We All Stumble In Many Ways

Friday morning around 6:00 AM, I was doing my thrice-weekly run. This actually ties into my social media Pt. II which I think I can finish next week. 

The run. It is not a marathon. Instead, a 25 minute jog around my neighborhood. It was dark. I heard one of those muffler-enhanced compact cars rounding the bend. I typically run against the traffic (not that there are any cars usually besides a stray or two) but it depends where I am on the route to determine what I do.

I decided to hop over the curb and run down the sidewalk until early-rising homey in the hood car went by. Little did I know that the sidewalk ahead was uneven. Uneven sidewalks happen a lot in older cities because tree roots underneath can alter the sidewalk like plate tectonics. I went down like a sack of potatoes and I got mashed. But, I live in suburbia. I wasn't expecting it.

I laid on the concrete sidewalk for about 30 or so seconds. I came down on my right hip. My right leg is the only body appendage that hasn't had a cast on it at one time. If I were to wear all the casts that I have had on my body over my lifetime, I would by a plaster mummy. Some casts on casts on casts actually. I was accident-prone as a kid and also had several injuries not due to recklessness. But most were the result of my rash actions.   

As I contemplated what to do, I wasn't sure if I could stand up. I thought maybe my hip was fractured or cracked. After breaking ribs this summer, I feared it could be a repeat of a long recovery. The broken ribs this summer motivated me to lose about 30 pounds of weight because I surmised it may have made the crash more lethal. Less mass equals less trauma. I considered that I might have to crawl back to my house like that girl in the Wyeth painting. I got up.

I tried to run back to my domicile but that wasn't happening. I popped four aspirin, took a shower, and then had a very long day at work. I toughed it out. Several colleagues said I should go to Urgent Care and then friends and family over the weekend said the same. I only slept two hours Friday night. I was miserable. I could barely walk. I watched the Impeachment Testimony of the former US Ukrainian Ambassador who Trump recalled. A decent and honorable person. 

Saturday, my hip was definitely better but there were some motions of the leg that were extraordinarily painful.  So, I headed off to Urgent Care this morning.

I figured that I'd get there early, reserve my appointment online, and get it over as soon as I could. I brought my iPhone cord if the injury was serious and I needed surgery. When my appendix burst, it became very serious and I had to be hospitalized for three days rather than in and out the following morning. I had so little battery left when I made the call to my dad who came up to help out. Being single puts me in a place where I often have to handle situations alone where a spouse would help. 

I didn't think my hip was fractured yet better safe than sorry. Less than two hours, start to finish. No breakage. These Urgent Care facilities are really a great niche provider. My family doctor office was closed, the emergency room not needed. When I went to my family doctor's office when my appendix was rupturing I got scolded by an office person working the desk for not having an appointment. I was like, '"Sorry, I didn't plan on getting appendicitis."  My school nurse pretty much diagnosed that I had appendicitis but neither of us knew how serious it was (that it was rupturing). I could have died had I not sought out immediate medical intervention. My family doctor was extraordinarily helpful in lining up all of the details of the surgery, so he made up for the ass hat up front.     

Today made me thankful that I have good medical insurance and health services all within ten minutes of my house. Part of being grateful is not taking things for granted and a given.

In the Book of James, he writes that "We all stumble in many ways." Sometimes our stumbling is our own damn fault. We make sinful choices and then get crushed on the concrete of consequences. Sometimes the decisions were not sinful, but unwise. The, there are other times, where we get on the receiving end of punishments and really didn't sow those seeds. This early morning rendezvous was probably option #2. Just unwise. And I shall be wiser in the future and walk on sidewalks where I can't see the stumbling dangers ahead. More application next week. Where the rubber meets the road, or the hip the concrete.  Losing the weight of pride makes the fall lighter...