I have been inactive for a while. There’s a reason for that.
I fell.
I broke a bone in my spine.
After more than six weeks, my back still hurts but not as much.
Here’s what happened.
On Nov. 19, a Thursday, I got the hiccups while eating lunch. My favorite all-time hiccup cure has been drinking a full glass of water while standing and squeezing my nostrils shut.
It’s never failed me. Not once. Ever.
Except on Nov. 19, a Thursday. That’s when I ended the hiccup maneuver by falling over backwards and landing on my butt on our kitchen floor. The pain was instant and severe.
All the seismographs east of the Mississippi were knocked off line. (No they weren’t. I made that last part up).
I was unable to rise. I thought of the TV commercial where the lady’s lying on the floor yelling “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” Sometimes I’d laugh at that commercial. No more.
I crawled to my recliner and lifted myself into it by pulling on the seat, then the arm. Nothing I did eased the pain even a little bit.
An x-ray revealed no fracture.
But the pain didn’t go away. In fact, it seemed to get worse.
I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t sleep.
By the following Sunday, Nov. 22, I could barely move. I tried to get out of bed, fell again, and lay motionless on the floor hollering in pain. In our apartment building, each unit has emergency pull cords with which residents can summon security personnel, each of whom is a qualified paramedic. My wife pulled a cord and activated the system.
Since I couldn’t stand, couldn’t sit and couldn’t do much other than lay on the floor and scream, the decision was made to transport me by ambulance to Beaumont Hospital - Dearborn.
It was about 6:30 a.m. and still dark. What I remember most about the ride was watching the flashing red lights of the ambulance reflected by the snowflakes and raindrops I could see falling just beyond the windows of the vehicle’s rear doors.
They looked like an endless stream of glittering windblown pink confetti.
At the hospital, for the first time in my entire life and I hope the last, I was prescribed morphine.
An MRI and X-rays revealed a fracture of my first lumbar vertebra.
I am home now and spending most of my days and nights in a hospital bed which occupies most of our living room. A rehab person makes regular visits and is supervising my rehabilitation.
I’m working hard at it.
I can now walk to the bathroom and to the kitchen table with a walker. After a month in bed it seems like quite an accomplishment.
I still have some pain, but it’s getting better.
Medical people often express concern about senior citizens falling. And since I’m 83, I guess that makes me one. That concern is well advised. I wish I could undo what happened to me Nov.19 and the days thereafter.
But I can’t!. All I can do is to hope someone reads this and takes maybe one more step of caution.
I don’t want you to be that person on the floor.
Brian Rogers is a long-time Allen Park resident who now lives in Dearborn. He is a frequent contributor to the “Great Lakes Monitor,” a publication of Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts, and to MediaNews Group.
The Link LonkJanuary 06, 2021 at 12:19AM
https://ift.tt/3njkpP5
Falling no joke for this senior citizen | Opinion | pressandguide.com - Dearborn Press and Guide
https://ift.tt/2BsGM2G
Joke
No comments:
Post a Comment