First of all, head injuries suck. Especially when they happen for a stupid reason. (HA!) Of course, as most of you know well, I’m klutzy and therefore I don’t even have to spell out the exact details of how it happened!
Living on limited means makes me conscious of saving money whenever I can. So rather than do laundry and running my dryer during the day, I do it at night. As it uses a lower cost per unit of electricity. In this case, it was midnight. Of course, since I hardly ever sleep, doing laundry at midnight isn‘t much of a hardship!
Which leads to how I was made to feel 18 again despite my advancing years.
It was 12:30 a.m. I go downstairs to empty the dryer, I squat down (rather than bend because of my back being twitchy) Yada-yada-yada… go to stand up, lose my balance and there is nothing to grab but air.
It was about that time that the back of my head made contact with the very solid, heavy 80-year-old-house-built-with-really-good-strong-lumber side of the staircase. The only give there was probably my head.
Cripes.
Yeah… it’s been quite awhile since I’ve been ‘star struck’ but trust me… I saw Orion and the Big Dipper and they were spinning! I knew I didn’t get up right away, but I don’t know if I actually lost consciousness, but I sure was stunned.
I managed to get to my feet and up the stairs. This was not easy. It seemed as if my 10 step staircase had morphed into 20 or 30. My head hurt sure, but I thought I was okay. I sat down in the living room and would have actually shook my head in amazement over the fact that I have done that same thing time and again and never lost my balance before… but it hurt too much to shake anything.
After about 15 minutes, I decided to get up and look at my head when a very strange thing occurred… I was transported back the days of my, “I’m-legal-now!“ drinking. Translation? The room started to spin, I kept listing to the left and it seemed as though I was as hammered as I had been when I first turned 18. When I could say, “Hey! This is fun!” (Well, it was until the next morning anyway. It was no surprise that by the time I was 19, drinking to excess had lost most of its luster!)
I managed to get back to my chair and begin to assess. I knew I had hit pretty hard, and the possibility of closed head injuries became foremost in my mind. (Well, the small part that hadn’t yet completely reverted to 18 again)
The more I thought about that, the more I thought about the actress that died a few months ago from a brain bleed. Then I began to calculate in the fact that I take blood thinners.
Creepy.
It was around this time that I began to realize my neck & shoulder were becoming rather painful. Then I started to get seriously nauseous. That was the final straw. That is one of the big warning signs in head injuries… well, that and feeling 18 again.
I decided to drive to the hospital and get checked out. Part of me was saying, “No... driving is not an option here, Injury-Girl!” (My secret identity) When, while searching in vain for my car keys and not finding them, my head suddenly felt like it’d been slammed again.
I dialed 911 and went and sat on my front porch, talking to the 911 operator until the ambulance arrived. I have wondered if I might have lapsed into unconsciousness had she not kept me talking.
These are FANTASTIC people by the way… if there is anything done where you live to benefit Emergency Dispatch Officers, EMT’s and the like… contribute in way you can. They deserve recognition for their fine service to the communities they serve!
The 911 operator thought it was nice of me to ask they not run into my neighborhood with the sirens on. (It would have disturbed my neighbors big time! And they’re normal people that actually sleep at night!) Once they arrived she signed off. I then realized I was talking on my cordless house phone.
Damn.
Hmm… leave it on the porch? Put it in the mailbox? The EMT’s putting my neck in a brace seeing as I can no longer turn my head without it bringing tears to my eyes… so I hand it to the other EMT that has my purse and ask her to stuff it in there.
She laughed.
There is one thing I can say with conviction. Ambulances may have air-shock-ride stabilizers but the bottom line is they are nothing more than ¾ ton trucks and they ride like lumber wagon buckboards!
About a block from my house I began hoping the next lurch & jar of a pothole would make me lose consciousness! The ride was a nightmare of pain with each bump. I have decided there are only two ways to ride in an ambulance. Out cold or too altered to care. (Guess that's why they call them 'Emergency Vehicles, eh?) Sadly, I was just shy of both! With each jolt I became fully aware of one thing. I was glad I’d called 911. I was hurting. For me that, was saying a lot.
I was wheeled into the ER about an hour after my initial fall. I was becoming wracked with pain. With so many medication allergies, they were concerned with what they could safely give me.
In the meantime, I was very thankful I wrote down all my medical issues, medications and general medical information and kept a copy of it in my purse. I was not sure if I was answering some of the questions correctly.
With IV’s inserted, labs drawn, pain meds on board and braces in place, I was quickly wheeled down to CT for my first scan of the night. Then came the shoulder x-rays. I’m no stranger to pain and discomfort, but some of those positions for clear pictures brought tears to my eyes.
I vaguely remember thinking to myself that I was glad I’d already had some pain meds… I think without them, I would have actually cried out. Or just cried period.
Sucks that.
Once they cleared my C-spine the neck brace came off but the x-rays showed a separated shoulder. The good news being it appears it is a Type 1 separation which means there aren't any tears or worse, a complete separation that would require surgery down the line.
YAY!
Once back in the ER the doctor explained my injuries in detail so I understood all they’d discovered. Which of course, was a little silly considering the fact that the pain meds were at their peak.
That means that a Q & A about pain would have gone something like this,
“Are you still experiencing pain?”
“Yes.”
“On a scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate your pain at?”
“Who cares?”
Yes… Demerol is a beautiful thing when you’ve just scrambled your brains.
After a few hours of close observation, they did a repeat CT and we were rewarded with an all clear on the possibility of a sub-dural hematoma. So they decided not to admit me for additional observation.
DOUBLE YAY!
Seeing as it was just around sunrise, I decided to cab it home and was glad to walk back through my door and the general chaos that is my house.
Oh… those car keys I couldn’t find? Well, there they were, big as life, right on the counter top.
Who says there is no such things as Guardian Angels?
