Stuff happens along ‘the way’!

In the words of my EndorphinGirl® daughter Mia, it’s been a minute. We have all been busy behind the scenes and I’m glad to be back blogging.

Rather than a footnote to this blog, this is a front-note to this blog! Over the past several months I have been working on my story, a book to share initially with my kids about my life, my escapades and some. It has become an amazing exercise of self awareness, growth & development, filled with some belly laughter, some tears and a whole slate of other emotions for me to experience. The following story is one in my bigger story of life. It took me about a year before I could talk about this particular escapade more broadly and without laughter or tears but now it is possible. So here you have it. Oh yeah and the book to follow, stay tuned on that!

In October 2019 I did a part of the Camino de Santiago walk (some say pilgrimage) in Spain. A few months earlier I had done my second yoga teacher training which was a 300 hrs program in Italy. I love Southern Europe and was really bendy and happy and ready for the Camino walk. I was high on life.

As we started the Camino walk, Day 1 was filled with a sense of adventure and a real mix of weather. The roads were a challenge but there was complete excitement and contentment in what and how you felt, meeting people from all over the world walking the same path all for their own reasons, including spiritual, adventure, exercise, to disconnect/reconnect, or just for fun. Each morning we set our own routines and rituals before we departed. At the end of Day 1, I had an unimaginable accident - not on the walk, which could have been possible, some of the terrain, while beautiful was tricky to walk, but in the bathtub. Imagine the worst possible dental accident (i.e., front tooth gets knocked out and happening in a foreign country) laughter right now is permitted! [Laughter at anytime throughout the story is permitted too!]

Backstory - after Day 1 we were tired (still a bit jet lagged) and I was resting in a yoga pose (legs up the wall aka Viparita Karani). My friends were showering before dinner. There were two bathrooms. I used the bathroom with the shower that was connected to a tub that you had to step up and into. My friend Pat had used it just prior. Initially I did not notice that the floor was wet or that there was no bath mat or towel on the floor. And Pat, a nurse, was out-of-it-tired too because the Pat I know would have warned me about the wet floor. I stepped in the high tub to shower and realized I left my soap and shampoo on the sink and had to get out of the tub to get it.

Only then did I notice the wet floor. I carefully stepped out of the tub, grabbed my stuff and tried to carefully step back in - but to no avail. The next thing I knew I was standing in the tub, blood gushing from my face and somehow my front tooth was in my hand - in tack. WHAT? Again permission to laugh. I must have unknowingly gotten myself up, after I picked up my tooth from somewhere in the bathtub. I don’t recall how the tooth ended up in my hand or the fall but I do vaguely recall the scream that bellowed from me. And in a nanosecond my friends were in the bathroom. I was standing there stark naked, profusely bleeding with my front tooth in my hand - perhaps in some kind of shock. The look on their faces scared me more! Again permission to laugh.

My friend Pat (the nurse, grabbed the tooth) ran to the kitchen fridge, found some milk and put it in a cup of milk. Now the chances of milk being in the fridge in the Airbnb in Spain we had just literally gotten to were slim - but how lucky. Even luckier was that Pat somehow knew that if you put a tooth in milk within 30 minutes of it falling out you can likely save it. It is a good thing I was out of it, because I was a new ‘vegan’ and I may have disputed my tooth going into ‘milk’. Permission to laugh!

As I waited for Pat to bring my tooth back, I did take a peak in the mirror to see what I looked liked. Well it was not pretty - me with a missing front tooth, bruised cheek and big fat lip, along with the entire right side of my body bruised. Blood everywhere. How the tooth was in tack and I did not have a concussion or worse is a mystery but one not to figure out. After Pat ‘took care of my tooth’ she gave it to me to stick back in my mouth in its original place :). Which I did and held it in place as we sorted what to do. [At that time all I could think of was ‘ I am not traveling around Spain with a missing front tooth’ - this was slightly pre-Covid times and masks were on no one’s radar.]

Meanwhile my friend Tricia, our trip translator’ had been actively researching ‘tooth’ issues too. And she had run outside to the local restaurant (where we had picked up our airbnb key), to try to get some info / help. It was the only place in the village open on a Sunday evening. I wound up in the the emergency room a few towns away from where we were staying, and the next morning at the local dentist. Even figuring out how to get to the hospital on a Sunday evening in Spain was an adventure. Oh that was a story too.

We made our way to an emergency room about 30 minutes away, via the only taxi service in town which was super hard to figure out how to reserve. But Tricia succeeded in her college learned Spanish by talking with the restaurant keeper trying to explain the crazy story that unfolded in the bathtub and then directing the taxi driver to hospital. We walked into the ER and it was empty but for a man (non English speaking) behind a desk. We tried to explain our situation and he said the doctor was out on a house call and we’d have to wait. Meanwhile, we were texting and/or calling our local dentists back home for advice but it was Sunday afternoon Stateside so to no avail. (Later when they did respond all were impressed by Pat’s handling of my tooth and our collective team work of the ‘situation’.)

The doctor and nurse finally arrived back at the hospital, and they too were impressed with the status of my predicament. It was also interesting when the man and woman, nurse and doctor respectively, walked in the ER we wrongly assumed the doctor was the man - it was opposite. They gently got a kick out of this. Neither of them spoke English but there is always an unspoken universal language when you travel anywhere. At least I believe this.

She (the doctor) couldn’t do more for me then we’d already done, but she did give me an antibiotic and make an appointment at a local dentist for the next morning. They both also really enjoyed talking with all of us (well perhaps I was not saying much given the tooth situation) and kept us there longer than necessary, which was kind of funny. The ER desk attendant managed to get us a ride back to town.

We hadn’t eaten since lunch so we stopped back in the local restaurant for something to eat (or drink in my case as I was still biting down on a cloth to keep my tooth in tack). As we walked into the packed restaurant there was complete silence and then we saw some fellow Camino walkers and everyone started to cheer. Word had spread in the town and it felt like the entire town seemed to know about my predicament! :). We had some good laughs about that and drank some really good red wine. The next morning I visited the dentist. It was a bit tricky to explain because he too didn’t speak English (although the doctor had sort of clued him in). But eventually he got it and he put a stint in my mouth to hold my tooth in place until I got home. The stint didn’t stay in for too long in fact I think I swallowed it (haha) but I did hold the tooth in place the 12 hours prior by pressing down on a cloth, which really helped to lock it in.

As I thought about continuing the walk, I reflected on my recent completion of some of the AngelLink Attunements. The few years prior up to then I had been focused on learning about many holistic and spiritual modalities and practicing some too. One of them being the ArchAngel (AA) Michael and AA Raphael attunements through the Lightarian Institute. I decided to really “let them in” and be guided as I thought about completing the walk. In particular AA Michael was in the forefront but they both continued with me. Pun or no pun intended. I also told my friends I would play it by ear if I could do the rest of the walk; they did not want to go without me.

After the early dentist visit, it was time for Day 2 of the Camino walk. I felt okay, had started taking the antibiotics, and decided to go one step at a time, with the intent to finish the walk! (The one-step-at-a-time mindset is how I climbed and summited Mt. Rainier :) ). I truly believe if you put your mind to do something you can, and using any support around you is a plus. Whatever that support may include.

I kept AA Michael and AA Raphael ‘support’ on my mind. AA Michael is known as the AA of protection. AA Raphael is known as the AA of healing. Seriously, why not focus on that support?! 😉 And all of the days that followed. I really felt like AA Michael was a protection.

In a span of 5+ days we walked about 125 miles. Each morning and evening I would assess how I felt. But being in good mind, body and spirit I knew I could and would complete the Camino walk. (And also keep my tooth in tact - I was not going to be ‘front toothless.’) There was only one night after walking I felt really bad. It was about 3 days in and I just took some Advil, said some prayers and went to bed early and fortunately was fresh the next morning.

When we got to Santiago it was simply amazing. The energy of the place was infectious. It really is crazy the unexpected stuff that happens in life. We can get ourselves through anything and there is always great support around too. Spiritual and Physical both. I would not want to have been on ‘the way’ with anyone else as we navigated the challenges of our journey. Mind over matter with some great support saved my tooth and got me finishing our journey. Belief in the magic around us and in ourselves does wonders.

***

While we did just a portion of the Camino, which was always our intention, we were all pleased with ourselves. I have been through a lot of challenging things in my life, but this was something else. I never expected the walk to be as beautiful and challenging as it was - of course this is ‘salted’ with the accident - but my friends felt the same way. For me much reflection from that journey only happened post my Camino walk and even continues today. I was recently sharing this story with another friend and she said something like “it was the way” to go. And I was reminded of the movie “The Way” with the actor Martin Sheen. Without giving too much away about the movie it is predominately about the ‘journey of grief and grace” on a Camino walk by different individuals, which I think is so beautifully stated and relevant to our journey. To any journey. Really to life!

Namaste!

p.s. if you are wondering about the famous tooth, while the main nerve in my front tooth is dead, and I had just one root canal, my front tooth is still in tact and beautiful as ever! Check out the picture!

This is us today.

And look at that beautiful front tooth! 😉