Wild Thing Vs. the Magnolia

 or How I Earned My New Gray Hairs

We have a magnolia tree. It's an awesome climbing tree. All of my children are accomplished tree climbers. But sometime the tree wins. The picture below is not our tree, but it is very similar in height and shape.

As near as I can piece together the situation, here is what happened. Wild Thing took a piece of rope that he found in the back of the truck up the tree. He climbed up around 15 feet, looped the rope over a branch and jumped. The rope broke and Wild Thing fell.  He landed on his upper back and bumped his head. The Crafter came into the kitchen and yelled that Wild Thing fell out of the tree. He was screaming. His arms and legs were drawn up. I scooped him up and brought him into the living room. (Dumb I know.) He kept screaming and his breathing sounded rough. He said it hurt to move his arms or legs and his back hurt. I told the Crafter to pack a bag for her and Princess Pink. I put in calls to a neighbor to come help. Wild Thing said he was "churny" as he lay on the floor. I called 911.

Our neighbor got here first. Wild Thing stayed remarkably calm the entire time. I made some more calls and lined up a friend to come and get the girls. I could not get the Historian on the phone. He has changed numbers at his work. I hadn't memorized the new number yet. The new number was stored in my cell phone which was with the Historian. I tried his old number, but no one answered. The Crafter sent emails.

EMS arrived and went through their protocol. Wild Thing answered their questions, but kept getting a distant look in his eyes. One of the paramedics took me aside and said that he had put the helicopter on standby. They put a cervical collar on Wild Thing and strapped him to a back board. The decision was made that he could be safely transported by ambulance. My friend arrived and took the girls home with her. I boarded an ambulance with my son bound for the hospital. My neighbor followed us. It was tough keeping Wild Thing awake on the trip.

We arrived at the hospital. The helicopter pilot met us and said he bet Wild Thing was disappointed that he didn't get to go up in his whirly bird. I was not amused. We get to a room and Wild Thing said that nothing hurt anymore except that his back felt asleep. The Historian made it to the hospital soon after we got settled for our time of observation. Wild Thing's tests came out fine.  He had some bruising and a mild closed head trauma (code for concussion).

Thank you God for sending one of your angels to catch my son.