Thursday, December 06, 2007

Me Fall Down, Go BOOM!

I probably should've known better.

Last night was our Christmas skating party for the kids' classes (Royal Rangers and M-pact) that meet on Wednesday nights at church. And, despite the back muscle spasm-type problems I've been having lately, I put on skates and skated.

I skated quite a bit when I was younger and was reasonably good; falling is a rare thing for me. But I had some problems with the tracking on the rental skates; the trucks felt kind of loose. I tightened the laces up after a couple of turns and then worked at figuring out the best way to handle them. I had two close calls, which made my back twinge, but I figured as long as I was careful I was ok.

I still don't really know why I fell. I was coming around the far corner, no one was close to me, I didn't trip or misstep, I didn't feel the skates do anything funny. I didn't even really have time to register that I was losing my balance and fight for it. Just suddenly my feet were going up in front of me and I landed so hard on my backside that I went full out flat on the floor for just a minute. It felt like all my innards were jarred. Unbelievably, no one really saw me fall. Slowly, I kinda rolled over to hands and knees and managed to stand up and skate off to the side, step up onto the carpet. I was heading generally towards the bathroom, because, well, the innard jarring made me feel like I might really want to be in the bathroom before something really embarrassing happened.I made it about 8 feet to the lockers and suddenly got so dizzy that I had to stop and lean against the lockers.

Sounds got distant, my pulse raced and I kind of remember thinking 'I really should sit down,' and I think I started to. Again, I'm not sure what happened, but I fell again...to my knees, and my face hit the floor nose first. Ow. When I sat up, my eyes were watering and my nose was running and I dug through my little fanny pack and pulled out a wad of kleenex, having a bad feeling about the volume of nose-running that was going on. Sure enough, my nose was bleeding profusely. I managed to prop myself leaning against the lockers, holding first one and then another kleenex up to my nose and pinching it hard to try and stop the bleeding. When I was down to one kleenex left, My Sweet Baboo happened to come around the far corner of the rink and I managed to get his attention and he came over. In all that time (maybe 5 minutes?) no one had noticed my distress (One of the other adults commented ironically later, 'Well, I guess we were all really watching those kids well, huh?').

Well, My Sweet Baboo happened to have some cotton balls in his pocket (in case the music had been turned up excessively loud), so I stuffed cotton up my nose and he took off my skates and fetched my shoes. By this time a couple of the kids had noticed that I was behaving abnormally and had asked if I was ok. My head had cleared and I no longer felt in imminent danger of, well, seriously embarrassing myself and others so I felt more foolish than anything. I had My Sweet Baboo walk me down to the other end of the rink where the tables and snack area were so I could sit properly with some back support. I was still holding paper napkins (I'd run out of Kleenex) under my nose...as much to hide the cotton balls in my nose as to staunch any blood that leaked through. I sat there for the last 15 minutes or so, explaining to the folks who now realized there was something wrong that I'd fallen on my nose. When my kids came over after they'd put their shoes on, I got much hugging and sympathetic, 'I love you, Mommy!'s.

I'd worn a black t-shirt over a long-sleeved white t-shirt; there's some blood on the black t but you have to look very closely to see it. Miraculously, there was no blood on the white shirt. I put a ratty pillowcase on my pillow last night so I wouldn't get any blood on the nice new flannel one I'd just finished. I didn't sleep too badly, considering I had cotton up my nose on one side (the left side was the one that was really bleeding so badly). I have a small scrape on the bridge of my nose that apparently was caused by my glasses, some pretty bad bruises on my right hand from catching myself on the first fall, the joint between the bone and cartilage on my nose is sore and swollen, but I don't think anything's broken and there's no visible bruising (yet, anyway). My nose is still seeping just a teeny bit of blood so I'm going to have to be very careful about not blowing it for the next couple of days. And my seat's a bit sore.

So, all in all I'm shook up but ok. However, having a stopped up nose that I can't blow means I'm breathing through my mouth, so I'm going to have to reschedule this morning's dentist appointment. I had planned to work some more on the Christmas shopping today; I think I'll go out tomorrow instead.

Now...can I stand to sit at the sewing machine today? Hm...maybe I'll do some tracing/cutting instead...or, maybe I'll just lie around and forget about trying to be the least bit productive ;).

11 comments:

  1. Ouch, Lisa! Take it easy and rest today, you've been so busy and probably needed a break anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Lisa, that sounds so incredibly painful. Get some rest - there is nothing that can't wait. g

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ouch, there's nothing like gravity when it rears its ugly head! After a fall last winter on my wet tile floor, I am in total sympathy. Don't be embarrassed, though, we've all been there at the beck and call of nature! I only wish someone had had a camera on me when I fell, I'm sure it would have made the "funniest videos" show!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hope you fell better soon! Years ago I missed the final rung of a ladder, fell on my backside, and my tailbone was sore for months! So don't be surprised if you are sore for a while.
    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whoops, that should be hope you FEEL better soon. No pun intended.
    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oww, you poor thing! Hope you haven't done any real damage and are feeling better soon.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh my God, this sounds painful! Take good care of you, hope you're getting better really soon.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh...Falling on one's tailbone area is extremely painful, and I definitely know from experience. The darn thing is, it can take a very long time for minor residual pain to go away. Believe it or not, it took 5 years before I could get out of my car with an aching butt after driving. And I fell at the tender young age of 19 when healing is generally a lot faster. DD#2 felt on her rear end last February and needed x-rays. Again, months before the pain *completely* disappeared. And she was a spry 12-year old when it happened. So I hope you are popping the ibuprofen and Tylenol with a nice pillow for your backside right now. Things like this really stink and are truly a pain in the ass. Did you have to get an x-ray?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I read your post again and you really must have fell with some force! Just wanted to add that when I fell, I had some temporary nerve damage with leg numbness. It truly can be so jarring it can make you nauseous too. It hurts just thinking about it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I fortunately didn't hurt my tailbone this time; I did that when I was in high school, so I do know what that feels like! You're right... months later I was still in agony every time the bell rang and I had to stand up from the hard chair desk to change classes. To this day all it takes is one not-too-hard tap right on my tailbone and my head starts swimming! But all I did this time was bruise my glutes and my nose. No permanent damage...and no ER trip, thank goodness!

    I was really surprised at how hard I hit the floor; if my bum hadn't taken most of the force I think I'd've gotten the wind knocked out. As it was, I shook my nervous system enough that it made me all queasy and lightheaded...which caused the second fall. If I could've just stayed still for a few minutes, I think I would have avoided the whole bloody nose thing. But I didn't think lying flat out on the skating rink was a good idea, and besides, the queasy feeling made me think I should head for the bathroom ASAP. So I fell again.

    Note to self: exercise will help with agility and balance...

    Actually, all things considered, I'm blessed that I didn't hurt myself worse than I did! Thanks everyone for your concern!!!!

    ReplyDelete

Real comments are always welcome! Spam comments will never see light of day ;-)