by Jane Miller<\/p>\n
My world exploded on Thursday, but the fuse was ignited on Monday when I was fired from my job. I had more than half expected it, work was a toxic environment at best, but the finality of it was daunting.<\/p>\n
Erik was determined to keep my spirits up though, and we set off on a walkabout. Being in Victoria with him, being on the boat with him, just being with him made me irrepressibly happy. I was afraid, though, what this change in employment and finances would bring to our relationship. My voice shook as I nervously asked him if he could still date an unemployed miscreant who couldn\u2019t hold down a job. I had learned long ago that there were perils to asking a question to which one did not know the answer. <\/span><\/p>\n Four days later, I fell while stepping from one side of the boat to the other. <\/span><\/p>\n Erik remembers the sound, and for that I am sorry. His expression changes when he remembers.<\/span><\/p>\n I remember the pain. I lost myself as it enveloped me. I screamed and the pain was excruciating. \u201cERIK!\u201d I begged him to make the pain go away, even as I knew he couldn\u2019t. I begged God to make it stop. But it didn\u2019t. I lost words and could only say \u201cOh\u201d as I rocked back and forth, trying to comfort myself. <\/span><\/p>\n Erik described the logistics and the sequence of events. How the paramedics found the boat because of the flashing Christmas lights. What he did not know, though, was that when the paramedics went to work on me, asking questions, completing their triage, I heard one of them catch his breath and say, \u201cIs that her cheekbone?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n One of them gently palpitated the back of my neck, and when I said that it hurt (such varying degrees and kinds of pain I was experiencing) I remembered my neck surgery \u2013 a discectomy and fusion at C4-5 and C5-6. The paramedics insisted on putting me in a cervical collar. It was made for someone larger than me, and threatened to choke me, but I was too close to unconsciousness to care. <\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t remember how I left the boat. As I piece together the events, I realize I must have walked off with the help of the paramedics. There I was, with what ended up being a crushed nose, shattered cheek, my right orbit broken in pieces too numerous to count, a ruptured eye, and a depressive skull fracture \u2026 walking off the boat. <\/span><\/p>\n As I was put on the gurney, my only thought, though, was knowing where Erik was. As long as he was with me, as long as I could hear his voice, I knew I would live. Being essentially blind, I needed to hear his strength through the sound of his voice and the touch of his warm fingers. If I lost that, I was afraid that I would crawl inside myself and never be able to come out. <\/span><\/p>\n The pain had the power to drive me to ground, and Erik was the only anchor in a too-dark world.<\/span><\/p>\n I was triaged at one hospital, then transferred with lights and sirens to the Royal Jubilee hospital, which had an ophthalmological surgery unit. A new voice entered my world as Dr. Taylor explained the extent of damage and the low probability of either saving my eye or my sight. I finally had enough pain meds in my system so I could breathe, and I knew Erik was with me, but I clung to his voice as they wheeled me to the OR. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCall my family,\u201d I asked Erik. \u201cBut after surgery.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Surgery on my eye lasted three-and-a-half hours. It had basically exploded and was torn more than half way around. I\u2019d lost the iris, and there was so much blood an ultrasound couldn\u2019t locate any retina left. I spent the next three days in recovery. The surgeons didn\u2019t try to repair my crushed face, leaving that for later. <\/span><\/p>\n Erik made appointments for me with the best doctors back in Oregon as soon as <\/span>I<\/span><\/span> could travel. He organized air travel so there would be wheelchairs waiting every step of the way. He rarely left my side, sleeping on the couch in my hospital room, waking with me every two hours when nurses came in to apply medication. On Sunday, the day before we left, he made me walk around the hospital ward.<\/span><\/p>\n Still, I was terrified by the question I had asked about whether he could love me when I had lost my job. Now, how could he love an unemployed miscreant with one blind eye? How would we do this? How could I sail? Erik was the first to point out that I became seasick in rough seas, that I was afraid when the boat heeled over too far. How would I be now? We had started to work on the deficits that came with Parkinson\u2019s, but this \u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n This was a deficit I didn\u2019t know we could overcome. Erik had had this dream for twenty years \u2013 sailing, Fiji, trans-Pacific crossings \u2013 but his dream had not included a partner with such failings. But I didn’t ask. I couldn’t ask.<\/span><\/p>\n We arrived in Oregon four days after my fall and saw a doctor at the Casey Eye Institute the next day. We set up appointments to have another ultrasound, made plans to repair the bones in my face, and began ultimate plans to try to save my eye. <\/span>Little did we know it would all be for naught. <\/span><\/p>\n Two weeks after the fall we were sitting in the retinologist\u2019s office, going over the ultrasound that had just been taken, being told of the poor prognosis of seeing even light and dark, the medical hazards involved in keeping a blind eye, and the recommendation of surgery to remove the eye completely. It was difficult to breathe.<\/span><\/p>\n We needed a break, we needed to eat, talk, hold hands. Decide what to do. <\/span><\/p>\n I was now an unemployed miscreant with one prosthetic eye. Good grief. How was this going to fit in with Fiji? This wasn\u2019t how it was supposed to be.<\/span><\/p>\n This time, though, we didn\u2019t mention the boat. We didn\u2019t mention sailing. We just talked about what would be best for my health and for us. I told him I loved him, which I do all the time. He told me he loved me, too.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jane Miller<\/p>\n My world exploded on Thursday, but the fuse was ignited on Monday when I was fired from my job. I had more than half expected it, work was a toxic environment at best, but the finality of it was daunting.<\/p>\n Erik was determined to keep my spirits up though, and we set off on a walkabout. Being in Victoria with him, being on the boat with him, just being with him made me irrepressibly happy. I was afraid, though, what this change in employment and finances would bring to our relationship. My voice shook as I nervously \u2026 Read more\u2026