This Can’t End Well…
My thoughts while my cheek scrapes along the sidewalk…
So I walk to work. Only about a mile or so. Small rural town = sidewalks that were put in place around 1950 and haven’t been maintained since.
And it was raining. Or just had been. Damp leaves littered the ground. Umbrella tucked under my left arm.
My mind was a million miles away. A dear one I provide care for is dying. Will she hang on until tomorrow? I promised her I’d help her walk through that final door. (As fate had it, she did. A coworker and I held her hands as she breathed her last the next day.)
I must have tripped. Or perhaps my legs just failed. I’m sure my neuropathy came into play.
Pain pulsated every step the rest of the way home. My knees felt like swelling water balloons. The left side of my face was on fire.
I somehow willed my legs to progress forward. I figured I must be a bloody mess.
Got home. Let dog out. Went into bathroom to assess damage. Cheek looked like a cheese grater got at it. Strangely, no blood.
Knees both grated up. One oozed a bit.
It’s been about a week. My cheek scabbed, bruised a bit, and now looks about healed. One knee has just a couple scabs left. The other really bruised up, and has deeper gashes that are still healing.
But my left shoulder! Ugh. It hurts more each day. It’s actually more my shoulder blade toward my back. Coughing hurts. And sneezing! Ouch!
I instinctively keep that arm close to my side. Sleeping is agonizing.
I’m hoping it’ll heal up soon. It snowed yesterday. I’ll need to be shoveling before long.
The silver lining in the whole fiasco is my youngest son (he’s 19) is going to move in with us.
Goofy kid thinks I need him.
(And for the record, I slept deeply for the first time in months once he dropped that news on me.)
So things are starting to look up. Hopefully this maddening pain will lessen soon so I can enjoy life’s little nuggets again.
