Broken

Over the years the form of transportation has changed many times. From horses to carriages to cars to planes. But one form of transportation has always remained constant. . . walking.

I was one and a half and I was in Salt Lake for my Grandfather's funeral. My Grandma had this great red tricycle that unfortunately now has some rust in various places, proclaiming its age much like patches of grey hair. The two back wheels were considerably smaller than the large front wheel, and between them lay a step where someone could push or ride. The pedals for this tricycle rotated around the center of the front wheel. My short legs were not long enough to reach the pedals, so my older brother James who was 14 at the time, was pushing me.

I can remember sitting on that tricycle saying, "Go faster! Go faster!" I remember looking up at the power line at the end of my Grandmother's twisting driveway and seeing a bird perched up there. Then my memory turns to a blank.

As my legs had been hanging aimlessly, and as we went faster my left leg wandered closer and closer to the wheel until it collided, pulling my foot in between the spokes and breaking my little one-year old leg.

I got a cast put on which I still have. It is so tiny.

We have home videos of me clunking around with that cast. In one video I am sitting on a counter in our kitchen with no chair close by eating dinner mints. My mom comes around the corner with the camera and says "How did you get up there?" I still have my cast on in this video.

I decided from a very early age that I would not let anything get me down or stop me from doing what I want to do.

I would need this mentality later on in life.

The Beginning

The other day I was once again contemplating the idea that if our ancestors were to be plopped from their horse-drawn wagon, churning butter by hand and only traveling great distances when it was absolutely necessary life into ours they would be questioning quite extensively the general use of our time. This thought occurred to me during the five minutes it takes for my car to be filled up with gas. An ancestor of mine might ask why I wasted that five minutes standing by my car, staring at the rising numbers and purposefully avoiding any contact with the other people standing by their cars wasting the five minutes of their precious time.

Why do I waste that time? Because my life literally could not function the way it currently does without those ten gallons of gas in that precious tank that runs my car. I couldn't get to work, I couldn't buy groceries (without a ride from someone else) I couldn't visit any of my sisters or my parents.

In my ancestor's day this would not be a problem because family lived close by, you work from your house or in the town within walking distance, and to buy groceries, you use your trusty wagon and horse that never needs to be fueled while you stand and wait. That was the life.

However, if I had been born to that world, neither my Mother nor I would have survived my being born.

I was born in the posterior position which means that my face was up instead of down. I've teased my parents in past years that I just simply wanted to see the sun when I was born. How was I to know I would be born in a hospital where no sun would be seen? Or the problems it would create.

Because I was positioned in that way my mother was in labor for twelve hours before the doctor decided that it would be best for both of us if my mom had a Cesarean section. This is an ancient method of saving the baby by cutting it out of the mother's abdomen. This was used only when the mother had died as a last resort to save the baby. Today it is still used as a last resort, but there are wonderful advancements such as antibiotics, anesthetic and blood transfusions that allow the mother to live as well as the baby.

Both of us were very tired after that incident, but all I had to show for it was a massive bruise that covered half of my forehead.

In this world filled with terrorists and natural disasters there are still good things coming from the minds of those who would make it a better place. Although my mother and I could have conceivably survived this bump in the road without the complete medical advancements of now, I would not have lived to this day, (or at least I would not have the life I do today) without the technology of medicine to help me get through the next years of my life.

More stories to come in later posts.