Well, I guess I better chronicle the events of the last few weeks. It all started on October 9, 2010 when we woke up to water coming from the vent in the bathroom. Then we went into the kitchen and found water dripping from the cabinets and behind the tiles on the walls. Tom went to let the management know. We learned that the tenant on the 3rd floor had left his water running and the unoccupied apartment above us was flooded and we were now being flooded. Let's just call the tenant upstairs "the crazy man". Previous to this he has been hanging out his window shouting at anyone or thing that happens to be owing by. Not just shouting, but swearing and turning the air blue. Anyway, we got ready and went over to the office to work. We had pulled things out of the wet cabinets and set them where the would be safe. We got to work and were having a productive day. It was just the two of us since the Elder's were all at General Conference and the church. We had all ready watched it on the computer. Then the crazy man started again. Head out, shouting obscenities. Since I had never actually seen him I went to the porch to take a look, and there he was, oblivious to anything, just shouting away, so I went back to my desk and started to work. After a few minutes I noticed something happening outside and went to look. A SWAT wagon had pulled up to the apartments, so I ran inside and got my camera to take a picture. I went inside to let Dad know of the developments. Quite a sight!! We watched for a minute and then went back inside. President texted us to say that the PADDY wagon was further up the street and they were getting the crazy man there. I decided that if I went out on the terrace that I could see what was going on. There are four or five steps of the porch that leads to a small terrace with a view. Anyway down I went, one, two, three, four, AHHHHHHHHHH!! SMASH!!!!! (the bottom step was about twice what all the other steps were). There I lay on the bright red, cold, hard cement. The minute I hit I knew that something was broken. I let out a scream and started to evaluate the situation. My left foot was no longer pointing in the right direction.(Obviously broken). The right ankle was beginning to swell. GREAT, couldn't just be one leg. The other one had to get in on the act too. Now was the problem---I'm at the bottom on the stairs with no working legs and did I mention the pain. Oh yes, there was much pain. Tom came to rescue me but how to do it???? He quickly texted Pres. Jensen and the Pres. and Sis. Jensen (Kathleen) brought their van and came to help. (Darn crazy man, now look what you have done!) I managed to sit up and scotch up the steps backwards. It turned out that my right foot could stand some weight bearing so that helped. Then--how to get to the van and into it. After some tricky maneuvers we made it.
Off to the hospital. In Baguio there is really only one hospital that you should go to. It is a private hospital called St. Marks. We fought several traffic jams and finally arrived. They took me in very quickly, which was quite different that American hospitals. It just happened that as we rolled in an Orthopedic surgeon was just getting ready to leave after performing a surgery. He stopped and took a quick look and sent me to X-ray. He actually came up to the X-ray department. Amazing! He was ready right now to take me off to surgery. But first let me tell about my trip to X-ray. We were in a new wing of the hospital, and I stress NEW. THERE WERE NO ELEVATORS!!!!!! Now what??? Well ramps, of course. It reminded me of South High withe the ramps we went up and down between classes, only longer. Let me just say it was not the smoothest ride ever, what with trying to keep my legs from moving and causing more pain. Then get the X-rays (more pain), then back down the ramps. In the meantime Pres. Jensen and Tom were conferring about the next course of action. His advice was to go to St. Luke's in Manila, a world class hospital. The Dr. Put my legs into removable casts with ace bandages o I could travel and said--'See you on Facebook'. So back into the van, but with pain meds this time. YEAH!! So I sat in the van while Tom and the Jensen's were madly packing for an impromptu trip to Manila. the first thing I told him to pack was my Temple Recommend. If I was going all the way to Manila I was definitely going to go to the temple. They decided it would be better if we took the bigger van so it would be more comfortable. So we maneuvered me into the van. Pres. had a large cooler in the middle that was perfect for resting my legs. Sis. Jensen put all kinds of pillows all around me. I think every cushion in the mission home was there.
Off we went on our six plus hour trip. I was really quite comfortable on the ride down. We had a really nice time visiting. We were going to take a short cut to the hospital that would be a more efficient route for us. Wouldn't you know it--we got lost. I really didn't care with the pain meds and all, but I'm sure Pres. Jensen wasn't too happy about it. We spent some time figuring out where we were and trying to get where we needed to be. We did see parts of Quezon City that we certainly hadn't expected. There was a huge wet market that we saw with anything you could imagine to eat. It was midnight and you would never know it The streets were lit up and there were people everywhere. We were texting Elder Jones from the MRC trying to get on the right roads. After many texts and wrong turn, success at last!! WE MADE IT! Now to get out of the van and onto a gurney. Successful transition. Thanks to Elder Jones, they were waiting for me and wondering why I was so late. Not the kind of treatment in a US hospital where you wait and wait and wait. They wisked me off before I could even thank the Jensen's. Then it was the usual questions, pokes, needles, etc. They admitted me and got me to a room. By this time both legs/feet were pretty swollen. The Dr. wanted to get the swelling down before they would operate. This was early Sunday morning and they scheduled the surgery for Tuesday. Yikes--two days more. I can't say enough nice thing about the nursing staff at St. Luke's. They were all so nice and compassionate and friendly. They really brightened my stay. There was Era-happy and energetic, Migz, Ron Anthony Go (from Baguio), Gerli, Angel, Alex, Marc (Charge Nurse), April-funny and fun-- (from Baguio, engaged--she asked us what was the secret of a happy long marriage--we said the church), A.J., Mica, Philip, Treb (filling in from ICU) and TinTin from Iloilo. Then there was the nurses aid, Chris--her real name is an old fashioned Filipino name, Chrisere pronounced Shuree". She was a delight, had been at St. Luke's for 20 years. She did all the dirty stuff like sponge baths, changing the bed's, shampooing hair etc. I felt really well cared for.
