8 stitches under my left eye…oh my!
Part of the plan to be able to pay the rent on the house in The Villages was to relocate my belongings from monthly storage into the garage.
The journey began safely enough…me, myself and I packed the and then unpacked the Jeep three times on Friday evening.
Saturday began innocently enough; I rented a truck and had planned to do the bulk of the work myself. I had expected that the Universe would provide help for the bigger part of the move, but just in case, I called a friend to ask for help with the bigger items. Instead, thankfully, my friend joined me for the fun. We had transported and unpacked one full truck load and were working on loading the truck a second time. In fact, we had just finished loading nearly everything when I went back to the storage unit to get an old rug to use to protect my $3,200 massage chair from the door of the truck…and that is when everything changed.
A little about my asking for help, another email that goes around now and again is the one about the man who was in the middle of a flood…when he’s offered assistance (a log floating by, a boat with people offering help, a helicopter with people offering help), he refuses saying “God will save me”. Then he drowns and asks God “why didn’t you save me”. That’s when he gets told, “I sent you a log, a boat and a helicopter!!!” I’m grateful that I overcame my reluctance and called a friend for help, because if I had been alone, I probably would have been able to get to the hospital by myself, etc., etc., but it was wonderful to have a friend there when I needed one.
Back to the events of the day…Either I didn’t lift the metal door high enough, OR, it rolled back down and I didn’t pay attention, but rug in hand, I turned to walk back to the truck, had only taken one step, when I walked right into a sharp metal strip at the base of the roll down door. I immediately felt the blood running down my face as I put my hand up to cover my cheek and eye. When I saw my friend’s face, I knew I had really done some damage. Ok, it was pretty obvious to me too, the blood was running down my face and dripping on the pavement, so yeah, I knew it was bad too.
Thankfully, I had a first aid kit in the Jeep and it had a sterile gauze pad to take the place of my dirty and sweaty hand. My serious side kicked in and I remained calm as we made sure everything was locked up, both the storage unit and the truck…and, then, off we went to the emergency room.
Fine and dandy, but we had no idea where the emergency room was. We both knew where there was a hospital, but upon arriving it turned out to be a medical center and there was no indication of a hospital anywhere…as we pulled into the medical center entrance we finally saw the “H” sign…and we both sighed with relief. A left turn to follow the second “H” and we canned the area for the emergency room. There was a small arrow pointing straight ahead, but straight ahead was a parking lot…(added 5/16, the reason for the difficulty was that we had come in from the back of the property, today I drove past the entrance and the Emergency room is clearly identified).
I could bore you with the rest of this story, but suffice it to say, I finally made it to the emergency room. As I waited, the pain increased and I wondered what kind of damage I had done. It never occurred to me that I might have broken my cheekbone, but the reality of the $1200 deductible didn’t help matters one bit. I started to hyperventilate, but then I realized that there would be a bill and I could pay as I am able…right now, I just needed to focus on maintaining some sense of normalcy, as my friend was growing increasingly worried and it wouldn’t be good for both of us to require treatment, SOMEONE had to drive home. Since things have been working out so magnificently recently, might as well stay in the moment and act like a grown up person instead of a like a scared little girl. That was the idea, UNTIL they mentioned the CAT scan to see if I had fractured my orbital bone….
What did manage to help me remain sane, quiet and joke about my own experience was that there was another patient in the area who had chipped some of the bones of his lower spine and who was facing surgery. Given that I didn’t know the complexities of a fractured orbital bone, hearing that someone might be facing being paralyzed made me realize how lucky I was to have only cut my face. Besides, as I had joked with the imaging technician, what could they do about a fractured orbital bone? I mean, I’ve never seen anyone with a cast on their head.
In no time at all, I had been medicated, CAT scanned, blanketed (I was freezing) and stitched up. I even drove back to the storage facility to get my friend’s car. Then it was a matter of getting the prescription filled, a hot shower (I was sweaty and a bit stinky, too, after having been packing and unpacking in the hot sun most of the day), and eating something. When the time came to take another pill, I realized I didn’t hurt any more. It’s been 24 hours since I arrived home from the emergency room and I haven’t had to take anything for pain.
I have 8 stitches and a black eye, but everyone has been really nice and when I tell them that I walked into a door, well, it’s been comical as well.
The last post was about gratitude. The doctor who worked on my face has the same last name as I, AND he is part American Indian. My family has a connection with the American Indian, and I guess you can’t get any closer to a possible relative than by sharing the same last name. My mom was thrilled when I told her; she supports the St. Joseph’s Indian School and only donates to Indian causes. Then, when I went to the pharmacy, many of the items I haven’t had time to purchase were ALL ON SALE, and while waiting for the prescription to be filled, I went shopping. I left the pharmacy and then made it to Publix 3 minutes after they had closed, but the manager let me in anyway. Having a black eye and a swollen cheek with eight stitches will take you places!!
I credit the massive amounts of antioxidants in the chocolate I’m eating with the lack of pain I’ve experienced (after the initial round of pain, that is). The healty chocolate and the Shaklee Nutriferon that I also take every day. And, although I expect I will garner a lot of sympathy tomorrow when I visit some of the clients I’m scheduled to call on, it’s best that I close now and get to work.
