long winded story of what happened to me and all the good people who helped me in my time of need.

hi.  i'm here to butt munch katie again.  haha.  don't worry katie it's coming.

on sunday i paid my tithing.  i had the cash sitting in my wallet.  i really believe in paying tithing but lately i've had a couple of months where i have been paying it on faith because i really have next to no other money at the time.  this time i was pushing away anxiety as i licked the envelope and i said to myself "well let the windows of heaven open and pour me out a blessing."  "yah, let the blessings come," i agreed with myself.

 una and i have been so excited about our garden this year.  we have a plot at the sharing farm at terra nova and we grow stuff supposedly for the kitchen and groups head out there once a week to weed and plant and water and harvest.  last year we grew snap peas and they thrilled me with their wild growth.  but we weren't organized last year.  our make shift stakes for the tomatoes, peas and beans were flimsy.  lots of food was lost because of the wilderness of plants.  also we always got our plants from the sharing farm peeps and they always give us what we don't want, aka. swiss chard, kale and lettuce.  the lettuce is always tough and full of holes and we just don't use swiss chard and kale in the kitchen.

this year una and i had a pow wow in jan or feb.  we wrote down all the plants that we wanted and promised each other that we would get real tomato cages and lattices this year.  so last week we spent two days in the garden pulling out the wilderness of snap pea trees, hip high dandelion bunches, buttercups, deeply entrenched buttercups, and some kind of shallow rooted green stuff that covered everything.  we bought seeds and plants and mapped out where we would plant and how.  my idea was to have blocks of things rather than long rows.  we got sunflowers from barb--left over from mental health awareness week.  barb also got us ever bearing strawberry plants from 'farmer ed', her neighbour (they looked like some kind of plant you'd see at hogwarts).

monday was a bright sunny wonderful may day. it was planting day.  so at one thirty we took two members and  went off to plant our garden.  can you drive? asked una.  i would, but i just went out to my car to get my runners, and apparently i locked my keys in the car after groceries this morning, i said matter of factly.  is there any one person who locks their keys in their car as much as me???  i ask you.  probably not.  so we went in una's car and i moaned inwardly about the 70 bucks i was going to lose to tow truck hands.

we got jiggy at the sharing farm.  incorperated manure into our soil, made our paths and mounds in blocks, and planted.  it was so fun and it looked so good and we were so proud of ourselves.  i was covered in dirt. because my runners were locked in my car, i was in flip flops and i had been kneeling in dirt and digging in the dirt with my hands.  i used to have a repulsion of getting earth under my nails, but no more.  there's a real satisfaction to gardening with your hands in the dirt.  and nail brushes are great.

ok!  we just have to plant the poppies! chirped happily striding towards the end of the garden where we were goign to plant the poppies next to the green onions.  that's when i stepped on the rake.  i felt more than saw it go right through my flip flop and into my foot.  my first instinct was to collapse any weight off of my foot (which is not a bad instinct) and  i fell kind of slow motion, twisting my foot as i went and yelling kind of unintelligable things as i went, similar to ow!, and it went through! but more garbled and frenzied.  my hands were too dirty to even grab my wound, which i really wanted to do, so i grabbed my foot and rocked to the steady stream of " ow ow ow ow ow" coming out of my mouth.  una ran to her car to get something we could put on the wound and farzanhe started the task of hosing me off, which was no small task.  eventually i had to move because the water was pooling around me.  i got up onto a nearby stump and my flip flop was examined.  two holes but only one all the way through.  luckily i had taken my weight off when i did.

anyways i was in a lot of pain, the kind you have to rock or jiggle, or hit yourself in hopes of distracting from it.  my quads were quivering from the shock. i waited for them to water the garden and cover up the last few carrot seed holes and then i slipped my holey flip back on and limped super painfully back to the car.  usually when you hurt your foot you walk on the side, but my wound was near the side and my baby toe hurt like the dickens.

una couldn't believe that i didn't cry.  she said she couldn't believe how tough i was.  i don't know if i'm tough but i've hurt myself a lot so maybe it takes more for tears to come.  i just continued breathing big breaths, slapping my knee and rocking.  we drove back to pathways to drop off the others and to get my purse.  first una drove me to the clinic at lansdowne.  she ran ahead to see what the wait was like while i limped behind.  it was so painful to walk and i couldn't stand my flip flop across my toes.  it was then that i realized that i must have sprained or broken something too.  there was a long wait at the clinic and they said if i was in that much pain i should go to the hospital.  i needed a tetanus shot too.  the last one i got was when i sliced open my toe in 95.  so una drove me to the hospital.  this time to my relief she got me a wheel chair.

things happened quickly at the hospital.  well quicker than you would think.  i got there just before 4 and got out just before 6.  una had to leave for another job.  so i spent most of my time waiting texting people and rubbing my arms and such things.  my doc was quite cavalier about it all.  oh this isn't bad, he said.  he explained that i wouldn't get stitches because they needed to leave it open to let all the bad stuff (like dirt and manure) ooze out and that i was to soak it in salt water 3 times a day.  i got xrays and after that he came back and said "you're fine!"  i know my feet look weiwd but he didn't even check to see if they were swollen.  even if you're not familiar with weiwd feet, you can check them against the good foot right?  anyway i had my tetanus, he gave me a perscription for antibiotics and i asked "what about walking", knowing there was no way i could walk outta there.  "sure." he shrugged.  he really did shrug.  "but it hurts" i pointed out.  "then don't." he shrugged again.  "or you could walk on the side of your foot."  (that's where my wound was but no matter).  he began to walk away.  "what about pain killers?" i called out a bit desperate.  i   couldn't imagine much more time enduring what i had been enduring for 3 hours now.  he walked back all casual.  "i think you'll be fine with advil, but i'll give you these." and he wrote down something on my perscription paper.  soon the nurse came and applied a bandage, giving me an extra one, and wheeled me outside into the sun to wait for lisa who was just finishing work at her aunt's (she cleans there every monday).  when i was waiting, i noticed how swollen my baby toe and the top of my foot under the toes was.  i looked like sausage foot.

lisa picked me up and wheeled me to the car and drove me to shoppers to get my perscriptions filled.  we didn't think she could go in and just get them for me, so i tried to hop from her car to the store but by the time we got to the curb i was so tired and wild with pain and i saw a bench and let go of lisa and went for it. somehow in my mind i thought i could hop the curb.  down i went.  scraped up my knee and leg and  badly bruised the toes of my good foot.  last night i noticed all around my baby toe of that foot is black.  i couldn't help but to let out a weak and water laugh as i sat there on the curb bleeding.  "bleep, laura, what were you thinking?  look at you!" said a shocked lisa.  "they're just scrapes."  i handed her my perscription "can you please go see if they will let you get it?"  she left and i looked down at myself.  what a mess.  actually the scrapes were a good distraction from my foot.  a nice timid chinese lady stopped and asked if i was ok.  "i'm ok." i said, looking anything but.  "are you sure? i can get you a band aid" she said pointing at shoppers drug mart.  "it's ok," i smiled "my friend is helping me."  another group of people stopped and asked me if  i was ok.  and i had to reassure them.  i better get myself up on the bench and stop looking like such a train wreck i told myself.  so i inched back and pulled myself up onto the bench.  lisa came back.  "i need your care card and your pharmacare card. " she instructed.  she gave me the keys to go back to the car.  i thought about it when she left.  how was i going to get back there?  it was only 4 cars away but if felt like a couple of miles.  then i had the inspiration to limp using the inside of my foot and outer big toe.  it was counter intuitive, but i made it awkwardly to the car and then used the car to lean angainst and got inside.  even then another lady came and asked me if i was ok.  she had seen me limping to the car.

lisa got me a subway sandwich and some cookies while we were waiting for the perscription.  then she drove me home and i used her as a crutch to make it to the back of my house.  i went up the stair on my bum and then in trying to roll over onto my wounded knees, i knocked my head on the little metal garbage can by the door.  lol.  man oh man.  i could hear the kitties going wild inside. lisa had to break in because my keys, once again, were locked in my car.  that fact really bugged me the whole time. like really?  my insurance would run out the next day and i had to get air cared and my keys were locked in the car!  so with lisa's help i got inside and onto a kitchen chair.  she helped me feed the kitties and gave the kitties some love and then left.

first thing i did was take some pain pills and then i called judy (downstairs neighbour to the left) to see if she had something i could use to soak my foot in.  judy and bruce (her son) came up with bob the bucket, a hanging plant, bandages, hydrogen peroxide, paper towel, polysporin and best of all--crutches!  she bandaged me all up and bruce hung my plant.  my neighbour in front, pat came around and left me his number and judy left me her work number in case i needed anything.

karey called and i told her my story.  i was telling her my canudrum about the car and she said maybe someone can drive you to your car tomorrow.  and i thought of who i could ask, and she said "don't forget about evan".  and i remembered that evan just so happens to be out of school and not working right now.  good little brother evan who picked me up from the ferry no problem last week.  so i called him and told him my story.  of course he had a good chuckle at my story.  i wouldn't expect anything else.  he said he had bcca that he could use for me, and he was coming into richmond to do some errands anyways so that was a load off, fo sho.

i woke up in the middle of the night because i was hurting so badly.  i really didn't want to get up and crutch all the way back to the kitchen but i couldn't ignore the pain so i did.  i was feeling really sorry for myself.  wondering how i was going to get food or do anything.  it was 2:30 in the morning.  i emailed brother roeder and asked him for a blessing and then the pain killers kicked in and i fell asleep.

next morning i made a mental note of all the things i would ask evan to do when he came.  he was going to come at 9:30 but it was more like 10 when he got here.  i spent the time folding my laundry into my suitcase which was handily right by the couch.  i decided that could be my handy little changing station.  i soaked my foot, brushed my teeth and tried to make my hair presentable.  i really needed a shower.

evan came and i got him to carry my lap top into the living room, put my red plastic computer chair into the shower, and throw my duvet cover onto my bed so i could put it on my duvet later, and i got him to give a blob of food to the furries.  he walked around my house chuckling to himself  "ha ha, you can't carry anything, ha ha"  he explained, "the trouble is, when you tell someone in the family we're going to have a good laugh about it. " (i knew this and accepted it.  i could see the humor myself) "but when i told esther about it she was horrified."

i went down the stairs on my bum. evan thought i should do the crutches but changed his mind when he tried it.  that's scary man.

bcaa unlocked my car in 2 secs.  my car probably unlocks herself when she sees them coming, she's so used to it.   as i was crutching to my car, lisa and debi came out to smoke and we talked a bit about how i was doing.  luckily i hurt my left foot so i can still drive.  first thing i did was fill up on gas.  then i drove out to air care.  it was sunny and hot and i felt like my arm was burning so i protected it with my outdated insurance.  once in the garage, the man didn't make me get out because he saw my crutches and bandaged legs.  it was over in minutes and i passed.

then i got insurance at a place by my house.  luckily there was parking super close to the door. the nice chinese lady saw me struggling with the door and helped me in and gave me a chair.  she helped me out too and put the sticker on my car for me.

i hadn't eaten anything all day because i had no food at home so i stopped for some chubby chicken strips.  i ordered 5 but they gave me 3. no matter.  up the stairs again on my bum.  my arms and legs were getting exhausted.  back at home and soaking in cool salt water, i set my mind to how i was going to get groceries.  i remembered that safeway delivers food so i called katie, sarah and mom and dad to get ideas of easy foods that don't take much prep.  brent and katie made a list. and all together i got a lot of good ideas.  just as i was trying to figure out the safeway system, kaz texted me and said he could buy groceries for me after work.  turns out that safeway only delivers after you go shop there yourself.  whatevs.  so i took kaz up on his offer.  lisa let him off early and he came with lots of food for me.  so kind.

meanwhile i had had a shower on the chair.  worked super well.  the swivel feature was particularly handy.  i had a nap too--working of the effects of the pain meds from the night before.  kaz stayed and talked a while and made kissy faces at izzy.  after he left it wasn't long before brother roeder and brother hutchinson came to give me a blessing.  brother roeder also emptied the kitty litter for me and both live quite close and said i can call them for anything.  brother roeder saw i needed ice packs for my foot and went home and got a bunch.  after they left  yumi, leilani and mei lin, my primary ladies came with flowers and food and treats.  they did my dishes and tidied up and served me food and swept the floor (it was so dirty and it bugged me) and were cheerful and kind and it was so good to see them.  they told me they would bring me more food and fought over doing my laundry.  leilani brought me a bag of chinese bakery buns--coconut cream and coconut paste.  there were five and i'm a bit ashamed to say that at this moment there is only one left.  judy called to see if i was ok and to offer me pork ribs tonight.

after everyone left i felt so overwhelmed with all the kindness and help i have received.  just a flood of people volunteering to help me.  kind of like the windows of heaven were opened and i haven't had room enough to receive it.  funny how while in some way you are having a hard time, in another way you are blessed so much.  God really is so good.