quotingWe got a sobering reminder yesterday about how quickly life can be turned upside down. By Thursday this past week I caught wind that my early twenty-something daughter and her boyfriend were planning on camping over the long weekend. Friday I was texting with him, and aside from advising him to stay clear of the couple of hotspots where the worst of the drunk yahoos seem to congregate on the long weekends here, I didn't have much to say. They were at worst going to be an hour away at one of the local lakes, and were planning (according to him) to go a little ways north of the usual spot to get away from where most of the idiocy usually occurs. Every May long weekend, the first snow-free long weekend where people here are cutting loose (and generally overdoing it) after a long winter stuck indoors, there is always a spike in first responder calls. Vehicle accidents, traumas, the works. Fire and ambulance are usually hopping.
nevent1q…hlap
Friday I'm just getting off work and I learn that the kids have already left, but instead, have decided to go 7 hours away, to the opposite corner of the province. Not only that, to an area at least an hour out of cell range, and with little on them in terms of provisions, water and shelter. And yes, to a hotspot where all the yahoos congregate. After all of the things I have tried to impart to my kids about preparedness over the years.....no communcication plan, a single point of failure transportation plan, and relying on another party who was already at camp to have the shelter and basic requirements for life sorted. In cougar and grizzly country. I just shook my head, but there was nothing I could do at that point. They had already been on the road for four hours. My stomach sank. I had a bad fucking feeling.
When I do a trip like that, I prepare for weeks. I have everything dialed. Firearms, satellite comms, redundant shelter, water and food plans, and an emergency plan. I asked my wife what they took with them. Two blankets, two pillows, and a bit of food. Fuck.
We got the call at 11pm last night from my daughter's girlfriend, who was also in tow, that our daughter and her boyfriend were both in the hospital seven hours away. When the call came through, even my daughter's friend didn't know their status. Like even if they had survived, from the serious crash they had been involved in with another offroad vehicle near their campsite.
My wife came unglued. I felt the blood drain from my face thinking this was it: the worst thing that can befall a parent, happening to us.
Another three hours passed before we finally got replies to the unanswerable texts we had sent to my daughter's phone, and soon after a phone call from her. She was alive.
My daughter's boyfriend thought it would be a good idea after a day of boozing to double my daughter on a dirt bike on the trails near camp. During the ride, another rider from camp T-boned them at a trail intersection, throwing both of them off the bike at high speed.
When we got the call, all they could tell us was that both my daughter and her boyfriend were in emerg, both awaiting X-rays and other scans. No idea about whether either of them were crippled or disfigured. But both still alive.
So we were on pins and needles all night. At 5:30 this morning, we got a call from my daughter that she was OK. Just really sore, but no fractures or lacerations. Her boyfriend, not so lucky. A severely broken leg that is going to require surgery. The worst part, when they were thrown from the bike, the only set of keys for the vehicle they took were lost. So now, after a sleepless night in hospital, it was going to be up to my daughter and her girlfriend to get a ride the hour back to camp, once again out of cell range in the wilderness, to try and find the keys. So that my daughter could come back to the hospital, pick up her highly medicated boyfriend, and make what would have been likely a 9 hour trip back home on no sleep, so he could continue his care and have his leg plated back together at our nearest hospital. This whole situation still has the potential to spiral.
Now, hours later, a still imperfect but semi stable plan has emerged. But I still see tons of holes in it. Drive halfway home in the AM and stay with the BF's grandparent. Then come home Tuesday. All with a patient onboard with a severely broken leg, at risk of complications due to a clot or any other number of things that can happen. Not to mention his complete inability to be anything but a liability all the way home.
I suggested that she bring the vehicle back herself and that they arrange a patient transport with the hospital. It'd be costly to him, but at least he'd be in the care of professionals the whole way, with the means to intervene if something goes wrong. But alas, my advice only goes so far seven hours away. They aren't out of the shit yet. But I can tell from the few high texts I've received from the soon to be ex boyfriend that both of them have learned a couple things through this experience. And the lessons will keep on giving....how to pay rent and make a truck payment being unable to stand on two feet or work for 5-6 months. But at least they are alive. We are counting our blessings, but still praying for this to be over and for our kid to be home safe.
#gratitude #prayers #dontbeadumbass
npub1e7…mfw7d on Nostr: A step closer to home, another hospital visit. My daughter is with her BF another ...
A step closer to home, another hospital visit. My daughter is with her BF another city closer to home, in emerg as they re-cast his leg. The first hospital nearest the accident did a poor job, he’s out of pain meds, and in agony. My daughter is operating on 2 hours sleep since the accident, still 5 hours from home. Still praying.