My internal alarm still goes off between 4:30 and 5:00. Thankfully, the internal snooze still works. Up, in the chair, hot coffee in the cup. The ‘workstation’ Gena set up for me (it’s actually a ‘Try to Keep me Sane Station’) is phenomenal. Without having to get up, I have access to my computer, Blackberry, Bible, books, snacks, drinks, iPod w/ headphones, medications, remote controls, movies (thanks Mortons), and blankets. Within a short hop/skip/jump, I have every piece of Durable Medical Equipment a good nursing home needs. I don’t have to leave the bedroom. This recovery may take a lot longer than expected  😉

The effects of the drugs wax and wane, so if I repeat myself, please understand. Today has been very painful. I weaned off of the IV morphine to oral Percocet and am on what I consider a pretty high dose. I have been in therapy and had the pins cleaned several times. As I write this, Susanne (evening nurse) is redressing my pins and cleaning my leg. (OUCH!)
I get my last dose of IV antibiotics tonight and will finish up with pills. I had to be on antibiotics because of the open fracture. As of now, I have a plate with 4 screws in my left fibula. The fibula was only in 2 pieces. The tibia, on the other hand (or foot), is in 5-7 pieces.The current plan is for me to leave here tomorrow and return next Tuesday/Thursday for plating/screwing of the remaining pieces.
Thanks for all of you calls, concerns, and prayers. Keep ’em coming!

It’s 3 AM and my pain meds are wearing off. I’m trying desperately to limit the amount I’m taking, but having wires drilled into your leg and heel necessitate some help with pain control. I’ve been over 12 hours without IV meds, using orals only. This is big, meaning after I finish my 48 hours of IV antibiotics, I should be able to go home. Hopefully that will be late tonight or early Friday morning.
I’m trying to figure out the little things, like shaving, bathing, eating, etc. Gena is confident that these things will be easy to work out. The combination wife/mother/nurse/woman that I cherish so much will be able to get me through the next several weeks. I have a hard time giving up control and relying on someone else to care for my basic needs. Well….. here goes. I’m going to trust Gena and the kids to set up what I need. Hopefully I will be home soon, rehabilitating, doing my therapy, listening to my family and friends. I resolve to spend more time talking, writing, reading, and thinking and less time doing.
Thank you God for pulling back on my reigns. Thank you for my family, friends, coworkers, and extended family. I am truly blessed.

Well, here goes. First of all, thanks to everyone who has called, Facebooked, Tweeted, texted regarding my accident. Mostly, thank you for your prayers. We serve an awesome God who has a definite purpose for everything that happens. I’m not sure what he wants from me right now, but I am trying to listen to him.
For those who don’t know, I broke my leg yesterday while attempting a tuck-and-roll from a second-story ladder at home yesterday.
Last night, I had surgery to insert plates and screws into my left fibula while also attaching an external fixation device. I got to my room at Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany late last night. The night went well from a pain standpoint, but I had some urinary retention issues that required a catheter insertion. I had a CT scan done of my ankle today that shows extension of the fracture into the ankle joint itself. Physical therapy has been helping me learn to use a walker and crutches. The staff has been great.
What this means is this: I will have this external fixation device in place until next Thursday (February 10) when I will have another surgery to repair the tibia (currently in 6-8 fragments). After this, I will not be able to bear weight on the leg for at least 3 months. This will make taking care of patients difficult. I hope that early next week I will be off the pain meds during the day so I can at least use a wheelchair to get me in and out of rooms. Also, we may have to set up a room where patients come to me. Lots of options…none of them really good. Gena will become my legs (as well as my mouth, mind, and conscience).
The drugs are kicking in. Thanks again for everything you have done. Thanks most of all for your prayers and continue to pray especially for Gena and the kids. Gena especially will be bearing an unreasonable load in my temporary absence. God has plans. Sometimes they include being thrown off ladders.

For those of you expecting a theological treatise on ‘The Fall’, this is not the place. For those of you looking for information about my accident, this is the place. Rather than take up space on Facebook, I’ll blog here and post links as my status updates.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010, Gena and I had returned home from a lunch out together. I had a list of several home projects I had been working completing & looked forward to finishing several others throughout the day. The weather was nice (45 degrees and cloudy), making for an opportunity to finish up a few outdoor tasks. We had decorated the house for Christmas lights with wreaths on several windows. This required removing screens. While the wreaths were long since gone, the screens had not been put back up due to weather. Having just hung up the phone from the ER (regarding an admission to the hospital), I re-hung all of the first floor screen without difficulty. I had a phone call from our pastor & was going to his house after hanging of the remaining screens. Gena came out to help hold the ladder, but I asked her to go back inside to the second floor to help me hold the screens from the inside. While she was on the way upstairs, I lost my balance and fell from the second story, initially landing on my ankle, then my face. I remember screaming all the way down (for what seemed like 20 minutes). Last year, a friend of ours from church fell off his porch and died from his injuries a couple of days later. I thought of Brian on the way down.
At first, my ankle didn’t hurt. My face struck the sidewalk (aggregate concrete) and broke my glasses. I had on a hat and it took the brunt of the facial lick, but I still have quite an abrasion to my forehead (5×5 cm). Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about hair growth. After some yelling and screaming, Gena came to the porch and was obviously upset. I tried to stand, but my left leg was at a 75 degree angle about 4 inches above the ankle. Giving up, we decided to call the paramedics.
Gena stayed with me, comforting me, making several phone calls. The first responders arrive (first, of course). They (as well as the paramedics) all know me. They were very professional, treating me with great compassion and care. Of course, we joked and discussed what had happened, but they did a great job. We went to the Harrison County Hospital ER. Gena had called Dr. Estill before we left and he had talked to Dr. Conner. Dr. Cobel was in the ER. Once again, the ER staff are people I routinely wok with and they really took good care of me.
X-rays were not pretty. Multiple fragments of both bones in the lower leg, along with an open wound, made in necessary to transfer me to Floyd Memorial Hospital for surgery to stabilize the fracture. Surgery was about 7PM with plates and screws placed as well as an external fixation device. The pain is tolerable with morphine, but I’m not sure about the thought process.
There really is no telling what I am writing. Mostly, I’m putting down facts. I’ll probably have some insights later. I had started a second blog that was an accountability journal of my training for the Triple Crown Race. I have no use for that now, so I may convert it to a recovery journey. It sounds as though I will have a lengthy recovery.
Morphine kicking in…. off to sleep………

Great Sabbath today. Two worship services (traditional and contemporary) with an afternoon of rest and recharging for the week. Our main floor furnace is out, so it has been rather chilly here. We have a couple of space heaters that help, but there is still a chill in the air (8 degrees this morning) that is slightly uncomfortable. Given the tragedies throughout the world, our little inconvenience will not generate complaints from me. It will, however, make me reconsider future travel plans. Give me heat any day.
Today’s sermon(s) got me to thinking. When God calls me by name, will I respond with “Huh?”, or will I be ready to respond with “Yes, here I am”? Too many times, I think I respond too casually to an opportunity He gives me. I know He has plans and opportunities for me, but my selfishness comes between my plans and His. I need to listen more to what He wants from me.
I know when He calls, He will be calling me at my “Isaac”. He will want me to be willing to give up as a sacrifice the thing or things that I hold dearest. He will want me to be ready to offer it up without reservation, knowing that if He asks me to give it up, it must be for His better plan. That doesn’t always mean He will take away what we cherish. He just wants us to realize that He should be first. We need to be faithful in offering everything to Him (it’s all his anyway), trusting that He will give us what we need.

I pray I can respond to God’s call with willingness, eagerness, and excitement. I also hope I recognize His call and what He wants me to do. I pray I will be willing to give up everything to Him, knowing He will provide everything for me.

I love to look at snow. The blanket on the ground before being contaminated with car, human, or animal tracks is simply gorgeous. The photographer in me wants to get up early, get out and capture some of the beauty of freshly fallen snow through morning light. 
There was a time in my life when I loved cold weather. I would hike, work, or play outdoors no matter how cold it got. However, that time has passed by me. Now, I can’t stay warm enough. I don’t want to be anywhere under 65 degrees. And this creates a problem trying to reconcile shooting in the snow and the need to stay warm. 
I guess until it can snow at 65 degrees, I’ll have to limit my photo shoots to those from car windows. 

I find it difficult to keep my mind off the crisis in Haiti. It is difficult to go on with ‘business as usual’ when so many people are suffering so much. The way media brings these events into our homes has somewhat dulled our senses to catastrophes. We fail to realize that this could happen here. It could be us. Don’t get me wrong- I’m a huge NFL fan (go Colts!) and want to go ahead with life as if nothing happened. I want to put the people of Haiti on my prayer list, send a little money, send a relief basket, and wake up tomorrow thinking I have done enough. But how should I respond to a national disaster, even if it is not in my own country?


‘Then  Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.’ (2 Samuel 19:24)


Mephebosheth, the grandson of King Saul (and son of Jonathan), knew that the kingship was David’s. He supported David, but was undermined by Ziba, his own servant. Ziba had informed David that Mephibosheth was involved in an attempt to overthrow his reign. David (the true king) responded by giving all of Mephibosheth’s land to Ziba. Mephibosheth’s response is not out of mourning his loss of land, but rather a response to the nation’s calamity. He could not go about ‘business as usual’ until the true king was restored. He was rewarded for his loyaly, but reward was not his goal. His response of true humility in the face of a national crisis is motivating.

I pray that I will learn the appropriate response to crisis, knowing when I should mourn, and also when I should return to ‘business as usual’.