Graceless Average Jane

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Yesterday morning I was bustling around the house in my robe and slippers doing chores and otherwise trying to finish out my weekend. I was headed down the short flight of carpeted stairs between the studio and the kitchen when one of my slippers got caught and I fell backwards.

My foot was twisted so painfully that I couldn't even cry, only lie back on the stairs and gasp in pain. It occurred to me that if I'd fallen differently and gotten seriously injured, my husband would never have been able to hear me from where he was sleeping on the opposite side of the house, with a white-noise-producing fan drowning out all sounds.

I sneaked a tentative look at my throbbing foot and was relieved to see that at least there was no blood.

It's fairly certain that I fractured at least one toe, but if you've ever done the same, you know that there's nothing that can really be done about it. I hobbled around all day and discovered that my ridiculously expensive orthotic shoe inserts actually served quite well as a de facto cast when it came to keeping my foot stable and minimizing the pain. Still, I could feel my pulse in my entire foot all day long.

I'm hoping to get in to see my sports medicine doctor sometime today, now that all of the other muscles I wrenched in the fall are speaking up and demanding recognition. I'm hoping that some laying on of electrodes will settle things down. For now, the only remedies I have available are ice packs and mega-doses of Tylenol.

Falling down the stairs at home is actually one of my biggest fears. We have a steep, narrow staircase that leads to the basement and I am always afraid I'm going to slip or trip over one of the black cats in the semi-darkness and fall to the bottom. You can bet I'm going to be even more careful than usual on those stairs from now on.

So how was your weekend? Did you make it through with your entire skeletal system intact?

Comments

7 responses to “Graceless Average Jane”

December 21, 2009

Melanie

Falling down the stairs is how I have broken my toe before… painful but I just wore very sturdy shoes for awhile

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December 21, 2009

Christy

Eeek! Hope the doc says it’s not too bad and the toe is all you busted.
My weekend was far less painful than yours.

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December 21, 2009

logtar

No broken bones here! Feel better, foot pain is one of those that you forget about and then painfully take a wrong step.

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December 21, 2009

Erica M

One of my co-workers was late to work and at lunch, we went looking for her. She’d fallen getting out of the tub. No phones in the bathroom with her. She figured she’d wait it out on the floor, hoping no one would let her die from a twisted ankle.
I’d have died once my co-workers walked into my bathroom to see me naked on the tile.

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December 21, 2009

Keith

Wow AJ, I responded to your tweets, but didn’t realise you’d bost something.
Right on Christmas, poor girl – I say to hub and others, time to rally round the poor wench !

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December 22, 2009

Keith

I got a text from Charlie Chalk last night, he’d gone arse over tit in the ice !

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December 23, 2009

East Coast Girl

My better half did the exact same thing last year around this same time. We took him to the podiatrist right away. Fortunately, he had not broken anything, only sprains. But he still had to wear the big, ugly boot on his leg for several weeks before the doc cleared him for regular shoes — to make sure that any possible fractures healed properly before he resumed normal activities. He did say that the boot was a lot more comforting than he expected and helped a lot.

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