One of the projects I have taken on is transferring all of my journals ~ they go back to 1977!! from the paper journals to the computer. Yesterday I found this story I had written in April 2009 ~ it was during a time I was in therapy/healing from my past. I hope you enjoy reading about this event in my life.
Scariest
Event in My Life
by
Ali Workentin
written
April 20, 2009
I
was so excited and yet frustrated to be with my dad for the weekend.
I was excited because it had been since Christmas since we had been
together. I was frustrated because Marlene and her three kids were
also going to be there and all I really wanted was some time with my
dad, alone. Dad picked us upon Saturday morning and after stopping
at the store for some groceries we headed out to the Pudge's where
dad was living. Saturday was a typical day with my dad, with us just
hanging around the place, playing and being kids.
Sunday,
February 4, 1968, in the late afternoon Marlene's kids, my younger
sister and I went out to play Hide-n-Go-Seek in the barn. The hay
was still stacked as it had been for the Halloween Fun Night the
previous October. We played in the barn till dinner. After dinner
we asked my dad if we could go and play in the barn again. He said
yes, just be careful. All of us kids except for Kathy trekked out to
the barn, turning on the perimeter lights and started playing
Hide-n-Go-Seek again. I don't remember who was IT, I just remember I
was one of the kids who was supposed to hide. I remember someone
beginning to count and me crawling down thru one tunnel of hay bales
and then turned a corner into another tunnel. Shortly after turning
down the second tunnel I felt something touch my eye and I screamed.
I was just sure a spider had crawled on me. I started crying. I
cried, “Go get my sister, go get my Daddy.” Eventually my sister
came out to the barn to see what the ruckus was about. One of the
boys told her I crawled into something or something hit me in the
face. I remember just sitting in the tunnel, too scared to move,
afraid that whatever had hit me in the face would hit me again.
After much coaxing, I crawled out to where my sister was standing. I
was holding my hand over my left eye and crying. I don't know if it
was because it was hurting or because I was scared. I really don't
remember it hurting.
My
sister walked me back into the house. My dad asked me what was
wrong. I told him a piece of baling wire had poked me from a bale of
wire into my eye lid. He looked at it, put a cold rag on my face and
gave me two aspirin. I laid on the couch until it was time to go
home. We went home about 9:00 pm after taking Marlene and her three
kids back to their house.
When
we got home I told my mom what had happened. She told me to get
ready for bed and go to bed. We would look at things in the morning.
The next morning when I got up my whole face was swollen. My mom
took one look at me and called the doctor. I could not get in till
4:15 in the afternoon. My face was all puffy and sore. Mom told me
to get my blanket, pillow and some books to read and I would go to
work with her for the day.
Arriving
at the bowling alley, Mom told Don LaFontsee that she would be taking
off work early to take me to the doctor to have my eye looked at. I
went and got into one of the booths by the lanes, across from the
front desk so mom could still see me. I don't remember much of the
day, except for many people coming and looking at my face and
commenting how swollen it was. I know that I slept quite a bit of
the day too.
I
remember that everything was blurry looking and I just wanted my eye
to quit hurting. We got to the doctor's office and we checked in.
I don't remember his name. The nurse looked into my eye with a
flashlight, commenting to my mom that it was very puffy. Duh! The
nurse had me get up on the table to wait for the doctor to walk into
the room. The doctor was a really short and old man. When he walked
in, he looked at me from afar, looked at my mom and said, “I won't
touch her with a 10 foot pole. You need to take her to an eye
specialist right away.”
I
remember thinking “right away” ~ why wasn't it such an emergency
when my mom called in that morning and told them what had happened!
Back into the car we went. The sun was just going down as we drove
from Rancho Cordova to Fair Oaks. We were going to see Dr. Gerber.
I thought that was pretty funny since I had hurt myself at the
Pudge's and they lived on Gerber Road!
We
walked into Dr. Gerber's office, the nurse looked at me and ushered
us right in. It was just a short time later and Dr. Gerber walked
in. He asked my mom what happened. She told him I was playing in
the barn with some friends and some how a piece of baling wire hit me
in the eye. He walked over to where I was sitting, shined a light in
my eye and turned to my mom and said, “I want her to go to the
hospital immediately. We need to start treating her with antibiotics
around the clock.” I thought, “the hospital ~ who is going to
pay for that?” It seemed like mom muttered something about not
having the money to pay for the two appointments already while we
were driving to Dr. Gerber's office. Why did everything have to
revolve around money or the lack there of?
I
remember going to the hospital and being so afraid. Mom kept
reassuring me that things were going to be okay, I would probably
only be in the hospital for a couple of days. Boy was she wrong.
I
was admitted and put into a bed with one other girl in the room. I
don't remember what was wrong with her and I don't think she stayed
the whole time I was in the hospital. I think there were two or
three different girls in the hospital room with me during my stay. I
remember crying a lot the first night as the nurses struggled to put
eye drops in my eye, coming in and giving me shots every four hours
and mom holding me down while the nurse would give me the shot. I
remember screaming and crying, just stop!! It is hurting me, not
helping me. Mom stayed the whole night with me. I remember hearing
her on the phone to Patty to check on my two sisters.
The
next morning mom stayed with me till the doctor came in. He looked
at my eye, told my mom he could see some scratches on the iris and
pupil and he would do his best to make it so I could see clearly
again. I don't remember a whole lot during the time I was in the
hospital. At first I was so sick to my stomach; I am sure it was
from all the crying and fighting I did each time they tried to put
the eye drops in or give me a shot. I remember being alone a lot of
the time during the day as mom was working and Kathy and Joanie were
at school. Mom came to the hospital every night after dinner and
with me till morning. I remember crying a lot and being told not to
cry, it wasn't helping anything and it definitely wasn't helping my
eye to get better.
I
don't remember my dad ever coming to the hospital to see me. I do
remember the last day I was in the hospital a student nurse gave me
my last shot ~ it hurt terribly. I had a total of 104 shots in 23
days while I was in the hospital. When I was released from the
hospital, the doctor apologized to my mom, saying that he was sorry
nothing could be done to get the vision back in my eye. The vision
at that time was cloudy. I could see light/dark and shapes but
nothing else.
Have you experienced a scary event in your life?
How did you deal with it?
