PTSD 1978

It’s January 27, 2018, the dead of winter, what else should I talk about?  Summer, of course!

A few people, ok, more like a total of 2 friends have asked me to blog again.  Go figure, they like my stuff!   Problem is, I got nuttin in my SAD head to blab, I mean, blog about.  Husband Joe asked, “Do you have brain Bloggage?” Yes, I do, and that’s pretty funny, I’m going to use that, thanks!  So, to keep my 2 fans tuned in, I’m going to defer to my favorite personal PTSD story.  We all have one don’t we? Don’t worry, no labor and delivery horror stories, not yet anyway!

It was either June 17th, 18th, or 19th. ….On one of these dates in June, I graduated from high school in ‘77, another date I graduated from nursing school in ‘82, and the last date, I got jolted, literally, and that was in 1978.  I just can’t ever remember which June day was which.  I could go look it up, but I’m too lazy.

Anywho, the above first two events are pretty self explanatory.  Graduations!! Yeah!! Good times!! Although, one could easily argue that surviving 3 years of absolute hell, I mean, nursing school, could result in PTSD,  but that’s not what I’m talking about here.  This third and very memorable (aka traumatic) event was literally burned into my brain, however it entered through the back of my then, very toned left thigh and exited out my left pinky toe.  That’s right, lightning.  Very lucky, I was, we all were.  We, being our entire women’s softball team, most of whom, all got zapped.

It was a 3H summer evening, Hazy, Hot and Humid.  Ok, it was still spring, but it was close to summer!  We had an away women’s softball game in Old Slyme, CT. (Sorry, Old Lyme, that’s what we called you!)  Old Slyme’s (OSL) team, by our own self proclaimed amazing standards, wasn’t very good.  The drive from Clinton was a good 30+ min ride, but felt more like about a 3 hour drive.  Once we got over the Saybrook bridge, we got off 95N and headed south for several miles. (Who knew OSL had this much land south of the bridge?)   “Are we there yet?”  Nope.  Keep gooooing, but don’t miss the left turn or we’ll end up in East Slyme! (You knew that was coming!) We continued driving up and down and all around winding roads to some elementary school on I think it was called, Mile Road, which should’ve been named 100 Mile Road. (Did that sign just say, Welcome to Rhode Island?)  We found it! Yippie!  Remember, no GPS in 1978!  How did we ever get by?  We can thank those Weekly Reader maps from 4th grade!

OLS’s field was tucked way back in almost the (freakingfanelli) woods, you know, near all the mosquitoes and ticks! Good thing Lyme Disease wasn’t even on our radar back then, but the bad thing, we didn’t have radar on our cell phones either!  Cell phones?  More like NO phones, which would’ve been helpful to summon 911 help.  Thee bottom line, we wanted an easy Win and then get heck out of Old Slyme, hit the Jug Inn, and not have to return there until next year’s away game.  Little did we know that some of us would be Carl Lewis Olympic sprinting it the heck out of there, while others lay motionless on the ground.

The game was going well, we were winning! (Of course we were!)  Then we heard it.  Off in the distance, a rumble of thunder, or was that a plane?  Uh oh, there it goes again, maybe it’s not a plane.  We could NOT really see any major dark clouds because this storm was approaching us from behind the thick forest of trees.  It was getting a little darker, but it wasn’t anything that made us really worry.

Drip, ..drip,.. dripdripdrip,  It was starting to rain.  What inning was it? Top of 4th.  Crap, not enough, we needed to get in a full 5 innings for it to count, cuz we sure as heck didn’t want to drive ALL the way back there AGAIN!   We were winning and it was an away game, so we had to keep playing.  Hurry, up, hurry up, gotta get this game in…More thunder, hmmm, that one was little louder, must be getting closer.  Can’t really see it, gotta still be a little ways away from us, besides, the Ump isn’t calling it yet.  Good thing that we’re up at bat and protected by all these nice tall trees (soon to learn this is not a good thing!) sitting on these nice wooden benches with their huge metal legs and bolts (also not a good thing). We were so glad that we were at bat and not out in the field.  Those players are the tallest things out there!!  I’m glad I’m not up yet either, aren’t those bats metal? Yup. Don’t stand on deck holding that bat if you don’t have to!

FLASSSSH/CCCRRRAAACCCKKK!  (No need to count the seconds in between, there weren’t any!!)  I know this sounds crazy, but I honestly didn’t know what happened as it was happening.  All I remember was hearing a realllllly LOUD noise and simultaneously getting lifted, completely, arse and all, off the bench with my left leg flying higher than a NYC Rockette.  Kathy “Gladbags” Gladwin was on my left side and holy cow, she literally flew OFF the bench and landed about 6’ behind the bench. How’d she do that? She was next to me one minute, gone the next.  SCCCCREAMSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!   Oh, yeah!

I landed back down on the bench and immediately ran as fast as I could, ok maybe not Carl Lewis fast, more like, Carla Lewis fast.  It was as fast as my long, scared to death legs would take me, but yes, tall girl here, ran hunched over, not wanting to be the tallest thing in that big open softball field!  Maybe, seeing that I was all hunched over, it was more Grandma Lewis fast….thank goodness, no cell phone videos!

Anywho, I got to Nancy Javor’s car and Nancy was already there.  She had been on 2nd base and may not have felt anything, but she SAW the whole damn thing unfold.  She described it as the biggest flash of light she’s ever seen, almost as if a bomb blew up right in front of her.  Bodies went flying everywhere.

We climbed into her unlocked mother’s yuge brown Chevy Impala station wagon, fondly named, Gertrude.  Gertrude could fit almost half of our team!  But, where were they? Where was everyone? Now real panic started to set in. Where’s Gladbags? Where’s Hedge? Oh, here she comes.  Why didn’t everyone run like we did?  Are they OK??  Maybe we should drive Gertrude over towards the bench.  Where are the car keys? In Nancy’s bag behind the bench.  Ugh. Now what?  What the heck happened anyway?  I think we were struck by lightning!!!  OMG!!!

Yes, we were.  Well, it wasn’t a direct hit, not too many people survive a direct hit.  Remember that tall forest of trees surrounding the field?  Well, one not so lucky tree, right behind our bench, took the direct hit.  The electricity from the lightning strike didn’t stop at the tree, it kept Energizer bunny going, seeking other conductors, like those metal poles in the ground holding up our nice wooden bench, secured with huge metal bolts, a few of which Gladbags and I were sitting directly on, specifically, my left leg.

John Carlson, a husband of one of our teammates had his hand leaning against that same unlucky tree when lightning struck.  (Later on we learned, it hit just a foot or so above his hand.)  John ended up in full cardiac arrest and was revived by a very smart and cool headed OSL coach who performed CPR on him.  (Best to rethink that Old Slyme nickname!)

Not sure who called 911, but ambulances, firemen, cops, and many EMS personnel showed up.  Many teammates like Gladbags, we’re temporarily paralyzed.  They could not move their legs.  They lay there on the ground unable to get up while the storm was right overhead!  After a few minutes, the temporary paralysis eased and with others’ help somehow got to the cars.  John and his the wife, Nikki, both ended up in ICU at Middlesex Hospital for a few days.  Both, thank God, survived the lightning strike.  We found out later that the coins in John’s pockets made for pretty bad burns.

Cindy Hedge’s, now late, father, Mr. Patrick Hedge, who was very high up in the CT State Police, drove a bunch of us in his tank of a squad car to L&M Memorial Hospital to get our vital signs checked, etc.  (He really was the coolest, funniest, nicest man, with the best smile around.  Nothing phased him, nothing.  I felt comforted knowing he was driving us to the hospital.  I don’t know why, I just did.  Believe it or not, he was not even at our game.  He heard the calls on his police radio and just like that, voila, he appeared.  The guy was smooth.)

So, thank God, again, we were physically fine, mentally, not so much.  I had a burn mark on the back of my left thigh and what looked like a big popped blister on my left pinky toe.  Entrance and exit.  My sock had a hole in it and a burned mark around the hole.  I saved it.  It’s somewhere downstairs in my cellar.  It’s probably disintegrated by now, but it was proof!  I do have my own built in radar now, no not on my cellphone, I just know.  Call it KateDar, it’s better than Channel 3’s Doppler Gaydar. Sorry, Scot Hiney, couldn’t resist..

I continued playing softball for many, many years.  I took a little time off for 2 pregnancies.  I even came back ~3 weeks after Bridget was born, complete with both a nursing bra and sports bra two sizes too small to help hold the mammaries in place.  I couldn’t breath well, but I saved the liquid gold supply.

The final straw of “you’re not as young as you used to be” sadly hit home at my last time at bat.  Stupid grounder to short, crap, not even out of the freakingfanelli infield.  I still sprinted to first, only to end up pulling not one, but two hammies!!  Dunn is Done.  Put a fork in her!  Go ahead laugh, my husband did! “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone pulling two hammies at the same time!”

Now, it’s golf.  But, be it softball, golf, a picnic, on the beach, you name it, my KateDar can pick up dark clouds, rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning w/in a 50 mile radius. Just ask my husband, my kids, my brothers, my parents, my close friends, my teammates,….they all laugh at me, they make jokes, they tell me it’s so far away it’s not even close yet!!  Sorry, I don’t care what you say or think.  I’m outta here! If you need me, I’ll be under my bed, thinking about my next blog….let’s see, 36 hours of labor and then how many hours of pushing???…..

P.S. Our women’s softball team was sponsored by Lupone’s Dept. Store in Clinton, CT.  After getting zapped, we were known then as Lupone’s Lightning! We even sewed felt lightning badges on our sleeves.  And yes, we came in first place for the season! We were all both pretty lucky and pretty good!

XO, Kate  1/27/18