SCARIEST MOMENT EVER!

My husband decided he was going to borrow his brother's truck and get rid of some of our broken appliances that we've collected over the year we've lived here. We got the oven out of the garage and some random garbage that was too big or too heavy for cans, and then he and our 16 year-old "Tank" went to the basement to get the TWO dishwashers and the washing machine. I went up to my room to fold the laundry and when I was done with that I sat down and got on the computer. I don't remember what exactly I was doing on the computer so it was likely I was just farting around on Facebook lol.

I heard a very loud profanity come from Tank in the basement. I didn't concern myself with that because I often hear profanities spew from my three oldest children. I don't condone it (I certainly don't swear much -- I kind of feel cursing is for people who aren't intelligent enough to find words to describe a situation, but I do say *bad* words occasionally, so I don't forbid it. I just tell them NEVER around teachers or people of authority who deserve more respect than that, and NEVER EVER around ANY of your grandparents , and so help you if I catch you swearing in front of my littles) but it does happen so I let it pass, but then I heard MULTIPLE LOUD crashes and he kept on screaming swear words. It was obvious that all the crashes was something large and heavy going down the stairs and I did NOT hear any yells from my husband, and if you know my husband you know he's not above screaming every swear word in the book so loud that people  in the next town look up from whatever they're doing and say, "what on Earth was THAT?!?"

Even before the crashes stopped I was out of my chair like a shot out of a gun and flying down the stairs screaming, "ARE YOU OKAY?!? ARE YOU OKAY?!?" with no answer from either my husband OR Tank.

As I rounded the corner and headed down into the basement I saw the dolly and the washing machine thrown to the side of the stairs, my stepson Tank (16) looking down and yelling, "Dad? DAD?!?" and I looked down to see only my husband's legs sticking out from under the pool table and on top of Christmas boxes.

~*~
After packing all our Christmas ornaments and decorations I was going to put them away (they have a corner of the garage dedicated to just them) but my husband had told me not to until we got some palettes to set over there in case our floods this Spring got to be as bad as LAST Spring....something we decided to do when we lost quite a bit of our child-made decorations to mold when we had over a foot of water in our basement last year. So I had left them all in front of the pool table until we got the palettes.
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Anyway, I ran down the rest of the stairs and since my husband was not responding to my stepson's screaming his name, I ordered Tank to "Get me a phone. RIGHT now!" He stood staring at his dad wile I placed a hand on The Mr's leg and I again told him to get me a phone, except this time I screamed "GET ME A PHONE!!" in case he still wouldn't respond and maybe one of the other kids could hear me and fetch me one, since I wasn't going to leave my husband there to get a phone. My two older kids are certified in CPR but I have a lot more experience in dealing with emergencies, I keep a cool head like you wouldn't believe and even though I'm not legally certified I remember every bit of my CPR and emergency response classes.

Just at that moment, however, even though he didn't move, my husband croaked "I'm okay." I began checking his legs for breaks while asking him questions, I began removing the boxes under his legs so he could straighten them out on the ground and then I started checking what parts of him I could see for gashes or broken bones. After a few seconds he attempted to get up, and it took a few (he said he had the wind knocked clear out of him) but he did stand up. I began checking his head for blood and fractures, checked his eyes for a concussion (which greatly irritated him) and checked his back. One very long but VERY shallow scratch that barely bled is all the injury he seemed to suffer.

STILL I forced him to take a break, because I know how adrenalin can mask pain. While he took his wife-enforced break I checked my kid to make sure HE was okay! He said the washing machine didn't strike him as it did his dad but The Mr said Tank was the one that threw the washing machine to the side with his bare hands to get to his father, so I made sure to check him for strains.

After a while they were both okay, and my husband Stephen-Kinged the washing machine by tearing it up into several pieces and throwing the pieces into the back of the truck to get rid of it.

Meanwhile, I had gotten my fair share of adrenalin and I had nothing to do to get rid of it so I just had to wait it out. Generally it makes me very nauseated. I felt sick the rest of the day and could barely get any dinner down.

What they say happened was The Mr was underneath the washing machine pushing it up the stairs while my stepson had the dolly and was pulling it up one stair at a time. Somehow Tank angled the dolly wrong and my husband didn't realize it to compensate and the washing machine slipped right off the dolly and struck the Mr in the chest, knocking him clean off the stairs. Judging solely on the length of time I heard the crashing noises, they were pretty close to the top of the stairs. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that all those Christmas decoration boxes were scattered on the ground to catch his fall, but he must have at least hit the pool table because it moved almost a foot. I have not checked the boxes to see if anything broke yet, I'm still watching my husband for telltale signs that he hurt his back again (last time he had a slipped disk he was out of work for 8 months!!!!)  and lecturing BOTH of them about TYING LARGE APPLIANCES TO THE DOLLY SO THEY CAN'T SLIP OFF!!!!!!

My macho husband complained that "back in the day" he would have "caught that [expletive deleted] and held it until we got the dolly back under it."

Well whatever.

In any case I will keep my eye on him a while longer yet and I hope that will be the scariest moment of 2015 because I was TERRIFIED when all I saw was his legs and he wasn't responding or moving whatsoever!!!

Thank God they seem to be okay.