Wednesday, February 20, 2013

You Shoulda Seen The Other Guy

Reading my last blog post, you'd think I was gearing up and ready for something fun, maybe a new release or a contest. Or just getting back into the swing of writing regularly again. But as it is with most things in life, the best laid plans often stumble or fall short of our expectations. Well, I have the stumbling and the falling down part, down pat. lol.

I was on my way to mail a package to my aunt for her birthday (which happens to be the same day as mine), when I realized I had a flat tire. Didn't I just go through this tire mess a couple of months ago? Oy. With Bear's help I managed to get the vehicle to an auto repair place nearby. (Yes, there is a reason I made Tyler Murchison in Naughty Little Secrets an auto mechanic. We don't have one in the family. Real estate agents, beauticians, rocket scientists, and barristers are great, but they can't fix a car and aren't usually handy with repair tools...but I digress....)

I went with him on some errands and afterward, we came home. We were both tired and ready to sit back and chill. Maybe have a nice dinner and watch a little TV.

Bear rushed ahead, opening the door, and disappeared inside. I was coming up the concrete and pebble sidewalk when I remembered I'd left my drink in his car, so I went back to get it, and as I was coming up the concrete and pebble front porch steps, my left foot pressed on a section that wasn't as stable as I thought and I lost my balance as that whole section gave way out from under me. I was pitched forward into the edge of the small step right under the front door, and the inside corner of the house.

It happened so fast, I didn't even have time to put out my hands to try and protect myself. Since we have no railing, there was nothing to grab onto, so down I went...face first. Yep, I broke the fall with my nose. I could feel the sickening crunch, a moment of blinding pain in my forehead and the bridge of my nose, then the shaky realization that I was in shock and couldn't move my neck or legs. I tried to sit up and slid back down. I looked down at my hands and knew I was in big trouble. They were cupped under my nose and dark red.

Ya know, Mum had warned me about the steps years ago saying she'd seen me fall and didn't want me to break my nose! Yep. We actually had some guy come out to fix them with a handrail, but he took our money and never came back to finish the job, but he did drill deep holes in the porch before he hit the road, making it worse. ::sigh::

If one of my friend Cora Zane's vamps had wandered by, I'd have been pre-packaged dinner. lol I yelped out for Bear, and after a couple of tries, he opened the door and almost hit me in the face! lol He didn't see me at first, but managed to squeeze onto the porch and helped me sit up. Of course, he thought I'd fallen and skinned my knees or something. But I don't do anything by half measures. Oh no. I'm an all out, full tilt kinda woman. :p

Ready for Halloween a little early.
That's when he almost passed out seeing me in full under the porch light. My hair was matted to my scalp, about ten times redder than my natural hair color, my face was a mess and my eyes were starting to swell shut. We tried to see if I could stand and walk to his car, thinking to go to the immediate care center down the street, but I was having trouble with my head and neck and my legs didn't want to obey my muscles.

With no other options and Bear assuring me that a Band Aid and Neosporin wouldn't fix my problems this time, I agreed to call an ambulance. They were concerned I'd injured my neck and so they fitted a neck cone around me and all I could think of was all the times I'd see a friend's dog in a cone and feel so sorry for them. The ride to the hospital seemed to take forever. I bounced around in there more than a kid in an inflatable bubble play house.

Every time I didn't answer a question fast enough in their speed round of 'concussion' Jeopardy, this one guy would stab me in the chest bone with his fingers and ask me if I was awake. Umm, yes, I am awake...and also have new bruises that have nothing to do with my fall, thank you very much. Ouch!

My eyes were closed, but I could feel them hoisting me off of the ambulance, then a funny thing happened. It was like this incredible warmth encompassing me, very cozy and comforting, and yes, I was moving inside the cliché dark tunnel with a light at the end...except about halfway down the tunnel, I sensed people pushing the gurney take a sharp left and it brought me back into my own little world of pain.

I've stopped counting how many times I've been on that path in the tunnel and gotten jerked away from reaching the light at the end. I guess some of us are too damn stubborn or lucky or cursed. I'm probably all three. lol

Most of my night in ER is a blur, but I do remember Bear snapping pics of me with his iphone (none of those pics are included because they are very icky graphic and ya'll may get queasy seeing them) and me asking him why he's taking my pic when I'm looking my worst, bloody and begging for some pain killers, ugh, dude. (yep I was willing to deal with the rash and barfing from hell if they could just knock me out, that's how bad it was). I do want to give a shout out to Nurse Kelly who didn't sugar coat anything, but was very kind and helpful.  ((hugs))

But the good news is I didn't have anything broken except my nose, but I did have lots of cuts and scrapes and tons of bruises from head to toe *see picture*. No neck or back injury that they could see on the CTscan and although I may need some plastic surgery on the nose sometime in the future, I'm healing and should be back to something close to normal in a few weeks.  I was able to celebrate my birthday this past week and was able to delay having my driver's license picture taken until next month when I will hopefully look closer to human. Of course, the medical bills for this latest adventure are starting to come in and that my friends, is the bad news. Ouch.

Anyhoo, so how've ya'll been? Up to anything interesting? Come on, you can tell me. :D

Until next time,
Cass out

7 comments:

Heather said...

Omigosh! That is so much worse than my recent slip on the basement stairs, and I'm suddenly feeling even luckier than I was feeling that night.

I was doing laundry a couple weeks ago (and yes, this proves housework can be hazardous to one's health). When I went down to put the second load in the washer, I noted drops of water on the floor, a couple feet out. It didn't look like they were coming from the machine, and I couldn't tell if one of the pipes in the apartment above was leaking.

Anyway, I skirted around them, but when I went down to move the towels into the dryer, I must have stepped in one of those water droplets. As I started walking back up the uncarpeted stairs, the sole of my canvas slip-ons slipped and my right instep came down HARD on the edge of a step, while the edge of my right hand struck another.

I was worried about a possible sprained ankle or break, but that definitely pales with breaking one's nose. So glad you did not injure yourself more seriously, and glad you are on the mend!

Cassandra said...

Hi Heather! Oh heck, girl! Basement stairs are a bitch. Glad you didn't break anything and hopefully ice and heat alternated with some Motrin will take care of the sprain. Although, I know sprains can be more painful than a break! Ouch. ((hugs)) Next time, sacrifice a towel to cover those wet spots on the cement floor--and stay safe! Whew-wee.

My real sigh of relief came last week when I was with Bear getting groceries and the cashier told me about a friend of her mother's who fell and hit her head and lost most of her permanent memory. The poor woman couldn't remember her husband or their house and why they had dogs when she didn't like dogs. OMG. A simple fall and then everything you know about your life is gone. After that little story, I was like, Holy Crap! I am very very thankful I only broke my nose.

The other good thing is I didn't need that many stitches to fix up my forehead cuts. Maybe like 10 or 15. Whew. They were deep little suckers and the doctor in ER said they couldn't use Dermabond and it would require sutures. My sister drove down to the ER from across town and I was shocked to see her there as it was like 10 or 11pm by then, but she was great, holding my hand as they stitched me up. Aww, I loves my big sis. I hope her hand is better now after I squeezed the life outta it. lol

All I know is one thing, the next time I write a story and the hero or heroine breaks their nose, there's going to be more than a drop or two of blood (like in the movies and TV) because the truth is those damn broken noses bleed worse than a stuck pig! Yikes! lol

Unknown said...

C.C.!!! Wow, that's worse than I'd even imagined. Oh hugs, sweetie. Get better soon, thank God Bear was there to help you.

Take it easy and rest up!

Cassandra said...

Thanks, Marie. ((hugs)) I only wish he'd stuck around to help me up those stairs! lol

Heather said...

Thankfully, I didn't sprain the ankle, just bruised my foot pretty bad. It's still a little tender, especially after being encased in winter boots all day (no getting around that), and it's certainly given me an out for not exercising the last couple weeks. Since the towels were dirty anyway, I probably should have wiped up the water -- except...I can't say with 100 percent certainty it was water, and not an accident left by someone's dog.

Sadly, that has happened. Not in my current building, but at the old place, and management did nothing when I reported seeing people allowing their dogs to urinate in the basement without cleaning it up. Sooo glad I don't live there any more!

Anyway, I'm glad you didn't suffer severe head trauma/amnesia or more serious injuries in your fall. And yay! for your sister coming to hold your hand.

Unknown said...

OMG Cass..I just read the whole accident story..Christ I feel so sorry for you. What an ordeal. Poor poor thing you.
If life is all about learning we might ask ourselves what the hell kind of lesson is this ?
That's just all you needed right ?!
Take care sweety
love Carla (Chici)

Cassandra said...

Hi Chici! I think the lesson was I should have listened to my mother! lol I sure do miss her something fierce.