Apparently the state of Tennessee shuts down for the slightest snow fall. Here it is Wednesday and it's our third snow day in a row. A snow day means that I had no school on Monday, no work study or institute on Tuesday, and due to some soon to be revealed misfortunes, no interning on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Monday I spent my first snow day ever eating Chik-Fil-A with Emily, going to Kmart for snow pants in preparation for my first skiing trip on Thursday, eating Dunkin Donuts with Emily at Kyle's house as we light an ear candle in Emily's ears, watch The Good Lie, and eventually, the three of us head out for pizza, quickly followed by Arby's curly fries and McDonald's hot fudge sundaes. Naturally, we ate a lot of fast food that day. It was wonderful and Emily and I were tempted to allow ourselves to get snowed in at Kyle's. Instead, we left during the "freezing rain" and drove 20mph back to Emily's.
Late on Monday we heard that we would have a snow day the next day. Tuesday morning Emily called to say that she and our nursing school friend David were purchasing sleds to go sledding and that I should join. I threw my new snow pants on and went outside. It took me five minutes to open my car door. After getting my scraper out of the backseat it took me ten minutes to get the 1/4 inch of ice off of my front windshield. Fearing that I wouldn't be able to open my door back up if I closed it to scrape the ice off of the side windows (and wanting to get to the golf course to sled) I only cleared off the front and back windshields. I got to the golf course and after three attempts realized that I wouldn't be able to make it up the hill to the parking lot. So I parked my car on the actual hill and headed up to meet Emily and David. It was great. We spent an hour sliding down various hills and having a fine time. At one point we got to the top of a pretty big hill. Remember, we were on a golf course so periodically there were little roads for the golf carts. David goes down this hill first and falls off his sled about half way down. I go next. As I climbed on top of the sled David yelled out to be careful as there was a road that went through the hill half way down. I get on my sled and start going only to realize as I begin to approach the road that there is a drop off of about a foot between the hill and the little road. Needless to say I hit the road pretty hard on my back and felt my spine compress. I started screaming and became terrified. I fell off my sled and lay down on the ground. The pain was awful. I couldn't get a full breath in. Moving was difficult. David and Emily checked my spine and couldn't see anything wrong with it. I could move. I could feel my toes and my legs. I lay on the ground for probably ten or fifteen minutes as David went to get me a blanket and I tried really hard not to cry. I was terrified that I had caused some sort of permanent damage to my spine, and of course, this would happen when I don't have medical insurance. I slowly got up and we slowly walked to my car. Getting in the car and sitting up was unbearable. Emily drove me to my house, got me in bed, and texted Kyle to come over. She and David left, and I called my dad and cried about how scared I was. He told me to go to the hospital. I told him that I wasn't about to have a $10,000 MRI bill. I called in to work for the next two days. Kyle came, sat with me and talked with me for a few hours, gave me a blessing (I was pretty freaked out) and by the time he left I was feeling calm and like everything was going to be okay. It didn't hurt to roll on my bed anymore and I was able to get up and walk to the kitchen without a problem.
Now, it really only hurts to bend down and to sit in some positions. Today is another snow day. I am spending it laying around my house. Tonight, Elder Christofferson.
Also, because this post wasn't really funny at all, my favorite recent creeper patient comment to me (while giving a bath, of course): "You look okay."
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