Yesterday morning, Sam’s dad drove Birkie, Sam and I to O’hare at 3:45 a.m. from Madison to catch our early flight to Anchorage. The travels went smoothly, and we arrived to a beautiful, sunny morning in Alaska with some good friends there to pick us up, toss Birkie’s massive kennel in their truck and take us home. (HOME! Woooooo!) When we walked into our apartment, our friends had cleaned, stocked our fridge, bought dog food (and a dog food “vault” so Birkie doesn’t decide to eat it all at once again!) and decorated. There were all kinds of pictures with stories and letters. We were blown away. It was the best way to come home after being gone for so long. We’d have been happy walking in anyway, but that made it ten times sweeter.
We unpacked for a while, and then decided we needed to go enjoy the day. Sam grabbed his backcountry touring skis and I put on winter trail running shoes, knowing that I could probably walk at the same rate as his ski-shuffle. The trailhead at Glen Alps was so bright and sunny with bluebird skies – we watched two paragliders coming down off flattop with some kids who were in the parking lot, and then headed out. We made it about 50 yards down the trail when Sam hit a patch of ice and went down – hard. He made the worst noise in the world when he landed. I unstrapped his poles and skis from his boots and tried to help him up, but it was clear he was in a lot of pain. Together we got him standing, but walking simply wasn’t going to happen. He’s thrown his back out a number of times and his body is simply beat up from months and months of treatment and very little recovery. As we were figuring this out and trying to make a plan, a person came down the trail, who we learned was a pediatrician named John. We told him that Sam has leukemia and a thrown out back, and had just wiped out. He was writhing in pain, so John solicited the help of a couple other passersby to carry Sam off the trail and get him into our car. His leg was bleeding a lot, but the two bags of platelets they gave him back in Wisconsin for flying did their job, and his wound started clotting. I took him to the ER to get everything checked out just in case. They cleaned up the wound, gave him more platelets and took some x-rays. Unfortunately, the x-rays showed that part of his pelvis is fractured, explaining the pain. It took them a long time to get the pain under control last night - it was a very long night overall. We had to get over our disappointment of not being able to sleep in our own bed, which we’d been looking forward to, and try not to think about how this complicates Sam enjoying his time here going forward. We spent most of the night in the ER and eventually moved to a hospital room. I don’t think I have ever been as tired in my life as I was last night siting in that plastic ER chair. It was after midnight Alaska time, so 3 a.m. Wisconsin time, before he was assigned a room – I’d been awake for nearly 24 hours, but had barely slept the night before or on the plane. When we got to our hospital room, I passed out on another familiar cot, and luckily Sam slept too in his drug induced haze. This morning we are still here at the hospital waiting to hear the plan for how they’ll get the pain under control to get him home, whether he’ll need any operation, how long until he can bear weight on his hip, etc. I’m trying not to think of what he can’t do, and trying to focus on the fact that we’re finally back in Alaska together. When I get down about all this, Sam reminds me that things are ok. He’s amazing. In addition to Sam’s incredible ability to take it all in stride, I think about how we’re just a few miles from home now – closer than we’ve been in six months. I smile knowing two friends have Birkie and she’s probably happily cuddling with them on the couch. I’m filled with gratitude that our Anchorage friends are coordinating on going over to our house to clear a path in the ice for a wheelchair to get to the front door. I’m tired of needing so much taking care of, but so grateful that we have the help we need. It’s amazing. It sucks that this happened on our first day back, but it’s wonderful that yesterday, Sam got to do his favorite thing – ski in the mountains. A few months ago we worried he’d never get to, so I guess a few minutes is better than nothing. Anything else that tries to get us down can bring it, because I'm feeling feisty. Here’s to making the best of whatever comes next. Comments are closed.
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