PART III

One time that I recall I was completely stopped in my tracks was the summer of 98. I was just out of eigth grade and the summer just began. It was early June and a hot summer day. My older sister was at my neighbor's pool swimming with her friends. My older sister Lacey is two years older than I am and probably the most pain tollerant person I have ever met. She was playing all kinds of water games with my neighbor's and it was her turn to dive into the pool. She was a great high diver. From what I understand she did a high dive off the diving board and landed straight in the water. However, instead of popping up immediately after her dive, she hit her head with all her body weight on the bottom of the underground pool. After the intense contact she floated to the surface of the pool and was paralyzed for about two minutes and couldn't move.

Face down in the water my neighbor dove in the pool and pulled her to the side. My sister then regained consciousness and walked out of the pool in discomfort. After a few minutes of trying to comprehend what had just happened to her she walked back to our house and told my mom that she hit her head in the pool and she wasn't feeling well. Lacey then asked my mom to rub her neck because she said it was really sore. My mom then began to massage the area's of her neck that she requested to be rubbed. My sister went for two days without telling my mom to the extent of what had happened and the real pain that she was experiencing. She was completely unable to move her head. She sat with her shoulders hunched and said nothing. Finally my mother noticed one day that my sister began to cry just when she thought no one was looking. My mom decided at that moment it was time to take her into the Doctors office for an x-ray.

After the x-ray was evaluated the doctor was shocked at what he found. My sister had crushed two vertebra and fractured another. The doctor told my mom that if she moves her head forward one forth of an inch she will be paralyzed from the neck down permanently. She was rushed to the hospital and scheduled an emergency nerosurgery with a specialist. She had a 50/50 chance of recovery with no pararlysis. I spent two weeks in the hospital with my sister by her side, watching movies, coloring pictures, playing video games, reading her cards to her, and what ever activity I could entertain her with. She had an amazing recovery. No paralysis and she didn't even need a halo, which is a neck brace that the surgen has to screw into her temples in her head. Lacey wore a neck brace for a year after the surgery. She has a long scar on her neck, and a very large scar on her hip. The Surgen took a large chuck of her pelvic bone from her right hip and fused it on to her 4th and 5th vertebra.

I was competely dead in my tracks during this entire experience. The tought of my sister not ever being able to swim, run, walk, or even feed herself again. It was a very difficult experience for our family, but we lived through it and to our fortune came out on top. Truely by the grace of God.