Thursday Thirteen # 13 Things That Have Scared Me

In light of the scare I had earlier this week I thought I would devote this Thursday Thirteen to the things that have scared me during my life. (In very random order.)

1. The scare that inspired this list was choking on a piece of chicken while driving by myself. I was truly in a state of panic until I was able to cough and get the very small piece of chicken dislodged.

2. When my three year old grandson (who is now soon to be 17) decided to hide from us the day we were moving into a new house. Even the movers were beginning to get panicked and were looking up and down the street when I heard his faint little giggle coming from under the dinning room table which was surrounded by boxes.

3. When my #1 daughter slammed the outside door with her finger still in it then yanked it out catching the tip of it on the metal strip cutting the tip off. That was the first and only time I had to make an emergency run to the doctor's office with a lot of blood involved.

4. Thirty-one years ago when the doctors came out of surgery to tell me that they had removed my husband's kidney, but it didn't look good. It definitely was cancer and they hoped they had gotten it all. I wasn't expecting that and I felt totally unprepared because no one had bothered to even tell me what they thought might be wrong except that his kidney wasn't functioning correctly.

5. When about six years ago when I fell and broke my arm when helping Robert clear brush. Well, maybe this time I was more angry with myself than scared, but scared came when my fingers swelled to the size of sausages and I could barely move them.

6. When I had my girls with me and we were going snow skiing without Robert. I was driving on ice and did something wrong because we spun around on the highway about three times coming to a stop on the shoulder of the road looking down at Eagle Lake. After I gathered my wits we drove on to Red River and skied all day then I drove us back home.

7. The first time I had to spend the night all alone in my apartment. I was a relative newly wed and Garry had to be gone. I had never spent a night along. I was all of 18 years old from a large family --- alone --- no parents, no sisters, no hubby .

8. When I had to have my appendix out. I was nine years old. I didn't understand what being put to sleep meant. I knew that animals were sometimes put to sleep then never seen again.

9. When I was eighteen (about 5 months after getting married) I contracted Hepatitis A or infectious hepatitis. I remember being in the doctor's office with my mother and him saying to her, "We can't do anything for her, but I'll have to give you and everyone in the family a shot." I thought he meant I was dying.

10. When talking to my hubby, Robert, on the cell phone and hearing a strange sound, then hearing him moaning, and finally him saying, "I just got run over by a truck." Then him saying, "I've got to go." Silence ----

11. Hydroplaning my car with my 7 month pregnant daughter sitting in the passenger seat. I hate that totally out of control feeling and what flashed through my mind is "What will I say to David (her husband) if something happens to the baby."

12. Each time the phone rings late at night ---

13. When we got the phone call to tell us that our grandson, Preston, had been in an accident and was being airlifted to the trauma care center in Amarillo with possible head, spine and internal injuries. We are 650 miles from Amarillo. I was scared and helpless. This happened last spring. Preston is fine now. There were no spinal injuries, his collapsed lung inflated easily enough, and the head injury, although severe, has not cause serious damage. He has some short term memory problems and has lost his sense of smell.