hope & healing one week in
A week ago this afternoon, I was trussed up in a neck collar, strapped to a gurney and headed to Perth General Hospital in an ambulance.
The recovery process is painfully slow (literally!) and I am dragging my way through it with all the fortitude I can muster.
While what-feels-like-a-snail’s-pace is frustrating (and did I mention painful?), I think my rate of recovery is probably normal at this stage. It was a pretty nasty spill, especially for a sixty-eight-year-old. I reckon I slid for twenty to thirty feet before TheFox flipped sideways and we both flew into the ditch with me closest to the ground.
I don’t know how deep the ditch is (I will investigate further when I am well enough), but, once I was able to extricate myself from being pinned under her, I had to climb up and over the bike to get back on the road.
“The X-rays indicate you have no broken bones,” the ER doc said. “But you’ve got significant tissue damage. I’ll give you a script for the pain.”
The bruising down my left side – the slide side – starts at my shoulder and goes down to my left knee. It’s pretty bad from my mid upper arm to my wrist, but it looks worse than it hurts. A couple of hard, lumpy bits are sore to the touch, but the rest is meh.
My helmet pushed my glasses down my nose and scraped off a patch of skin; I suspect it will remain red for the rest of my life however long that’s destined to be. Happily, the small black and blue patches on the sides of my nose are not blossoming into the shiners they might have become.
The challenging bit is my back. The whole of it on both sides from shoulders to buttocks. The muscles seem seized and/or locked in a spasm. Moving is excruciating. I can only stand for a couple of minutes before I start to sweat and feel as if I’m going puke or pass out. Makes it tough to get around the house LOL 😛
And sleep? Well, I haven’t had much of it over the last few days.
What about the meds? You may wonder. Despite being strong, they barely take the edge off. And I popped the last of the thirty ER prescription tablets last night.
That’s why I’m off to my family doc this afternoon (eternally grateful to have one!) to see what – if anything – he may have up his sleeve for additional pain relief.
I can’t drive of course, so the long-suffering James A. is picking me up in short order and taking me to the Arnprior Health Unit. Some friends are worth more than their weight in gold. They’re just plain priceless <3
I’m writing a piece about the collision. But, like my healing, the telling of the story is proving to be more turtle than hare…
P.S. The doc confirmed my sense that the recovery is as would be expected and suggested a new pain management protocol. Stay tuned.
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