A WAKE-UP CALL
I've never been old before so I have a lot to learn about how to handle it! Recalling things like names and "what did I come up here for" started several years ago, but a few days before my 79th birthday (April 28) I had a serious wake-up call. I fell stepping up on the sidewalk between the Kroger parking lot and my condo.
Coming home after celebrating Mass at St. Frances of Rome, I had walked over to the Chinese carry-out place a few hundred feet from my home to get some "General Tso Chicken" and an Egg Roll. Half-way home, I stepped up on the sidewalk, hooked my foot on the edge and fell face-down on the concrete!
The bag with my Chinese lunch flew out of my hands and the plastic container holding it ended upside down inside its brown bag, leaking badly in front of me. My new glasses went flying off my head and ended up under me twisted and completely destroyed. My forehead had a long bloody scrap similar to what one would expect from a bar fight. My wrists hurt, My side hurt. I could feel my left knee bleeding inside my pants leg.
A woman, driving by, rolled down her window when she saw me lying face-down on the sidewalk and asked if I needed help. She seemed to be more panicked about my situation than I was! I was able to kneel up, and then finally stand up, before I could tell her that I was "alright." She asked if she could "take me somewhere." I told her I thought I was alright and that I lived "right there" pointing to my condo. I thanked her as she drove off! I picked up my twisted glasses and my soggy Chinese lunch bag and limped home.
All was not lost! Luckily, the black pants to my Sunday suit was not ripped or torn, but merely dirty. When I got home, I scrapped my Chinese lunch out of its soggy brown bag onto a plate and ate it! When I took my new glasses to be replaced, I was told that the lenses were still "under warranty" saving me $450.00. New replacement frames, not under warranty, cost me $250.00. I was grateful that it wasn't the other way around. I was most grateful however that I did not break a bone or some other body part! Even though my forehead looked terrible, my knee was bloody and my side still hurts when I roll over in bed at night, I learned yet again that I am no "spring chicken" and that I needed to quit shuffling when I walk and pick up my feet!
I was even thankful to have fallen in a public situation. I have always joked with my family that since I live alone in a two-level condo and used to travel a lot doing priest retreats around the world, that if I fell at home there would be nobody to sound the alarm. I would probably lay there and die until my neighbors "smelled something awful" and called the police! If my family had not heard from me for several days, I suspect that they would just presume that I was on "one of my trips."
I don't have a "Life Alert" gadget yet, but I do wear an "Apple Watch" that is supposed to call for help if it senses that I have fallen! Now, all I have to do is to remember to wear it!
(I am fully recovered now, so you can hold your sympathy till the next time.)
No comments:
Post a Comment