Another fall

I got up early to do my Sunday chores, make coffee, and let the dogs out/feed the animals. I was finishing up and was about to wake up my friend, and only had to take out the trash, the litter, some reusable shopping bags, and the recyclables. I also had some soda out in the trunk of the car that I was going to bring in so I'd be awake and perky for the Call of Cthulhu game. I was going down the steps of the porch with the first load and had a sudden pain in my right hip area like I'd pulled a muscle, but I made it on down. This was on top of the sciatica I've been having, which has not only been painful, but it's been making me have trouble lifting my right foot completely--something that's already an issue, as that was the foot that was slightly turned in when I was born but corrected as I grew.

I was coming back up and I had to come up with my left foot first, which is my bad side (my bad knee), and it gave out and I somersaulted completely off the porch, thankfully not hitting the concrete or brick as far as I know.I did hit the ground hard and wound up in the front garden on top of the Virginia creeper and a rose bush next to the front porch. I couldn't move at first, and I tried calling my friend (I try to keep my phone on me for this very reason), but he was asleep, and he is very hard to wake up. I tried to sit up, but I was really dizzy. I was contemplating calling 911, but decided to give it another try, and I finally managed to do sit up after the second call. I was skinned up on my right arm (I think that did hit the porch) and pretty much sore all over, especially my right hip and my right shoulder. I called a third time, with no success.

I managed to roll over away from the porch, then crawled over to it and bring myself up. I'd thankfully missed the petunias completely, although I'd fallen on a couple of logs. I went up the couple of smaller stairs with my hands and feet, then carefully went up the bigger step that had been the problem before, all without my sandals on, so I'd be in contact fully with the concrete, and picked up the soda and my shoes, and pulled myself over the step into the threshold by using the wall and post. I then put things down.

I then stopped my arm from seeping blood where it had been skinned up, walked back to my roommate's bedroom, and slapped him on his leg and woke him up, telling him I'd fallen and he'd slept through the whole thing and I hated how deeply he slept. He did apologise, and we talked about how I could have been there all morning, dead for all we knew, and he'd have gone and gotten his coffee, assuming I'd gone somewhere, and he'd be sitting there watching Charmed, and our friend would find me in the front garden next to the porch laid out on the roses.

Anyway, I'm resting now. I don't think I need to go to the ER. I am very sore, especially on my right hip and lower back. My friend told me to make sure not to lie down because I'll just go to sleep and we're not 100% I didn't hit my head, at least on the ground or a log, at least not on the porch, though. The funny thing is it didn't knock my glasses off my head or my earbuds out of my ears. I really did a complete somersault. I was heading towards the door, fell towards the house, and wound up with my feet towards the walkway and my head next to the brick wall, face up, just like I decided to lie down next to the porch for some reason.

I need to invest in some heavy-duty bubble wrap, I think I need to start coming in through the back door. There are two smaller steps and a wall to steady oneself with--but the back gate is really hard to open.

Sigh. If it isn't one thing, it's another.

I guess I won't be going to the pill bottle collection held by one of the UK sororities today. They collect empty, clean bottles to be used in other countries, and collect them today from 1-2 pm at several library locations, but I am not going down those stairs today.

PS My roommate gets to take out the recyclables and cat litter after he has some coffee, wakes up, and maybe before he has his study session online. 🙂

UPDATE:

My roommate has instituted two new very logical house rules:

1. He will take the trash out from now on (he's already taking the bins to the street, as I can no longer do it).
2. I am not to go up and down the stairs without my cane.

In the meantime, there is a temporary rule that I am not to lie down till 10 PM just to be on the safe side in case of concussion. I must admit that while I am not sleepy, I am sore and tired, and I have ice on my butt. It is helping quite a bit.

I scraped up my right arm the worst, plus a little on my right pinky and knee

A legacy of war that is really frightening

Veterans and Brain Disease

In people with C.T.E. [chronic traumatic encephalopathy], an abnormal form of a protein accumulates and eventually destroys cells throughout the brain, including the frontal and temporal lobes. Those are areas that regulate impulse control, judgment, multitasking, memory and emotions.

That Marine was the first Iraq veteran found to have C.T.E., but experts have since autopsied a dozen or more other veterans’ brains and have repeatedly found C.T.E. The findings raise a critical question: Could blasts from bombs or grenades have a catastrophic impact similar to those of repeated concussions in sports, and could the rash of suicides among young veterans be a result?

“P.T.S.D. in a high-risk cohort like war veterans could actually be a physical disease from permanent brain damage, not a psychological disease,” said Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who examined the veteran. Dr. Omalu published an article about the 27-year-old veteran as a sentinel case in Neurosurgical Focus, a peer-reviewed medical journal.

The discovery of C.T.E. in veterans could be stunningly important. Sadly, it could also suggest that the worst is yet to come, for C.T.E. typically develops in midlife, decades after exposure. If we are seeing C.T.E. now in war veterans, we may see much more in the coming years.

Given the number of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the multiple tours of duty, this could mean serious complications in coming years. Already it is being linked to the rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and suicide. The nature of the wars fought in these arenas is that repeated blasts mean repeated concussions at a unprecedented rate. The military is trying to be proactive about this, but there's just so much you can do to protect the head from a blast. But it's good they're recognising this. I hope we can find better ways to treat those who have suffered this before they, too, are lost to the war.