A Tall Tale

Jackson just completed 3rd grade.  He brought home a big packet full of things he had completed this year and was especially proud to show me a story he had written about me.  It started out as a true story when I told it to him one day but it has now obviously evolved into a Tall tale.  Here is what he wrote........

     "Imagine if your mom were dead or alive.  Well that happened to me.  It was winter, 1989, just so you know my mom had 9 siblings.  First they couldn't fit everyone in the car.  The road was very icy.  They had a crazy idea.  They got a rope and tied it to a sled and of the car!  They put my mom on the sled!  They went very fast!  My mom fell out of the sled!  She screamed!  They took her to the doctor.  The doctor said my mom was fine.  She stayed in bed for a long, long, long time.  Something happened that the doctor didn't want to happen.  When they were going skiing my grandmother felt like leaving her at home!  So my mom stayed in bed for a long, long, long time.  Then they took her to the doctor.  Then they found out she had to have surgery.  The doctor said to my grandmother it was good that you left her home.  If you took her to us we would do the wrong surgery and she would die!  I am happy to have a mom.
The End"

Most of you know the actual facts but if you don't -
I was about 10 years old.  We were up in Idaho visiting my Grandma who had just been called on a mission.  The Saturday before her farewell we went out sledding behind the car with our cousins (for fun -not out of necessity).  I did fall  off and hit a railroad tie that was sticking up out of someones yard (a decoration of sorts?).  Anyway it seemed like a basic injury so I slept on the floor in my parents room that night so they could keep an eye on me.  The next day was the farewell which everyone went to while I rested at Grandmas (not skiing).  As soon as the farewell was over we headed home to Utah and called the doctor.  After some x-rays we found that I had lacerated my liver and had been bleeding internally for the last two days (I had lost 1/3 of the blood in my body).  My mom has forever been haunted that I could have died sleeping in their room.  The miracle was that in the next few days with lots of blood tests monitoring my condition they determined I was healing on my own and would not need surgery.  However that did mean one month in bed and 3 months of no activity (a long, long, long, time as Jackson said).  Had I gone to the hospital immediately following the accident up in Idaho, they most likely would have done an emergency surgery which could have been a little scary since there was so much blood loss - the doctor said it would have been a feeding ground for all kinds of bacteria and could have resulted in all kinds of infections.  I think Jacksons version is better though!