Tam’s Bloody Fall

I don’t mean that in a British kind of way, I mean it literally.  I am sort of famous for falling.  I fall on flat surfaces, mostly, but also out of boats, into boats, on boats, bus steps….but mostly on flat ground.  I fell on Capitoline Hill, right in front of Marcus Aurelius.  I received a message this morning from a student who sounded upset, and my phone died.  I decided to go get a phone charger from my son, who was sleeping upstairs.  I leaned over a pet gate to see if his door was closed….but as I found out, the pet gate was not attached well, so forward I went, and kept going.  The gate went down, I went down, and I crashed into the wall (cussing all the while, of course).  After I “landed”, I jumped up and ran to the bathroom, I could feel the pain of injury, and blood.  I quickly put cold water on it.  Wes and Carisa came out of their bedroom (they are staying while Randy is waiting for his lungs), expecting another of my usual falls, so the blood came as a shock.  Carisa said I needed stitches in my nose (she was right) and so off to the Emergency Room.  The Director of Cranial Facial surgery at Medical City was there in the ER, and he is the one who stitched me up…13 or 15 stitches around my right eye and my nose.  sigh.  What a mess I am!  This is a reason I love to dive….I cannot fall when I’m underwater…I feel safe and supported by the water.  I am NOT a land animal.  My brother showed up at the Emergency Room and we absolutely roared with laughter…really, how can we do anything but laugh?  After four hours, I am home and taking my pain pills.  Now everything is hurting….shoulders, neck, I’m scraped up….sheesh.  My guardian angel is beside her/himself now!  It’s also my mother’s 86th birthday, well….she said she would haunt me!  Just kidding, come on, I’m on pain pills, give me a break.  I guess I won’t be going to the lake to paddle board tomorrow.

Randy and my daughter are sharing a laugh at the hospital, as I said, falling is sort of expected with me.  I usually don’t bleed or need stitches though.  I think Ran will probably cringe when he sees my face….I am really lucky, I have a stitch at my tear duct.  My guardian angel did what she could.  As I always say, it ain’t easy bein’ me!   So should I tell fall stories?  There have been some pretty spectacular ones.  Thankfully they did a cat scan…I’ve had more concussions than an ice hockey or football player.  Not this time at least.  The pain pills are quite welcome, and if I was concussed, there wouldn’t be any pain pills.  I just have mild ones….we could get the call any time for Randy’s lungs.  Now I hope it is a couple more days so I can heal a bit….  Actually, my brain scan person said her husband had a pancreas transplant 6 years ago and came home after 3 days!  She said he has done very, very well.  I love happy transplant stories…they are so helpful.

When I came home from the hospital a delivery came….Swiss and German chocolates from Marcel (Zurich) and Daniela (Munich).  So sweet of them (no pun intended).  They are fellow All Out Africa volunteers I met in Mozambique, and they came to see me and to dive in Cozumel just a month ago.  We had a wonderful time together….amazing what can happen in a month.  Stranger than fiction, wouldn’t you say?