Christian Living

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When Memories Are Painful
© 2009

by

Stephen A. Peterson

Southwest Integris Hospital—Oklahoma City is where I have been taken following a short four block ambulance ride from Capitol Hill High School football stadium.

Just twenty minutes before the ambulance ride something happened to disrupt an outstanding, nearly perfect day. I came in contact with a drainage grill while refereeing a middle high school football game. As I made contact with the drainage drill, young football players also made contact with me as well not realizing I had broken my leg just second before. I heard the loud crunch, had an immediate numb feeling, and heaviness in the right leg. Surprisingly, there was no pain until members of the ambulance team rolled me into their vehicle. A rapid flash of pain that like someone stuck a pen in the back of my head. The jolt caused me to quickly inhale a quick painful breath of air as well. Little did I know that this incident would be repeated a number time before I would be released.

Once the ambulance stopped, I was greeted with another jolt on my way to the emergency room where a bevy of medical personnel immediately picked, poked and pushed, it seemed, something in every area of my 6’ 4” frame. With monitors bleeping, I was soon greeted by a very young teenage looking woman sporting awhile medical coat with the embossed title “MD” behind her name followed by the word “orthopedic”. After a cold stethoscope to the heart, she was gone. Next a big 6’ 5” person came in with his x-ray equipment, lifted up my sore leg taking x-rays as I gasped for more air. One hour, two hours, three hours had passed before the woman doctor would return. When she did return, I was informed both bones, the fibula and tibia, were broken in two places with a number of stress fractures. The doctor went on to report that she did not believe I would require surgery. I was released to go home and given a list of orthopedic specialists to see a quickly as possible.

My wife with a friend struggled to get me into a van without causing me much pain. This effort failed. All the way to Shawnee I felt every bump, stop and turn. When we arrived home, I was greeted with the painful effort of changing clothes, cleaning my injured person and getting into a bed that now seemed so much higher than it actually was. Though in the bed I did not sleep very well. Morning arrived on a cooler than usual October day with me placing a called to a Doctor Robert Gunderson’s office. A friendly voice scheduled me for a visit—in two days. “Why two days?” I thought to myself. “Oh, well! I guess I can take it for another 48 hours. I was going to have to.”

When the day of reckoning arrived, I was awkwardly pushed into my next door neighbor’s van to take another painful ride. Upon our arrival, I was challenged by an uphill slope to an equally challenging door that pushed me backward. “I was in!!!” I felt almost no pain in performing this task. However, I did feel a sense of triumph that I shouted “Hooah” with delight.

Checking into Dr, Robert Gunderson’s office I passed what seemed to be wall-to-wall people with an array of broken something. “Oh, boy” I thought. “I’ll be sitting for hours waiting to be seen.” Just as I had maneuvered myself into a comfortable position I heard “Stephen Peterson” from the smiling face of the x-ray technician. “Could you follow me, please?” Pulling myself up on the crutches, I struggled like an inebriated person to the x-ray room. When she turned around, I saw the smiling face of the cheerful technician. “My name is Lori Jameson. I see you broke your leg. I know this is going to hurt but I’ll try to do everything I can to not hurt you. Could come to the machine?” Seated Ms. Jameson carefully lifted the broken leg and turned it to where she could get the best angle amid quiet pain that shot up to my head followed by a grimace that resulted in an immediate response: “Oh, I am so sorry!”, a look of empathy and what appeared to be a tear from her left eye. After her second set of x-rays, Ms. Jameson apologized for this painful. She carefully lowered my leg before escorting me back to the waiting room.

After about a forty minute wait, I was brought into an examining room to be given the same information I had been given two days before. Dr. Gunderson appeared with the two other personnel who informed of my broken leg. I was given a choice of colors for a cast then told the bones would just be pushed back into place without anesthetics. I chose orange since I am an Oklahoma State University alum. I was then greeted by the associated who were University of Oklahoma with: “Oh, I’m sorry” and a great deal of laughing.

“Oh, oh!” I thought. “This is really going to be painful.” I began to talk to God. “If you can be of any help to people worse off than I am right now, Lord, then I will accept whatever pain I must endure. You went through much more than I did when you were tortured for hours before you finally died. You did not cuss, curse or damn anyone. Help me through this challenge.”

Then as Dr. Gunderson and his assistants twisted and pressed my bones back in place, I said:

“God is with me.
God is in me.
All is well
I will have no fear!”

Within a matter of minutes, it seemed, my leg had a bright orange cast around it. Dr. Gunderson and his assistants stated their surprise when I did not scream out or cuss when they were aligning the bones. I, too, was surprised. I know there should have been some pain but for some strange reason I cannot recall it or its intensity.

I was given a pair of crutches and re-directed to the x-ray room where Lori Jameson took another set of x-rays to determine if the bones were properly set. They were. As she eased my leg to the floor, helped me put on my bright orange Oklahoma State University jacket and positioned me on my new set of crutches we said good-bye for the first and last time. In 76 days, she would die suddenly and unexpectedly of a cerebral hemorrhage on December 21, 2007.

When I returned to Dr. Gunderson’s office for a follow-up two days following Mrs. Jameson’s death, her colleagues appeared somber and confused but professional. There were few smiles and no humor. I was stunned and in shock that this caring, cheerful and spirited young woman was gone from us. It was difficult to envision a silver lining regarding her death. Reflecting upon what little I knew about this special woman, I learned that she entered the world on April first and went to meet the Almighty four days before the celebration of His birthday and on the first day of winter. Though no one but the Almighty knows where she has gone, I am willing to believe she is happier than anyone reading these words can even imagine. I also believe her cheerful, personable life was and is a living example how we should live. It is extremely difficult for loved ones or those who highly regarded her view anything but sadness and pain. However, I believe we are all being told by the One who freed us of ANY painful memories to rejoice even when they hurt us this much.

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