Ice Hurts

A lot.

Especially when you are falling from a height of nearly 6 feet onto the back of your head.

It was not my intention Saturday morning to have such a fateful meeting of my head and the ice in the driveway, but on my short walk to the post office the slickness of the frozen water on the ground was more than my boot treads could handle.

To put it simply, I stepped forward and my foot did not stay where it was supposed to. Next thing I knew I was horizontal and falling onto my butt (thunk) and then backwards onto my skull (bigger thunk). After the first split second or 2 of utter shock, as the pain sunk in I let out an agonizingly loud howl. At this point I suspect Rocket and Luna, who were a short distance ahead of me probably, came back but I was too busy turning onto my stomach, crawling back to the less icy bits, and making a beeline, head down, back to the house. (There was blood, I can only assume such a position made me feel better.)

I called my neighbor, Uncle Butch because Hal was not home. I tracked him down at his daughter's house and he and his wife were there very quickly and after getting the dogs into the house, took me on the 5 minute drive to the hospital where Hal met me (having arrived first, after his dad found him at his camp).

Making this already long story shorter, I needed 2 staples in my scalp, some nice pills for pain and nausea (which at 12:30 am that night was HORRIBLE) and a lot of ice, the nice, kind, friendly type of ice that resides in a plastic bag. Needless to say, I had/have a concussion. My very first one. I hope never to have another. It was literally almost 48 hours before I began to feel as though I might recover. At least I did not pass out which could have been bad being alone in the woods with 2 dogs who are not very adept at playing at Lassie. Who knows how long I could have laid there?

Tonight, roughly 4.5 days later I am much better. I am still easily tired, the whiplash (yes, I got that too) is better, nausea rears its ugly head now and then but doesn't last, and my face doesn't feel numb/fuzzy. I managed to cook dinner without feeling as though it took too much effort, and it's been nearly 48 hours since my last pain pill. Sometime this weekend I return to the ER to have the staples removed. I hope by then the knot on my head will be gone and I'll be able to sleep on my back again.

Perhaps the ice in the driveway will have melted too. But the way winter is STILL hanging on, probably not.