Fell

The older I get, the more afraid I am of falling and I did it again last Monday.  Instead of removing the little barrier Cindy had on her deck to keep the dogs in, I stupidly decided to step over it.  I didn't even hold on to the railing!  The result was that my shoe hit the top of the barrier (a little table) and I went down like a ton of bricks.  In the split second it took to fall, I remember trying to protect my knee so I hit the ground kind of oddly.  I landed on the outside of my left leg but also hit the outside of my right hand.  It hurt something wicked but I was really more embarrassed than physically hurt.  You always feel like an idiot when you fall.

Cindy and Don felt terrible but I was convinced I hadn't broken anything so just left and drove home.  The pain continued to get worse all evening but I still thought I could manage until morning when I could go to my own doctor for a check-up.  At 1:30 A.M. I couldn't stand the pain any longer and called poor Kim to take me to the hospital.  I am blessed with 3 wonderful daughters that I can always count on but I hated getting Kim out of bed when she had to go to work in the morning.

We spent 3 hours at the hospital (1 doctor available).  After much pleading from me, the nurse gave me some pain meds before the doctor saw me.  My hand and wrist were exrayed and it turned out I'd only chipped a bone at the top of my hand just above the wrist.  It didn't need a cast, just a brace that I had from when I broke my left wrist 1 1/2 years ago.  I was so happy that it was only a chipped bone but it will still take about 6 weeks to heal and I have to mostly wear the brace for all that time.

I see a doctor at the orthopedic clinic  today to make sure all is healing as it should.

Injuries happen so fast and unexpectedly.  Now I'm even more afraid of falling but Shelley said that my bones must be pretty strong if all that happened was a chip and not a break.  I feel very lucky it wasn't worse.