I Took A Trip But Not A Vacation........

I had a week's vacation.  Correct that statement, I had a week were I wouldn't be getting dressed and going into the office.  BIG DIFFERENCE!!  I had to start using some of my Paid Time Off.  Up until that week, I had only taken one day off so far this year.  I needed the break but couldn't let the work go. Each morning I would get up and get on the computer between 7 and 8.  I worked the majority of the day and one night even stayed online working until  8:30.  Not a vacation I would say.  But at least I could wear capri's or a t-shirt (bra optional). I didn't want to fall behind and have to play catch up when I returned to work.

I did find time to plant my herb garden, supervise the landscaping of the front of the house, cook a real meal and have coffee each morning.  But that was as far as the vacation went......

The week was pretty uneventful except my butt getting sore from sitting on a hard wooden chair for so many hours.  I even put a pillow on it to soften the seat but it really didn't work.  Maybe I should buy one of those seat cushions from"as seen on TV". 

I did have a haircut appt set for Thursday so I would be able to get out of the house to do something.

I left the house Thursday afternoon and picked up Jenn for our appointment.  No sense in taking 2 cars.  We got there on time and by 6:00 we were ready to head home. 

And that's when it happened........the trip part of the title of this entry.......

I was walking out of our hairdressers and my flip flop got caught in the welcome mat.  A pure accident!! Next thing I know I am falling down 3 cement stairs and my face is heading for the cement sidewalk.

Have you even seen an accident where you think to yourself......I wonder if the person killed in the accident knew even for a split second that they were going to die?  I can tell you for a split second as I fell I thought to myself.....OMG my face is going to hit the cement.  And boy did I hit it hard.....face first with all my weight behind it. 

THUD....my face on the ground.....my legs kind of behind me on the stairs.  Jenn yelled "Mom".  Then she yelled for Wayne who just moments ago had finished our hair.  I was able to get into a sitting position.  I boosted myself up one and then another stair.  I hear someone say should we call and ambulance?  I say no and told Jenn "let's just go home".  Jenn says there is no way I am going home.  I am holding a towel to my head and I can see blood on the sidewalk and all over my shirt.  I am still saying I want to go home.
First, I didn't realize how bad I was hurt.  Second, I was also extremely embarrassed (see the fat lady falling and look at what she has done to herself). 

Then I want my new glasses I was wearing......they are broken beyond repair.  I ask Jenn what is causing the bleeding on my face.  She tells me I have two bad cuts that she can see.  We decide to go to the doc in the box around the corner.  The Dr. there tells us I need to go to the emergency room.  Off to the hospital we go.  Jenn drops me at the ER entrance and goes to park the car.  I go to check in and the girl who needs to get my info opens a side window and says to someone "there is a lady bleeding badly out here",  Before I know it I am thought registration and back in the ER.  After they look at me and all my bruises, they send me for X-rays and a CAT scan.  The young man who took me over to those depts should try out for the Indy 500.  I have never moved at such a pace in a wheel chair ever!!!

We wait for the results of both the X-rays and the CAT scan.  Nothing broken.  They were concerned I had broken my eye socket.  Now it is time to be stitched up.  The nurse says she will get a diaper....I am thinking "What the hell did I hurt???"  The nurse says it is for around my head and shoulders so when they clean the wounds it won't go all over.....thank goodness!!!!I get a tetanus shot and then they start stitching.  The nurse says the scar on my cheek will just run into my crows feet around my eye .....wonderful.  The eye brown...well .....we will see how it looks when it is healed.  I did cancel my eyebrow wax until I see what I end up with.  4 plus hours later I am on my way home.  With ice packs, antibiotics and a face that looks like I went 15 rounds in a championship bout.

I sleep in recliner for the next 3 nights and Jenn slept on the couch.  She would get up during the night to refill my ice pack and give me Extra Strength Tylenol.  I worked at home for a few days since my right eye was pretty much closed.

I had the stitches taken out, got a new pair of eyeglasses, and am starting to heal.  There are still bruises showing up, hip and elbow still hurt....a lot..... the vision in my right eye is still not great (the Dr. said there is still swelling on my face and eye probably causing that), I have a part of my forehead that is numb (the Dr. said that could be temporary or permanent nerve damage)......all in all not too bad.    It could have been much worse.

There have been some funny moments.....at the ER Jenn called me Mom and Donna.....that led the nurse to ask what our relationship was ....was I Jenn's Mom, Step mom or something else. They told Jenn to watch for headaches, if I have memory issues and if I start to act weird.  Jenn asked "what's weird".  The nurse said "if I stripped in the middle of the living room."  Thanks goodness she doesn't know on occasion I have taken my clothes off in the laundry room to throw them in the washing machine and grabbed clean clothes out of the dryer to put on...LOL. This past week every time I say to Jenn "did I tell you that already?"  She laughs and says " Should I take you to the hospital??"

I was grateful she was there to help me out.  The only time I started to cry in the ER, Jenn said "please don't cry Mom or I will too."

This was by every definition an accident.....but when I do it I do it big!!!! 

As many of you know I have complained about so many parts of my body......hair too thin, having to have my nose hairs waxed, my droopy boobs, my fat ass, my huge thighs....and on and on.  I have said that my face was full but never really felt it was something I wanted to change other than it not being so full.  Now I worry about my face.....will the scars stand out??  My husband said "maybe you will need plastic surgery" .....at my age....NOT.....a few scars won't make a difference.  The one thing I hope is that my eyebrow looks normal after healing.......OK so now I can add  my eyebrow to the things to focus on!!!

Today, I am heading back to the gym.  I hope no one notices all the bruises when I get into the pool, I hope my hip won't hurt too much as I jog in the water, I hope no one stares at my face.....it is all about me you know.

OK the next time I have vacation......I am not going to work.......I am going to relax more........and I most definitely will not take a trip!!!!!!





 

Why Do I Obsess About Dying?

Since my Mom died.....I think about death a lot.  Is it abnormal?  Is it obsessive? 

I think it might be......

I think about dying every day.  I don't want to die.  Not now anyway.  I start to think about how many birthdays and Christmas's I have left. I pray every night thanking God for the day, I pray that I will wake up in the morning and in the morning I say a prayer of thanks that I woke up again. 

I worry that the fact that I have neglected my body for so many years will come back to haunt me.  I worry that the excess weight I carry will speed up my death.  I worry, I worry, I worry.....

I try to remind myself that I am doing good things to help myself.....exercise, eating healthier, I go to the Dr. to make sure that all the things I am doing will prolong my life.  There are days when my knee aches or my hip aches....I am hoping that losing weight will help those. 

I wish I could turn back the clock and have gotten my act together sooner.  I quit smoking 25 years ago.....why didn't I start doing the rest?????

I worry about flying.....I worry about car accidents.......I worry I will die in my shower......

I have tried to stop worrying......but can't seem to stop. 

I worry that the stress I feel at work will take its toll........I blame the stress and worry for the fact that my hair is so thin........do I sound as nutty as a fruitcake????

I know we will all have to die someday.......I just don't want it to be for a long, long time!!!!

I need encouragement to push myself to keep on this path of trying to get healthy, lose weight and exercise!!!!

This fat lady isn't quite ready to sing......

Yes, I Am Still Here.....

I know I didn't do an entry last week.  I was busy on Saturday so Sunday I played catch up.  Jenn and I spent Saturday driving to Raleigh NC to meet my parents 1st great grandchild, Victoria ( I met number 2 (Elouise) and number three (Zoey)at Christmas). It was a very enjoyable day and I didn't even mind that I spent 7 hours on the road and drove over 450 miles to spend 4 hours at a party.  It was worth it to watch Victoria ride around the backyard on a pony!!

My Mom's family have been know to do these kind of things.  We went to visit my grandparents one time and my grandmother suggested they all go and visit a friend of theirs.  My father said he saw my grandfather get a funny look on his face but had no idea what he was in for.  They drove several hours to visit this friend only to find out the friend wasn't home!!!

Yesterday, I went to the local farm stand for the first time this season.  I made a great salad with fresh veggies.....I finished it between yesterday and today.  I went back to the farm market again today to get more veggies.  I showed the man working there the picture of the salad I put on FB yesterday.  I told him I would surely be back again later in the week.  Then I went to Lowe's and did my once a year version of southern shopping.  I am not a gardener and so many people here love to do gardening.  I hate it!! I want low maintenance projects. I buy plants and when they die I pitch them.....you will not catch me outside in the heat with a hat on and a trowel in my hand working throughout the summer.   So once a year I go to Lowes and get what I need.  6 bags of river rocks for the front of the house, 2 hanging baskets of flowers, new herbs for the herb garden, potting soil and on and on...

I am on vacation from work this week but I am calling it working at home for the week.  I will be on my work computer each morning and will check in again in the afternoon and at the end of the day.....not really a vacation but at least I can go on my laptop in my jeans or capri's and a t-shirt.  I can grab a cup of coffee and occasionally look out the window.

So on my "vacation"  I will plant my herb garden, organize under my bathroom sink, organize my important papers bin, get the 3rd bedroom back in order, actually cook a dinner,  have the AC man come and figure out why the central air is not getting cool (better now than in July!!!!), scrub down the bathrooms from top to bottom....are you jealous yet???? How does that sound for fun?????  And in between these fun events I will follow up on what needs to be done at the office......am I a party animal or not????