The Moment I Fell Through The Attic

The above title is a true story that happened to me yesterday. As you can tell since I am able to type I am OK. Before I tell you my story I thought you might be interested to know that after my husband realized I was OK, he googled "my wife fell through the attic" and came up with several blogs and photos of very similar story's. So, unfortunately this wont be a new story but maybe I can put a twist on it that will make you think about things in your own life or maybe you will find the hope you are looking for.

I had decided to go up to the attic and retrieve some boxes for some items that I decided to put away for a season. We have lived in our home almost nine years and I have gone up to the attic at least 3 or 4 times a year, especially at Christmas time. Our attic is not finished so there are sheets of plywood all over. I have never thought twice about walking around up there or lugging boxes around while I'm up there.

The boxes that I needed were in the far left corner of the attic. Part of that area has plywood and a few rectangle spots do not. As I was searching through the boxes I saw a box I needed a little further back, I stepped on the rectangle area that did not have plywood with my left foot, while my right foot was on a piece of plywood ....well, you can imagine what happened next....I remember hearing a crack and then faster than I realized I was doing the splits and my bottom hit a beam (very hard!) and my leg broke through the floor/dry wall, as my head hit a beam. I sat there a little dazed for a moment unsure of what just happened....my head hurt and my leg was dangling down into the garage... I think I was in shock. I remember thinking-"wow, I better get out of here and call Doug". Doug had gone to run a quick errand, Lauren was taking a nap and Garic was reading in his room....no one heard anything. I called Doug and said, "I wanted you to know I just fell through the attic, but I am OK"....of course he said, "WHAT?!. I explained the story to him and then as I was telling him I realized how blessed I was that I didn't go all the way through. About this time Garic came out because he heard me talking to Doug and he looked at the hole and hugged me tightly and I asked him to pray over me, which he did. I thought I should call my mother in law, as she is nurse, to see if I should go to the hospital (part of me honestly was afraid because of the recent sad news of the actress Natasha Richardson who died due to a head injury). I couldn't seem to dial my mother in law's number correctly and then I felt it... a panic attack was coming on. Now I wont go into to much detail about my diagnoses, etc regarding panic and anxiety attacks because, well, its detailed in my book and I want you to read my book. Suffice it to say my symptoms start with severe nausea, rapid heart rate and generalized panic feeling. I honestly can not remember the exact last time I had a severe panic attack and needed to take medication. I know its been over a year. I have been able to "fend" them off with the tools in my basket but I know that if it gets to a certain point then I need to take the medication-this is all detailed in my book. I told Garic to go get Lauren. She helped me remember to use my tools. I am happy to say my tools worked and I was actually surprised because I was really feeling it. I still felt a little nauseated the rest of the night but it was manageable.

After we all realized I was OK and my mind and body were settling down, we started joking that now I had a new blog to write about and then my daughter Lauren said "you can write that, even if you're just straddling the fence, you will still get hurt" (she know this from personal experience, as do I, and I am sure a lot of you). When you allow yourself to put your guard down and put your foot on the other side, you never know when you might hear that crack sound and I guarantee, you will not be able to react as quickly and promptly as you think you will.

You may be so lucky that you don't fall but why take that chance? We are not guaranteed tomorrow. If you have straddled the fence (or as in my case had one foot planted on solid ground and the other on weak dry wall) whether you have fallen or not its never to late to get down or climb back over.

(this is the picture of the hole in the garage roof- now use your imagination and picture my leg dangling down the hole...I was wearing jeans and had on dark blue slippers)