Falling into Fall

Autumn is my favorite season, even though it may bring the onset of one or more ‘symptoms’ of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Usually, this is the time of year when I first begin to notice it, but I’ve been dealing with something else that has distracted me.

I decided that I wanted to fall into fall this year. So, in the very early hours of Thursday, September 9th, I decided to spin myself around, begin to fall, hit the left side of my face against an unmoving piece of furniture, and continue to fall until my body made full contact with the carpeted floor. I experienced a similar kind of fall on December 25, 2020, so I suppose I wasn’t surprised. In fact, my brain managed to make me conscious of trying to curl into myself on the way down to avoid hitting the floor with my entire body stretched out. Anyhow, I spent the next 2.5 – 3 hours with an ice pack on the left side of my face, in extreme pain, and then I managed to doze off a little bit, only to be awoken by the pain in less than an hour.

I thought about a trip to the emergency room. But I didn’t want to make a fuss and have an ambulance pull up here with lights flashing (I have nosy neighbors), and I didn’t quite trust myself to drive to the hospital just in case I had a concussion. As it ended up, I slept on and off all of Thursday, eating ibuprofen like candy – 600 mg. at a time and taking them every time I woke up, no matter how much time had elapsed since my last dose. By Friday, I was able to only take them every 4 hours, and drink more than just the little sips of water through a straw that I used to take the pills on Thursday. I also managed to be able to open my mouth wide enough to slide some pudding between my lips and swallow.

Each day, when the pain was getting worse in between doses of ibuprofen, I thought maybe I should see a professional. I didn’t want to go to the E.R. because it wasn’t a life-or-death emergency, and I tried using Google to find what I knew to call Urgent Care where I lived before but couldn’t find anything. Saturday, the first bruises appeared along my chin and I took a selfie to document them. I continued to take a selfie every day, and eventually, my entire jaw was bruised, as well as a black eye, and my face was so swollen that I’d developed a huge double chin!

Still, as long as the pain was manageable (I have a low pain tolerance to begin with) with OTC meds, I just did the best I could with each passing day. After the first week, I managed to eat some soft-boiled eggs over barely toasted bread cut into cubes that were really, really tiny. I made some cream of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, then I cut the sandwich into those tiny, tiny bites and dropped them in my soup. I had just bought some tapioca pudding, I had applesauce and jello on hand, as well as eggs I could scramble, so I survived.

Thursday, September 29th, I had an already scheduled appointment with my general practitioner, and by then, the bruising had disappeared or was really light yellow under much of my chin. She did all of the things she needed to do, including discuss some lab results from my recent blood draw that had her concerned, and made some recommendations. However, she wanted to repeat the panel because some number in the report concerning my thyroid was twice the highest side of the scale of normal and she wants to make sure that it wasn’t a fluke. Only after that, did I remove my mask and say, “Well, while I’m here…” She said my face was puffy (she should have seen it when it was really swollen!) and sent me for x-rays immediately after the appointment. I got a copy of the report from the x-rays, not that I understand the medical jargon, but I did see the word “fractured” twice in the report, so now I sit and wait to see if I have to do anything more of just let it heal on its own. I see her again on November 3rd to follow up with the lab results from the latest blood draw I’ll be having, so I guess if she doesn’t contact me about it, I just wait until I see her again.

So, that is why my blog has not had new posts recently. I’ve been spending the majority of time in my recliner, with a pillow behind my head so that it pushes my chin down towards my chest, which is the most comfortable position right now. I have been reading when I’m not sleeping (this has totally messed-up my sleep routine!) and I’ll have finished 15 books for the month of September. I even managed a load of laundry and have been piddling around with little things when I have the energy or when the pain is absent or nearly absent.

I’m also going to try and get back to having posts ready as I had been doing, where I was always one ahead, but holding my head up for any length of time without support is still uncomfortable.

I promise the blogging world hasn’t lost me – at least not permanently – and I will do as much as I can to write posts to bore you as I suspect many of mine do. Meanwhile, I’m going to try and get outside a little bit each day, even if it’s just to the porch, and enjoy the cooler weather and lower humidity that fall has brought my way.

As Arnold would say….. “I’ll be back!”