Help! I've fallen and "I can't get up!"

This past weekend I spent at Emerald Isle with Laura and her family. The plan was to go down Friday evening after work and return sometime Sunday evening before work on Monday. The weekend was a blast, but a lot of things definitely turned out differently than I expected!

We'll start with Noah, my sweet little pup! :P I dropped him off around 630pm at the Vet's office where my sister works because he was going to be staying at her house for the weekend - which he has done before. Shortly after I reach 40/42, maybe 20 minutes later, my sister calls to let me know that Noah is so nervous and anxious for some reason that he is refusing to get into her car and he tried to bite someone who was helping her! :O Once he was in the car the car, Ali and I hung up, and I figured all the trouble was over and his anxiety would wear off once he got to her house. Oh boy, was I wrong!

Ten minutes later I got a call from my frantic, sobbing sister who was running down the road chasing after my dog. Apparently, Noah decided it'd be a better idea to run down a road full of cars and into the woods, as opposed to walking inside my sister's comfortable house! Next thing I know, Ali says "I'm gonna put you on speaker so you can talk to him!" I'm certain something like, "Hold up - what? You want me to talk to my dog on the phone?!" is what was going through my head at that point. But, having no other option, I begin to repeat "Noah, wait!" or "It's okay...Noah, sit!" into the phone. Thankfully, Laura loves me, because at this point, anyone who didn't, would have probably uninvited me on their family beach trip! Surprisingly, my sister says that Noah has stopped to look around for me and she was finally able to catch up with him! Who knew that my dog who rarely listens to me when I am around, would suddenly listen to me when I'm not even visible! Maybe I should talk to him on the phone more? Ha

Disaster #1 - avoided!

Even though it was vacation, we were still out of bed by 830am on Saturday morning. The house we stayed at was right on the sound and the view out the back window was unbelievably amazing. Sitting in the sun room, you could see the personal pool and then views of still water, grass, trees and and even an island. Almost every meal I ate was in that room so that I could fully enjoy the beauty of that view!

We hit the beach about 10am the first morning and the sun was shining and the waves were rolling. Well, the waves were more like non-stop thrashing in the ocean and made it literally impossible for us to get into the water above our ankles, but still, it was beautiful out! We laid out on the beach for a while and would stand at the waters edge when we got hot and let the wild waves splash us until we were cooled off. We went home for lunch, came back to the beach for more of the same, and then about 530 decided to spend a little time at the pool behind the house before supper. We swam, took underwater and super fun jumping pics into the pool , and tried to take some cool "artsy" looking ones on the dock, as the sun went down.

After supper and a short time longer at the pool, we opted for showers before a visit to the Dairy Queen in Atlantic beach to meet up with Shelley and David. I took a quick shower and hopped out to start getting ready only to find that my lower back was suddenly in pain - A LOT of pain. Really odd because I didn't remember doing anything to hurt myself! We finished getting ready, with me limping around, headed off to have ice cream and take a quick walk on the pier, and then came back to the house for some Catch Phrase with Laura's family!

I decided not to play Catch Phrase and instead went for laying on the floor with some ice on my back to hopefully help the pain. Laura's mom made a joke "I hope you can get get up from there" to which I responded "Ha - I guess we'll see!" I mean, I just had a little..okay, a lot, of back pain; but really, of course I was going to be able to get up! Twenty minutes later, I tried to sit up straight and realized that I was in too much pain to do that. Well, what about if I pulled my knees up to my chest and tried to sit up that way? I soon realized that not only could I not do that, I also could not roll myself over onto one side or the other and try to sit up that way. I was literally stuck on the floor. "I can't get up!" It wasn't funny at that moment, in fact it was pretty painful and scary thinking about the fact that I was actually stuck flat on my back on the floor with no way of getting up...but now it's definitely a very amusing thought!

Thank you, Jesus, for Laura's quick thinking mom, who got pillows from her room and rolled me onto my side in stages, while placing pillows behind my back each time to hold me up. Once on my side, I managed to sit upright, and then Laura's dad puts his hands under my shoulders and lifted me to a standing position. WOW - that hurt! But, at least I was no longer stuck on the floor!

I spent the next day limping around and literally hunched over upon the first few minutes of standing. I also noticed, Sunday evening, that when I was standing up, my body oddly looked as if I was leaning heavily to my left - only I wasn't...I was flat-footed and standing up straight. It was pretty obvious that my hip or back or something was not in the right place relative to the rest of my body! I had to call my boss and let him know I wouldn't be in the office on Monday because I couldn't stand up straight and I certainly couldn't sit in the car for 2 1/2 hours to drive home! Who doesn't wish for an extra day of vacation, right? But I have to say, next time I'd rather it happen a little differently!

Disaster #2 - NOT avoided!

On to the next mishap from my vacation. As if anything else could go wrong, right? WRONG! Rewind to Saturday night while we are at Dairy Queen. My sister calls to let me know that she has consistently had to fight Noah into the garage and his crate every time she has taken him out because he is so nervous for some reason! So she wanted to know if she could take him to my apartment and just come to let him out during the day there so that maybe he'll feel more comfortable at home. Of course I tell her this is fine, but first we faced the obstacle of getting him back into the car! Round 2 of talking to my dog on the phone! "It's okay, Noah - I'll be back" and "Wanna go for a ride?" are what I continuously repeated while my ice cream slowly melted. AN HOUR LATER - my sister calls back to tell me he is finally in the car.

Fast forward a little to the part where I was stuck on the floor in pain. My sister called to inform me that she had let Noah out and he was a happy boy, but now she couldn't get the door to the apartment locked back. Somehow, the lock was broken and she needed the emergency number. To make this super long story....only slightly less long - the "emergency" crew at the apartment showed up at 730am THE NEXT MORNING - so my sister was forced to stay there all night to wait for them! Good thing not being able to lock your door isn't considered an emergency?!

Disaster #3 - NOT avoided!

To add the icing to the cake. Monday morning, my mom drove to Raleigh to let out Noah since I was still at the beach. While she was there, I received a call from my apartment complex that there was apparently a leak from my water heater that was running into the apartment below! You've got to be kidding, right?! My mom ended up being stuck at my apartment the entire day waiting for the new water heater to be installed!

Disaster #4 - NOT avoided!

Thankfully, this was the end of the craziness! As if I could have handled anymore?!

This weekend is my trip to Boone and I can only hope that things turn out a little better. If not, at least it'll make for another good story, huh? :P