You-Know-What Happens. . .

. . . when you least expect it. Today, I spent almost 5 hours in the ER. Very nice people there too.

Wow! Am I screwed. I'll be using dictation software for a while until I heal. I'll make every effort to correct typos, but I have limited ability to use the keyboard so please overlook errors and typos you may see.

What A Day

This morning was beautiful. Crisp air, robin's egg blue sky. I had a massage therapy appointment at ten so I had a few minutes before I had to leave. I walked around the corner to the mailbox, grabbed yesterday's mail, and came bopping along, just as happy and content and feeling so good because I was on track to get my work in progress to the proofreader.

The trash can was sitting at the end of the driveway so I thought I'd wheel it back to the garage. Here comes the dumb accident part.

The drought this summer has compacted the dirt beneath the sidewalk, causing a segment of the sidewalk to drop 3 inches below the level of the driveway where it meets the side of the driveway.

Audition for Cirque du Soleil

Don't ask me how I did it, but I tripped over that 3 inch rise and fell, soaring about six feet before my body met the concrete. Human nature being what it is, I broke my fall with both hands and my left knee and my right forearm and my face. Fortunately, by the time my left cheekbone hit the driveway, most of the impact had been absorbed by my hands.

Good news? No road rash on my face. Just going to have one hell of a bruise.

Bad news? My hands. See this x-ray? It's not my hands, just an illustration, but I ended up with a lovely collection of hand/wrist x-rays today.

Damage

I would show a picture of my hands, but they look gross. Good news? No permanent damage or broken bones. Bad news? Huge chunk out of my right hand at the joint near the wrist (in a line with my pinky finger)--you know, the part of the hand that rests on the desk when you use a mouse.

Pinky finger on that hand black and swollen so much I can't bend it even if I was dumb enough to try.

Left hand, entire thumb joint swollen, black, and size of a quarter missing skin. Gash on right forearm. Gash on left knee.

They shot me up with painkillers, anti-inflammatory, and a tetanus shot too. Cleaned the wounds. After the bleeding finally stopped, they coated all the raw wounds with antibiotic salve and told me to leave them open to breathe but coat them with the salve until they heal over.

They said I'd probably feel even worse tomorrow and with side effects from the tetanus added to the impact injuries. Goody. Something to look forward to.

Is it tomorrow already? Because I already feel enormously worse. Plus already running a fever from the tetanus shot.

I missed a day of writing, and I'm concerned again about getting my 3 new ebooks published this month.

Universal Truth

Why is it that when you're working so hard to achieve something, all hell breaks loose? In the morning, I imagine I'll crawl to my computer with a chorus of Don Henley's song How Bad Do You Want It? echoing in my head.

Takeaway Truth

Shit happens.