Let Me Tell You About My Mom...

About 7 weeks ago I fell and broke both of my arms. When the squad got to scene, they lifted my right arm up into the air to straighten it out of the very bad angle it was laying in. The only problem was that it was so severely dislocated that the pain was too bad for me to allow them to put it down again, so they "air-splinted" it straight up and transported me to hospital like that. The left arm was mummy-wrapped to my body and sent me into shrieks of terror if anyone simply breathed on it. It was quite the ordeal.

When they got me to the hospital they put me in a holding room until the doctor could come look at me. However, since they didn't know if I'd need to go straight to surgery or not, they wouldn't give me any pain medicine until they took x-rays. So I laid there for about 45 minutes or so with my right arm still reaching to the sky and my left arm throbbing and no relief in sight (at least, not in my mind anyway). This was not one of the more enjoyable things I've ever been through, to say the least.

Mom got to the hospital shortly after I arrived. As we waited for the doctor to come in, the pain got more and more intense. Finally I couldn't take it any longer. I remember telling her, "Mom...I'm going to have to start screaming. It's the only way I can deal with this pain." And she responded, "Go ahead and scream honey. It's OK."

So for probably 20-30 minutes Mom sat there in the room with me and listened to me scream. It had to be nerve-wrecking. At one point I started to panic a bit, and all of the sudden thought I wasn't going to be able to handle it any longer. I remember shouting out "Mom! Mom! Are you still here?!" Immediately she answered, "Yes baby, I'm still here. It's gonna be OK."

How comforting those words were.

I could type all night about other instances...her sleeping on a cot in the hospital for 4 nights to help take care of me...bathing and feeding me...staying up half the night to keep me company when I couldn't sleep....the list goes on and on...

But these past 7 weeks have not been the exception. How many other times in my life have I called out for my Mom? Sometimes in a state of panic, sometimes in joy, sometimes in grief, sometimes in sickness, sometimes in happiness. Middle of the day, middle of the night. When I was 8 months old, 8 years old, 38 years old.

Always she has been there for me.

"I'm here honey...It's gonna be OK."

So today I just want say...

Thanks Mom.

I appreciate you more than words can ever tell.

But I'll keep trying to find them anyway... :)

Happy Mother's Day...I love you.