earl – lying down, but conscious and conversant.  It was strange to see my husband, my primary caregiver, looking disabled.  Wait a minute – that's my job!  I was practiced and good at it.  So what were we going to do?  We knew we had a village in Lake Oswego, but that was 3000 miles away! Son Jason was in Sweden on business, half a world away, and would take awhile to get here.

Hawaiian Village

We began to value our Hawaiian village (pun intended) – friends in our Maui condominium community who were happy to help.  For the first few days after the  'event', our friends kept us comforted, fed, and picked up prescriptions and medical equipment.  Two days later, they retrieved Earl from the hospital, got him up the stairs to our unit, and picked up Jason at the airport 💕.  So much for thinking that we'd figure it out and manage – we couldn't.  😳  We did discover however, that it pays to have different deficits.  Between Earl's one functional leg, one semi-functional leg and one arm, my two functional arms and a wheelchair, we're about one and a third person on wheels.  Some tasks are doable with a tag team approach – not pretty, but doable.  Earl's not quite as experienced as I am at being slow and looking clumsy, but he's learning.

So what happened?  Since Earl has no memory of the event and I neglected to get details from the police, we had to rely on the accident report to fill in the significant gaps.  Earl was riding south on the highway, in the marked bike lane and was hit from behind (didn't see it coming).  The driver, a local woman, was wanting to turn right and stopped.  The driver behind her saw the accident happen, stopped to shield Earl from traffic, and called 911.  A driver coming in the opposite direction also saw the accident, stopped and provided his account.  Given that Earl was riding alone (no more though), he was fortunate to have two witnesses and emergency contact information on his cell.
Physical injuries?  Fractured scapula, fractured pelvis, fractured clavicle, five fractured ribs, abrasions, and last (I think), but not least – a concussion.  Nothing irritates me more than to hear "It could have been worse" to any untoward life event.  But yeah, it could have been so much worse 😱.  Fortunately, his newly replaced hip was on the unaffected side and held up well.

Jason arrived, took over care, and five days later, helped us on the flight back to Lake Oswego. Having him there made all the difference.  Thanks to him, no drama, no trauma.  It was good to be home in our usual bed.  We just needed to remember that the directions and sides of the bed were different before coughing.

The lesson:  There are so many...
First responders are trained to check for contact information on cell phones.  Keep it current
It takes a village – everywhere. 😇