I was a freshman in college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. It was winter semester of 2006 and my second semester at school. I was having a great time. I had sort of figured out what I was doing in college and enjoying my independence. I had a great group of friends, I enjoyed my classes, and there were plenty of antics and shenanigans all around.
Jenna Barrowes lived on my floor, (Hinkley Hall, Helaman Halls), and her family lived in Spanish Fork, Utah, about half an hour south of Provo. About halfway through the semester she invited a group of us to her parents’ house to hang out one evening on the weekend. We went to her house and enjoyed playing games, eating snacks, and enjoying being out of the dorms. Jenna’s house had an interesting feature. In the basement they had a trampoline installed in the floor. There was an area that was dug out for a pit for the trampoline, and then instead of a ceiling over the trampoline, it was like a large shaft and it went all the way up to the main floor ceiling. The idea was that one could just walk onto the trampoline from the floor and start jumping. The walls were even padded with mats for safety. There was a small ledge on the opposite side of the trampoline that one could stand on while waiting for someone else to jump. It was a pretty sweet setup being inside, and in theory, it was pretty safe. You couldn’t technically fall off the trampoline since it was even with the basement floor.
you can see the padded walls behind the back of the couch
our adventure to get Micah stitches
Since Micah had stitches in his head, they needed to be taken out about two weeks later. Jenna said her dad could take them out. So we again went down to Spanish Fork for another evening of games and hanging out…and trampoline-ing. This was a few days after St. Patrick’s Day in March. I also remember that this second game night upped the stakes for a few people, there seemed to be a lot more plotting of who was invited and who was supposed to be paired up with whom. Because we were at BYU and we were freshman and that sort of thing goes on.
Micah got his stiches out. We had a great night playing foosball, chatting, the cup game had become popular for some reason at the cannon center among our crowd so I think we played that, another game called “curses” that was pretty hilarious (and later, ironic), and more trampoline jumping. The game “curses” was pretty funny, you get cards that make you do certain things such as only talk in an irish accent, or always thump your chest when you take a card, or other strange things, and then things you do set other people up to do their things and you keep getting more cards until there are all kinds of silly things you have to do. If you forget to do a thing then you get penalized. Anyway, it’s a pretty entertaining game.
playing "Curses", little did I know the curse that would hit me later
the cup game!
At some point I separated from the group at went back on the trampoline. I can’t remember if anyone else was with me at this point. I was working on my flips. I had gotten to a point where I could flip over, but I would land sitting down instead of my feet. I was sort of chickening out but I thought I could maybe get to where I could land on my feet if I kept trying. I was jumping and turning and trying to think of adjustments I could make to get this flip to work. I went up for a flip, hoping I could make this one work. As I was in the air things felt a little weird so I decided not to rotate for the full flip. But I was already rotated a little bit and as I was coming down, for some reason I couldn’t get myself all the way back to straight up and down. I landed wonky and I heard this popping noise that was kind of loud. I immediately collapsed to the trampoline and just laid there.
It took a minute, but eventually someone said, “You guys, Meagan’s not getting up!” Everyone stopped their game and came over to look at me. Now, it was kind of weird, you’d think if I had just broken my femur I’d be wailing in pain. But I wasn’t. I had no idea what happened, just that something was wrong and that I couldn’t/shouldn’t get up. They got Jenna’s dad to come down to the basement, we told him what happened and he thought maybe a ligament popped and told me to try getting up. I braced my hands against the trampoline to push off of and tried to get up. Then it was super painful! I laid back down and then looked at my leg. You know the part in Harry Potter #2 where Harry breaks his arm in Quidditch, and then Lockhart takes all the bones out of his arm and it goes all wonky/rubbery?? Yeah, that’s what my leg looked like. It still felt like it was going in a certain direction but when I looked down at it, my leg was totally going in a different and unnatural direction. And that freaked me out.
Someone called 911 and an ambulance was sent to the house. I knew I had insurance but was not familiar with how that worked at all. My friends wanted to come comfort me, but any movement on the trampoline would move my leg around and it killed me. Scott Shrank crawled out to me and gave me a blessing. It was one of those times when you move away from home that you are grateful for the guys who hold the priesthood and who you can call on for blessings in times of need. There were probably several guys there who could have done the same thing for me. I still remember feeling Scott’s hands on my head and feeling calm and comforted. Monica Milburn also made her way out to me at some point and was comforting me by stroking my hair. It was very soothing to have her do that. You may be wondering why I wasn’t bawling my eyes out in pain at this point. I think I wasn’t crying mostly because I was in shock-like literal shock. My body was shutting certain things down because of the trauma that happened. I also think I have a pretty high pain tolerance. And as long as the trampoline wasn’t going up and down my leg wasn’t moving and it didn’t hurt too badly.
Gretchen may have been called at some point. I didn’t have a cell phone at this point in my life, but I knew Gretchen’s number and I think someone called her. They took me to UVRMC in Provo, partly because of her being up there. Otherwise they probably would have taken me to the hospital in Payson.
The EMTs arrived and that was an adventure itself. The trampoline was in the basement, and the stairwell to get to the basement takes a turn as you go down, and is also not very wide. So they had a fun time getting the stretcher down the stairs. I remember the first EMT to try to reach me was this older lady and she was not thoughtful/coordinated about getting on the trampoline at all. She took a big step onto it and totally made my leg move up and down and THAT is when it really started hurting. She crawled out to me and tried to assess the situation. I don’t remember much after that. It’s a bit hazy. Somehow they got me onto a body board which required turning my leg a bit/trying to straighten it out. That was very painful. And then I was strapped into the stretcher because they were going to have to tilt and turn me to get me up the stairs from the basement. That part was THE WORST. Pressure and weight was being put on my leg and they were trying to keep me from sliding out of the stretcher. I bet the EMTs were cursing under their breath about the set up of the stairs, but I also think they are trained for weird situations like that. I was in and out of it by this point, the pain was getting pretty bad. They loaded me in the ambulance and I think it may have been snowing.
I’m sorry to say I don’t remember much of my ambulance ride. I do remember they did not turn the lights or siren on. (FYI, they bill you extra for that,). I don’t think any of my friends came with me, although I heard later they followed behind in a car. The EMTs tried to hook me up to an IV, but had trouble doing it in either arm. Again, I think because my body was going into shock my veins were getting all small and shutting down. Eventually they got one in my hand. The other part I remember is that they were chatting away about their day/what they were doing when they got the call. I got kind of mad at them for that in my mind. How could they be so calm and passive and just chit chatting when there was this emergency going on!! I don’t remember anything else significant from the ambulance ride.
I got taken to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center which is the hospital in Provo, Utah. I went into the ER and the first thing they wanted to do was take X-rays. They cut my jeans on the right leg to open them up. I remember the X-ray tech was pregnant, so she had to go out of the room when the X-rays were being taken. That was very painful because they were moving my leg around to get different views and they put a pillow under it which helped a little. Eventually I was given pain meds, 2 doses of morphine and 1 dose of Valium. The Valium was to keep my muscles from spasming because they had been through a lot of trauma. Whenever the muscles moved they would pull on my broken bone and that was so so painful!! They also put my leg in traction, which is a contraption that held my leg in place so it couldn’t move and therefore be less painful. Getting into traction was crazy painful because they had to straighten out my leg a little and that hurt so badly! Even with all the drugs.
Gretchen came to the hospital, I remember her coming into my room. I also remember Jenn LaRose coming into my room, she got excited by all the medical things. Others may have come in too, I just don’t remember. It’s all a little hazy, I was so drugged up. I learned later that my friends followed the ambulance to the hospital and hung out in the waiting room for awhile. It was said that at one point they were bored and were giving each other massages. I got mildly offended by that! Here I was suffering agonizing pain and they were giving each other massages! Thanks guys!!
Jenn giving a massage
supportive friends followed me to the hospital
It turned out that I had broken my right femur. It’s what is called a transverse fracture. I broke the bone all the way across but it did not break through my skin. The X-rays are pretty cool, the bone broke clear across and the two ends came next to each other. I don’t remember talking to a doctor about it at all. I must have, because I was over 18 when this happened. For whatever reason, they decided to do surgery the next day. It must not have been critical enough. I broke my leg on a Saturday night, it was probably between 10:00 and 11:00 at night when I got to the hospital. I think Gretchen called my parents and they drove down the next day. I didn’t see them until after my surgery.
Then I spent my first night ever in a hospital. I was taken up to a private hospital room. I don’t remember hardly any of that night or next day. I do remember though that the first night was the one and only time I had a male nurse. I told him I needed to go to the bathroom, but I couldn’t really get out of bed, and not being a guy, I couldn’t just pee in a jar. What happened was that he had to roll me over to one side, stick this bucket underneath me, and then roll me back on top of it so I could do my business. I couldn’t roll very well because of my crippled leg, so I literally had to grab his arm and pull myself up onto the bucket. I was so embarrassed. I probably flashed him as well because at this point I was in a hospital gown. He left so I could do my business. But then between the pain and the pain meds I passed out on top of the bucket and fell asleep like that. I have no idea how long I was there, but the nurse came back sometime later, (I think he forgot about me, and I was passed out so I couldn’t remind him to come get me), and we had to do the whole rolling thing all over again. And after all that, I don’t think I even did #1 or #2. Which was maybe a blessing because he would have had to wipe me. Ewww.
The next morning, Sunday, I had surgery. I don’t remember anything at all from before surgery. I sort of remember seeing Gretchen, my mom tells me I got mad at her for throwing ice chips. I don’t remember being put under anesthesia, and I don’t remember being in the Pre Op, surgical, or post Op areas. Eventually I came out from anesthesia and woke up from the surgery. I kind of remember it was evening again when I was even remotely “with-it”. I remember my mom being in the hospital room at this point. My bishop came to visit me. He was nice, I felt bad that he had to deal with something like this! I felt bad that I was that girl who broke her leg. I’m sure the story spread among my ward really fast. My friends came to visit me in the hospital. Julianne Given drew all over the white board where the nurses write their names. Jenn brought me my laptop, my iPod, and a few other things like a Sudoku book maybe? I think I also got a card and a balloon. We got some good pictures of me when I was really high. I accidentally pressed the Call button and had to tell the nurse it was an accident. Everyone thought that was really funny. My parents had driven down from Washington state that day. Jillian was still in high school so she had to stay with a neighbor for a few days. Dad came down Sunday but had to go back to work so he rode the Greyhound bus to get home. Mom stayed with me.
Visitors! Shane Brunscheen, Monica Milburn, Micah Price, Courtney Holland, Jenn LaRose, Julianne Given and Marissa Roberts
So high right now
My mom tells me that I was freaking out a bit about my surgery. What they did was put a metal rod down the middle of my femur and two screws on either end to hold it in place. It ended up being ok the way I broke my bone, they just let the top part sit on top of the bottom part, the weight would help the bone grow back together. I was actually able to put weight on my leg the day after surgery, which made using crutches much easier. The part I was worried about was that I knew you produce blood cells in the bone marrow of your large flat bones. Your femur being one of them. I guess I was worried that with one femur down my body wouldn’t be able to produce enough red blood cells. I don’t remember this so much, but my mother maintains that I was freaking out about this a lot.
I learned later on that the physician who did my surgery was Dr. Bacon. I don’t remember if I ever met him when I was coherent. Hahaha. Being on a lot of drugs and anesthesia, I don’t remember a whole lot of the day I had surgery. I’m just glad I had it and that things turned out ok.
I spent Sunday night in the hospital. The next day, they got me up for my first physical therapy lesson. They had to drape another hospital gown around me so I didn’t flash anyone and they also had a PT belt around my middle so they could hold me up. They also put my shoes on my feet for more traction while walking around. My physical therapist gave me a ton of grief about my shoelaces. When I was a freshman I had this pair of Doc Martins that I wore to school. They were brown and had thick soles and the shoelaces were about two miles long. He kept teasing me because he thought it was ridiculous how long they were. I was used to it…but he thought it was funny. We did a really short intro into physical therapy. They got me on my crutches and it was ok that I put weight on my leg. That really made the whole experience with crutches better. They taught me how to use the crutches and which leg and crutch to put forward and not fall down while walking. We went down a hall and then there was this small set of stairs where I learned how to do stairs. The therapist said to remember heaven and hell. The good leg goes up to heaven and the bad leg goes down to hell. So when I was going up the stairs my good leg would go first and then I would push off of that leg to step up. And when I was going down the stairs my bad leg would go first because then it wouldn’t have to bend. So bad leg, then crutches which could bear the weight while my good leg stepped down. It wasn’t a long session, mostly to teach me how to maneuver.
I think they released me from the hospital that day. My mom was staying at the Super 8 that was across the street from Helaman Halls; that was depressing. The whole getting out to the car was an experience. When you leave the hospital they have to wheel you out in a wheelchair for safety/protocol reasons. Only, I couldn’t really bend my right leg and I couldn’t really hold it up, so trying to sit in a wheelchair was pretty painful. The orderly tried to prop my leg up with pillows which helped a little. I wondered where the wheelchair was that held your leg up, but I guess UVRMC didn’t have a spare one for me. My mom brought the van around and I then had to get into the van. Same issues. Couldn’t really bend my right leg or put any weight on it. It was quite the ordeal and physically exhausting and painful. I had to sit on the middle bench of the van with my leg propped up. We drove over to the hotel and I slept that night on the couch because it felt more comfortable than lying down. I don’t remember if we did anything else this day, probably not.
The next day we had to deal with life. I had to drop out of college. This event happened with 5 weeks left in the semester. It was kind of a sucky point to have to drop out of school. It was long enough in the semester that I wouldn’t be getting a ton of my tuition money back. But it was not long enough to get partial credit or for them to say that I could count my classes or put them on hold until I could take my finals. And all that money for room and board and food, totally wasted because this semester wasn’t going to count. Initially I had thought I could maybe stay in school. There were only five weeks left of school, I could totally get to classes, maybe miss a week but still I could do it. My mom drove me to the administration building so I could talk to them. The walk from the car into the building about killed me. And I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to crutch around BYU for five weeks. Even if my friends volunteered to drive me around campus in a golf cart (which they really, really wanted to do). So I ended up dropping out of college. Which is kind of weird to say. I also realized that I have permanent academic evidence of this as well. My college transcript has 6 “Ws” on it for “withdraw.” Which I hope doesn’t look too sketchy…It kind of helped a little, I wasn’t doing too hot in Psychology so I got out of that one. I do regret that I missed a few other classes. I didn’t take up Spanish again after this. I was in the class they put returned missionaries in and felt super out of place, so I chickened out and never returned to Spanish. I could have taken like 6 more classes and gotten a minor. I also missed the end of Personal Finance. I had a really good teacher and I was learning a lot of good stuff for life. I didn’t end up taking this class again. I did have to take Book of Mormon 2nd semester again, so I was able to find a better teacher. I also took Biology 100 Honors instead of regular Bio 100 because that class was so freaking boring. The honors section was way more interesting, a smaller class, and my professor ended up being a hoot. I also took human development instead of psychology and that was a really good class to take. The only good thing about Psychology was that I had it with one of my best friends, Kameron Welsch, who I grew up next door to. It was fun to have a class with him at BYU and get to see each other twice a week. Also we liked to mimic our Psychology professor, Dawson Hedges, and Kams liked to call him Big D. And in psychology you talk about development a little so Kameron was drawing these fetuses that we named Big D-tus the Fetus. Yep, we were making sure all that tuition money was money well spent. The lady who withdrew me said they would email all my teachers and let them know what happened. But I don’t know if they really did because a few weeks after I moved home I got an email from my tap class teacher saying, “Meagan, we haven’t seen you in a long time. Is everything ok?” That was kind of funny.
After I dropped out of school we went to work on packing up my stuff in my dorm room. My angel mother had to do it all because I had a bum leg. I just laid on my bed all drugged up watching her pack it up. Later that summer we found out that my mom had cancer, so that makes what she did for me in this whole ordeal even more meaningful. It was super depressing watching her pack up all my stuff. I was very upset about having to leave BYU.
I had one last meal at the Cannon Center. Had to use the Dining Plus one more time right?!
That night, my friends had a “good-bye” party for me. We hung out in the lobby of Hinckley Hall and friends and ward peeps came to say good bye. It was so weird that I was the one leaving. I’ve never been the one to have stuff happen to her, but I guess it was my turn. Monica had gotten some butcher paper and taped it on the wall and people wrote little messages on it. I still have it to this day. My FHE group came and we had one last photo shoot. I really loved my freshman FHE family. It was where I made most of my main friends. They were really great. Micah and Shane Brunscheen were really entertaining the whole night. They were messing around with my crutches. Jenna and this kid named Clay (?) played some music on their guitars. Then people got bored and started braiding hair. Haha. I don’t know. I was so high on drugs still. It was kind of weird to be hanging out in my jammies, but that’s all I could get on my body at the time. Anyway, various people came in and out to say hi and good-bye. I’m sure they all heard about it when it happened. It’s weird to think that I was the story. Oh yeah, at one point Monica taped my X-ray on a light on the ceiling so people could see my broken bone. Pretty much everyone was incredulous at the image. They just did not believe I did that jumping on a trampoline and they all freaked out once they thought about how much it must have hurt. It was a fun little party.
Awww, this still makes me feel special
Loved my crazy FHE familly
showing off the bruise I got from the incompetent EMTs
they were making fun of how short my crutches were and trying to imagine how it would be like to be that short
a show!
hair braiding
I still have this poster, I had it on my wall while I recovered. I think Monica came up with it, thanks Monica!
Yup. This is what happened to my femur. Ouch!
Then we went back upstairs to my room. I wanted to spend one last night in the dorm. We took some last pictures as a crew and I said good bye to a few more people. My friends were so sweet. A couple of them slept on the floor of my room, we had a slumber party of sorts. I felt bad, I got to sleep in my bed but they stayed on my floor for most of the night.
The next day sucked so bad. My mom came and packed up the rest of my stuff and it was time for me to leave BYU for real. I probably cried the whole way home. We originally were just going to go half way that day, like maybe Boise, but I think my mom just wanted to get me home. We stopped around Mountain Home, she had a short nap, and then kept on driving home.
Eventually I saw an orthopedic surgeon here at home. (Ironically I work for them now). They took a few sets of x-rays to make sure my bones were growing the way they were supposed to. They also took my staples out. I had them in three different spots. Dr Higgs told me that one of my legs is shorter than the other (I don’t believe it). I also was a little worried that I had some kind of disease or early onset osteoporosis because the femur is supposed to be the strongest bone in your body and I managed to break it. Dr Higgs ordered a bone density scan for me, everything came back normal. I started physical therapy. I went a couple times a week and then had exercises to do at home. At first I just had to practice stepping up onto this box that wasn’t very high. I also was on a stationary bike that I couldn’t even pedal all the way around on. But little by little I got better and I was getting stronger. As I got rid of the crutches I started developing a bit of a limp. So they put me in aqua therapy to even out my gait. It was pretty sweet. The therapy place had a pool in a room, the pool had a treadmill at the bottom. I’d wear my swimming suit to the therapy office. So I’d get in and just walk in the water on the treadmill. The aid had to lower the water level often when I came because I am so short, sometimes it would be really high. I didn’t need to drown. The pace of the treadmill could be sped up or slowed down depending on what was needed. I still remember to this day when she turned the speed up faster and I was running in the pool. It felt so good to run, to move faster than I had in a really long time. I’m so grateful for modern technology that made me able to walk normally again. My therapist’s name was Joanie Jensen but I actually worked with the aid Lynette a lot. Especially in the pool. She had to lifeguard me. The only thing that was hard for me was having to small talk with people at therapy. I’m not good at that. I’m sure they all thought I was so quiet.
Healing myself was a bit of a process. I couldn’t bend my leg for a while so I had to ride in the middle seat of the car and at dinner I had to prop my leg up on a chair. It was exciting as I got better and better at bending my leg. I couldn’t bend down to sit on the toilet so my mom had to help me with that for a little while. I told her I thought I’d be wiping her butt before she’d have to wipe mine again! I also wasn’t stable in the shower so my parents bought a shower chair. I had to sit on it to bathe myself. I felt so old. My mom would threaten me with cold showers if I didn’t do my therapy exercises because she controlled the temperature. The weirdest thing was learning I couldn’t really roll over in my bed with my leg not bending. I have to fall asleep on my stomach but I couldn’t roll over so the first few nights my parents tucked me in my bed and then I had to sleep on my back all night and was stuck there until they got me up in the morning. Eventually I learned to kind of throw myself over in one motion so I could fall asleep on my stomach. It was so weird that breaking my leg would affect being able to turn over, but it totally did. The other weird thing was my stability. As I ditched the crutches I could get around ok and my walking was fine. But for up to maybe a year afterward every once in a while I’d just be standing there and all of a sudden kind of stumble and almost fall over. Kind of like tripping, but I wasn’t moving beforehand, I was just standing there. The other weird thing was learning to run again. I was doing ok walking but I have a specific memory of trying to jog and my limp just coming back when I ran. Which was weird because I was walking just fine. I have no lasting effects from breaking my femur besides when I sit on the ground and put the heels of my feet together, my right knee can’t go as far down as my left can. I used to be pretty flexible, but I literally can’t get my right knee down as far. It’s weird. My fingers are crossed that nothing bad happens and I have to get the rod taken out for whatever reason. I think that would be worse. Dr. Higgs told my mom about someone who broke their femur on a trampoline for a second time and had to have the rod taken out. It became one of her favorite stories to tell. I just shudder thinking about it. I hope that nothing weird happens when I’m an old lady either. I just want to leave it in there and not have it cause any problems. ‘Mkay pumpkin?
I got really sick of my crutches. It sucks having to cart them around with you and needing them to make any movement. I grew to hate that smell of rubber. I wanted to burn them after my ordeal but my dad wouldn’t let me because he had paid money for them. We kept them for a while but eventually they got taken to Goodwill.
Other random things…ummm…pooping was really hard to do after surgery and all the pain killers. Pain meds make you very constipated. I remember trying so hard one day to poop and I used all my might. I got one very little, round, hard poop. But if you’ve been there yourself you know it’s quite an accomplishment.
My roommate Jenn told me that men who break their femur sometimes become infertile. Thanks for that, Jenn! But I don’t think I have to worry about that.
To this day I have a fear of trampolines. I haven’t been on one since. Those gyms with trampolines and foam pits are my worst nightmare. I don’t freak out as much as I used to when I see one, but I get super nervous watching small children on them. I wouldn’t wish my experience on my worst enemy. I feel bad for my future children because their mother will not be letting them have a trampoline ever. Sorry guys!
My mother still worries about my bum leg. I hardly ever think about it, but if something is sore she’ll ask me if it’s the leg I broke, as if the leg had something to do with it. No matter how much I tell her my leg is fine now, she still worries. I was back at BYU Fall semester and did just fine. Walking up those south of campus stairs all the time was probably great physical therapy. Haha.
FYI, they will bill you for everything when you ride in an ambulance. It was probably a good thing I didn’t get lights and sirens because that would have cost extra. I’m not even kidding. I didn’t have a clue about insurance back then. I’m sure the whole thing cost a pretty penny and I’m grateful my parents took care of the bill for me. They rock. Also, you should be aware of the hospital in your area that accepts your medical insurance. Because the one I went to technically didn’t, but they paid the bill because the “ambulance took me there” so it wasn’t like I chose to go a hospital that didn’t take my insurance. Let that be a lesson to you all.
I have a great injury story to tell now. Almost everyone has their own injury story, when they start rolling I try to hold off until the end because I know I will best almost everyone. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of my broken femur story, only I don’t tell it as much as I used to. The best reaction I got was from Lincoln Haycock, a guy in my junior year ward. He was so squeamish when I told my story and was freaking out as I described what my bones did. It was hilarious. The only time I ever got beaten was from Travis Beckett, who had been either longboarding or riding his bike down the ramp on the hill to BYU and he crashed and had a concussion and gashed up his face. It was pretty gruesome.
The dumbest reaction I had to my broken leg was when I went with Nikita Dabling to a local institute class. I had pajama pants on and my crutches. We went to this opening social thing. Naturally people wanted to know why I was on crutches. So I told them and part of the story was explaining that I had a rod and two screws in my bone, that was why I didn’t have a cast. This one girl got really confused because after I told her she asked me if I took my rod off at night….??!!! I hope she’s doing well!
I watched a lot of movies and TV that spring as that was all I was good for. I am proud of myself for learning to walk and then getting a job (at walgreens, yuck). But I did have work and got money for school. Yeah, 2006 was kind of sucky at times.
I had the gnarliest bruise!! It had all the colors in it. My entire right thigh was so colorful. Black, blue, purple, green, yellow, red, etc. It was beautiful. I was just sad I couldn’t show it off a ton because it was in an immodest spot. I also had this nasty bruise on my right big toe toenail. I had dropped a metal bed frame on it a few weeks earlier when we were moving a bed in Marissa Roberts’ room. The bruise made my toenail fall off eventually. It was funny though because it was pretty noticeable and some people thought it was connected to my broken femur. It did come in handy though. For some reason, my father couldn’t for the life of him remember which leg I broke. ??? I don’t know either. So I had to tell him to look at my toe. Bad toe, bad leg. It helped a little.
this is it toned down a little
Moving home was so hard. I was really enjoying my time at BYU. I loved the environment, my independence, the learning I was doing, and I was really starting to feel comfortable among my peers and was starting to come out of my shell. I had made some really great friends. We were having so much fun just being silly freshman. It killed me when I moved home and I would get on Facebook and see pictures of everything I was missing. There was even a boy that I had just noticed, (that no one else had yet) and I really wanted to try to get to know him a little. My RA was going to have a Holi color war the next weekend and I had been part of the planning of that. It was so hard to see everyone’s pictures from that knowing it would have been so much fun. I missed out on the end of the year antics and the last minute hanging out that was going on. From what I can tell, it was kind of like graduating from high school in that we weren’t going to see a lot of these people for a few years. Most of the boys were going on missions and we were all going in different directions. I know there were probably several late night chats, runs to denny’s, hikes to the “Y”, etc. I think my grades probably would have sucked, but I would have really enjoyed it. There were two things that really helped though. One was that my friends sent me a care package. There were just odds and ends in the box, a book, Cadbury mini eggs, stickers, and cards. But it meant they missed me and were thinking of me. I was so homesick for BYU and that really helped. The other thing that helped was the General Conference weekend that came a few weeks later. I was missing my life at college so badly and just really bummed out. I think it was the Saturday afternoon session, we went to the church to watch (this was before it was broadcast on the internet) and I still had to sit with my leg up on the bench. The choir for that session ended up being made up of BYU choir peeps, and Cecil O Samuelson either spoke or said a prayer. I just remember being really excited to see my BYU homies and it made me less sad. It may seem a little silly but I remember feeling at the time thinking that Heavenly Father did it for me to feel less sad about not being at BYU. It was really hard to be home, but that made it a little better. Once everyone else was done with school for the summer it wasn’t as hard either.
My mom has told me since that I had a really good attitude about the whole thing. She tells me that I didn’t really complain or whine about my situation. I don’t remember being cheerful necessarily, but I think I just did what I needed to to get better and got on with it. I know my mom and I definitely bonded over this experience and she did so much for me.
So each year I remember the fateful day I broke my femur on a trampoline. It changed my life in so many ways. It was something hard that I had to work through unlike anything I had to do before. It made me not want to take my body for granted. I may think I can’t do certain things but everything still works and is functional for the most part. You don’t really know what you have until it’s gone. It’s not really a sad or painful memory anymore, mostly just a good story to tell. It’s also something I can look back on and see how hard I worked to overcome the trial.
Happy Ten Year Broken Femur Anniversary!!
Meagan
