Splat

[kevin_standlee]

I had a close call yesterday. After collecting the mail, I was walking back to the van when I tripped while stepping off the curb. I fell flat forward, including my face, on the asphalt parking lot. I remember trying to spread the fall over as much of my body as I could and to try not trying to break the fall with my hands. When I hit the ground, I felt my glasses fly off my head, and feared that I'd just broken my new glasses. And of course, falling on my stomach made the whole area where the surgical scar is still healing hurt a lot.

For a moment I just lay there saying, "Ow, ow, ow." By then, one of the other people parked nearby noticed me and got out and asked if I needed help.

Pulling myself to a seated position, I said, "No, I don't think so. Just give me a moment to recover."

I found my glasses. To my surprise, they weren't broken. They weren't even scratched! However, in the process of coming off, they'd put a small gash near my right eyebrow. It's not that visible, as you can tell from the post-laser photos yesterday, which were taken a few hours later.

I slowly got back to my feet. I know from another fall I took a long time ago (1980!) that getting up too quickly from a fall like that is a good way to fall back down again by fainting. However, by doing things slowly and carefully, I found myself back up again.

There was a nasty looking scratch on my left thumb. It felt like I'd also torn up both knees, but there was only a bruised spot on the left one and a tiny scratch on the right. All in all, I seem to have gotten off lucky.

However, the slight wooziness I had suggested that I'd just slightly concussed myself. I was very careful getting home, concentrating carefully and not doing any "automatic driving," because I did that once with a concussion and I'm lucky I didn't drive right off the road.

Once I got home, I cleaned the cuts and went back to work. The fuzziness in my head cleared after a while, and I was able to go to my laser appointment as planned. But it was a scary moment.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

I hope everything is OK now

[kevin_standlee]

Much better today, thank you. Although I apparently mushed my left ear a little and ended up drawing some blood from the catch on the left earring. It wasn't until this morning that I noticed it, cleaned it up, and applied cleaning solution. It wouldn't do to have the piercing get infected!

[belak]

OUCH!

Good to hear it is not worse than your report, though those injuries hurt plenty. Hope the surgical scar holds and all the other ouch spots heal quickly.

[kevin_standlee]

Lisa looked at the scar (her angle is of course different than mine) and says it appears to be healing nicely. It will still be a long time before everything is healed up, but I'll take the trade against what I had before. That was a serious issue and could have been catastrophic.

[cmcmck]

Ow!

I'm glad you're okay!

[kevin_standlee]

Much better now, thank you.

[arlesstra]

Glad you didn't break or sprain anything! (Speaking from my own splats)

[kevin_standlee]

So am I! I felt certain that I was going to have more serious harm than what actually happened. To come out of it with nothing more serious than a couple of scrapes and bruises and (probably) a very mild concussion that cleared within a few hours was pretty fortunate.

[calimac]

Best wishes on your recovery.

When I fell like that, some years ago, the helpful bystanders insisted on calling the paramedics. They helped me up and gave me cognitive tests to ensure I didn't have a concussion. This was in Oakland.

And that was one of the lessons which taught me to carry a cane.

[kevin_standlee]

I learned my lesson in 1980 when I went over the handlebars of my bicycle (I was a freshman in high school at the time living with my father in Bishop, California). I was in a hurry to get to an orientation meeting for volunteer referees for the local AYSO region and I was excited to learn to be a soccer referee, so when people came to help me up, I rushed it and then fainted. Thus an ambulance was called and it was off to the hospital. They dealt with the scrapes but decided it was safe for me to go home when my father came to get me.

A month later, I was in there again when I broke my arm playing flag football (yes, flag football, not tackle) in PE. This was of course more serious, and the collision that broke my arm and dislocated my nose (didn't break it, but oh did it hurt when they pushed it back into place) knocked me out cold. I remember them using smelling salts to revive me on the field. I was in a cast for four weeks.

[wild_patience]

Scary. I'm glad you emerged with minimal damage.

[jcfiala]

Ooof. yeah, I've done that. I'll have to remember about not getting up too quickly, but that's not usually a danger at my age.