Peace

 

With are the unbelievable chaos going on in the United States these days I'm going to take a break.

I'm just too exhausted.

I Fell

Me at the Emergency Room at Beebe Hospital (again)

Last night I slipped and fell on a patch of ice as I left the hotel.  I had just went out the front door and rounded the corner and WHAM!  I was on my side.  

I laid their awhile to feel if anything was broken.  Sore, I struggled up to go to my car but decided instead to go back into the hotel so sit and evaluate myself because something didn't feel right on the left side of my knee.

Three steps in the front door and a bolt of pain shot right up through my skull!  On a scale of 1 to 10, the paid was 20!  I hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.  And I lay there.  I.COULD.NOT. GET.UP.

My body started to violently tremble (shock).   My mind was racing, "what happened to me?" It only took me a few seconds to realize I had seriously injured myself.  Immediately I thought of the time fifty-three years ago when I was in the Army and one of my Army buddies was horse playing around when we were playing pool, which resulted in me dislocating my right knee.  I thought I had dislocated my left knee.

I lay there on the rug, and the warm lobby (thank God I fell inside), and mentally went over my options.  "Call 911 for an ambulance."  Beebe Hospital was only three blocks up Savannah Road from the hotel.  Here we go again, the ambulance comes for Ron and transports me (again) to the Emergency Room.  

The emergency responders arrived in about ten minutes.  At first I was worried that I had locked the glass door and they wouldn't be able to get into the hotel lobby to get me.  They would have to break the door because I couldn't move without excruciating pain.  I was planning gone crawling to the door.  Thank goodness the door was unlocked and they came in with their stretcher.  

Now wasn't that a sight them trying to lift my 170 lbs of dead weight on that stretcher without me crying in agonizing pain?

Not to make this an excruciating long story but they transported me the three blocks to Beebe Hospital's emergency room.  Again I was so thankful that I didn't live out in the boondocks but instead, just down the street (Savannah Road) from the hospital.

I made my calls on my cell phone.  I was just about to call Bill, when I hear my iPhone beeping.  It was Bill.  I tell him to ask our neighbor Bob M. to bring him down to the hotel so he could get my car and then bring it over to the hospital.

The emergency room staff went through The Drill, which I know now having been to this particular emergency room five times since I moved to Delaware.  My name, date of birth, any allergies, medications, and insurance. 

That done and by now Bill and Bob had arrived. Thank God again I have Bill and a wonderful neighbor like Bob.

X-rays were taken. I get wheeled back to Bill and Bob to await the results of the X-rays.  About a half an hour later the doctor on duty rounds the corner and approaches me with papers in his hand.  The good news . . . no broken bones.  The bad news . . . . my knee pad (what I felt to the left side of my knee right after I fell) was out of place.  He said I would need an MRI at an orthopedic doctor's office.  X-rays only show bones. MRI's will show cartilage and ligaments. I have an appointment tomorrow at 11:10 AM to have that MRI taken.

I am not going to go into the medical terms of the two sheets of the single lined report the doctor gave me but it appears that my knee "padding" is askew.  

The doctor left the papers with me and turned me over to his assistant who put a leg brace on me.  That's what I have now.  I cannot bend my left leg.  Trying going to the bathroom that way (and in my little "mediation" room which I so love for it's privacy but now it's little tight for a 6'3" guy with a straight left leg.

So here I am hobbling around the house, doing everything I can to avoid putting pressure on my leg the wrong way and sending lightening bolts of pain through the top of my head and throwing me to the floor.

You just can't make this stuff up.

It's 10 degrees and very windy outside and I'm wearing shorts.  Same forecast for tomorrow when I venture out of this warm, cozy house for my doctor's appointment.