"Hello, this is the Emergency Room..."

I got the call that I feared.....I was home alone this last Wednesday, sitting down to eat my sandwich and enjoy my iced tea when my cell rang. It was THE CALL. The one I feared and wrote about just one post ago on Recovering Church Lady. In that post I talked about my fear that Hubs was in a motorcycle accident on his way home from work thirty miles away. But this call was about Rocker Son.

"Your son has been in a motorcycle accident and he is breathing on his own....."

I think, and I told her this later; that she should have said that he was coherent first. Breathing can be done while in a coma or whatever.  

I paced as the ER nurse had to repeat again and again where she was calling from and why my son who would turn 25 in two days was there. 

I hung up after scribbling info on a tablet and yelled a bad word for only the second time in my life. And then in the same breath I asked God where He was. My mind was swirling and I made a mess of Hub's work papers as I tried to find the phone number of his new job. I was put on hold as they found him and let him leave to get me and head to the hospital 20 minutes away to see how our son was.

We talked to God about our son as we found the hospital by my scribbled directions. I had sent out a couple of quick emails to friends and family before leaving the house. They made us wait while trying to find his name in the records at the ER desk. They had a "Doe" that just came in, yes that's him, have no idea why they did not know his name. Followed the guy to our boy.

He was laughing with a police officer and when he saw me the only look he had was "Don't cry Mom, I'm ok." The nurse had told me on the phone that this biggest concern was how I would react and how his girlfriend would freak out and try to come to him on her scooter. 

He was not ok, he was broken. But not irreparably. He broke the biggest bone in the body, the femur (thigh bone). Totally snapped in two. A pinkie is broken, a wrist is sprained and a suspicious spot on his brain has been shown to be only a cluster of veins that have been there all along. No other scratches or road rash at all! It really is amazing!

He flew over the hood of a car that was making an illegal left turn in front of him. He broke their windshield and landed on the ground beside the road with a twisted up leg yelling for help. Someone saw and police and ambulance arrived in minutes. 

That was 4 days ago. Yesterday the doctors inserted a steel rod in my boy's right thigh bone and it will always be there. He walked on it a bit today and will be out of the hospital early next week. 

My mind and heart are swirling with two differing conclusions.......

• My son was in an awful motorcycle accident and is now forever carrying a steel rod in his leg. 
• My son was in a motorcycle accident and we are all ok. It wasn't that bad!

The thing that I feared happened and we have been laughing, crying and enjoying each other for the last few days in a boring hospital room. Where do I land?

I land on the fact that stuff happens. The idea that everything good that happens is God and everything bad that happens is satan just does not work for me. Stuff just happens and we figure out how to deal with  it. 

God was there. I believe that my son was protected from what could have been much worse. He wore his new leather motorcycle jacket for the first time because even though it was a hot day it was too bulky to fit in his backpack. He wore no gloves but did not scrape his hands or dent his helmet. The police saw a "denim burn" on the road but he has no scrapes on his legs other than some small scratches on his ankle.

We have much more to be thankful for than to be angry about. I am learning so much from Rocker Son. He is charming the hospital staff and creating a party where ever he goes! They love him and have told us they don't want him to leave the ICU but were happy that he did just that tonight and is being moved to a regular room. His friends are streaming in and turning a quiet hospital into a celebration of not dying this time. 

Rocker Son has a gift for living in the moment and seeing the good in it. In his own words on his Facebook page last night: 

"Surprisingly this is turning out to be a great birthday, even though it's being spent in the hospital. 

My amazing girl is with me

I get free meals

Room service

Bluray player

Sponge bath

And FREE DRUGS at the click of a button!"

The awful thing we fear can happen and we will still live through it. As we drove to the emergency room wondering why this happened I contemplated how I could live in such a scary world. Why couldn't I just find a safe place and hide forever. That sounded so good, but so, so impossible. 

But then I spent three days around my son and his friends and I am inspired by them. Stuff happens and they find the joy in it and move on. And God is there in his hospital room whether they know it or not. :)