Now Don't Screw This Up...

I have always tried to find ways to keep humor in situations.  And since I spent a huge amount of time in hospitals with doctors, they often were on the receiving end...😂

When I had the spine surgery that came very close to permanently paralyzing me, I had a orthopaedic surgeon with a sense of humor as wicked as mine.  We would often humorously banter back and forth with each other.  This is same dear surgeon who was operating on me when thirteen hours in I suddenly began bleeding out during surgery, which was not his fault.  And who cried two days afterwards in ICU on Christmas Day when we discovered I could only move a few toes, because he felt so bad for me.

This is also the same surgeon who came to the emergency room when I had my first ever accident with a horse.  Bashum and I were galloping across a field when we disturbed some huge grasshoppers, and one suddenly flew into Bashum's eye.  He stumbled west and I went flying high east...with my tailbone taking the brunt of my landing.  

As I somehow managed to drive myself to the emergency room I feared two things:  that I either seriously injured my spine which surgery had been scheduled for at Christmas, and/or my dear surgeon was going to kill me.

He came into the room laughing.  Hard.  Very, very hard.  

"I heard you went flying and had a rough landing!"

"Well the flying high in the air part really wasn't 

too bad."  

Still laughing hard, he said, "And you fractured your tailbone.  In TWO places!  Most people only fracture their tailbones in one place, but you tend to go the extra mile."

"Well, I like to think BIG, you know?!!"

Though he obviously always had concerns about his unique patient flying across fields on her horses bareback, he loved how I wasn't defined by the dwarfism...and was one hell of a fighter.

Anyway, prior to the Christmas spine surgery, I had made a sign and laminated it.  I wanted to have a moment of fun even though I knew I would have already been knocked out.  So on the morning of the surgery I attached the sign I made to my back with surgical tape hidden by the hospital gown.  No one knew it was there.  

It wasn't until after I was on the operating table all knocked out that they turned me over.  My surgeon opened the gown only to suddenly see in these huge block letters: 

"DON'T SCREW UP."

I was told later it took everyone several long moments before they could quit laughing and regain their composure.  

My now retired dear surgeon kept the sign and still treasures it.🐎😃🐎💫