I can't fly

but I can fall!

Thursday morning, the 1st of October, was an experience I hope never to repeat. DH left for work between 4:30 and 5 a.m. as usual. I did not get up until about 5:30. I had done laundry that had not been brought up from the basement yet so I was going downstairs to get clothes for work. Somehow, someway, some something, my foot slid off the top step and I went all the way to the basement concrete floor. I remember grabbing for handholds all the way down and screaming. Halfway down I thought I had caught myself but then went the rest of the way and ended up on the floor at the bottom with my legs still on the steps.

Alone in the house except for cats and dogs at 5:45 in the morning and no one to know what happened until at least 8 a.m. when I was due to walk across to Mom and Dad's for Dad to take me to work. I could have been there for hours.

I got up and walked away from it!

A gallon plastic bottle of weed killer accompanied me down the steps from its place on a ledge to the right and that is what the back of my head landed on instead of the concrete. I also managed to miss the garden weasel tool that was at the foot of the steps with all its lovely spikes (it has been moved since).

I have bruises and scrapes that are developing "nicely" but no broken bones or even sprains in my wrists or ankles.

I still went to the other end of the basement and got my clothes for work then went back up the stairs and took my blood pressure (147/92) then went back down the basement stairs for looser clothing and then took a shower before I came to the conclusion that I needed to go to the emergency room. So I called sister Beth on her cell phone - got voicemail. I called on the land line and she answered on the first ring. She had heard the cell phone but could not get to it before it went to voicemail. Within 45 minutes of falling I was at the hospital and being checked out. My pressure was higher there (white coat syndrome contribution) but the doctor concluded that all my injuries were soft tissue and no bones were broken.

Today I am really, really, really sore but still not as sore as I had thought I would be. A nurse called from the hospital to follow up this morning and I told her I wasn't screaming - just grunting when I move.

Most of my injuries are to my arms from the stair rail and the post at the bottom. I also strained and bruised my ribs on the right side. I feel it from my neck to my butt and also my right leg as I did scrape my knee (nothing near as spectacular as Jen's boy did on the playground) and bruises around the knee as well. Even my toes hurt.

But I GOT UP AND WALKED AWAY!

After we left the emergency room Beth and I went to breakfast and then to Wal-Mart to pick up some cold packs and such. The man at the checkout asked how we were and Beth told him what had happened to me. He expressed his concern and said after something like this happens he always asks people what they learned from the experience. I told him I learned that God loves me - He sent that gallon plastic bottle down the steps with me for my head to land on instead of the concrete and I GOT UP AND WALKED AWAY.

Thank you Lord.