It's time for MamaKat's writer's workshop! This week there were so many great prompt's, but I just couldn't resist number 5. I know I have written quite a bit about thanksgiving already, and I will write some more about it later, but for now I will forget thanksgiving, and write about that time I fell down!
It was around 2 years ago on a cool winter morning, I opened my front door to carry my then one year old daughter out to the van. I took the first step down and that was the end... or was it the beginning? My daughter and I fell down the three cement steps in front of our home. I made sure to land so that she wasn't hurt but my elbow was throbbing and I couldn't get up. My oldest son just stood there looking at me as the tears started rolling down my face. I cried for him to go get his dad who was still in our room getting ready...I don't even remember where we were going, but I know we never went.
Paul came out and got Ella and took her in the house before coming to help me up, and back inside. The pain in my elbow was agonizing. We decided that it was best to take a trip to the doctor to make sure nothing was broken. We got a sitter, and headed out. The doctor rudely told me that I was fine, and said that they could give me a sling if I really thought I needed it. I couldn't move my arm without pain, so feeling like a big baby I accepted.
I wore the sling to the baby shower that I was now late for (a 2 hour wait at the doctors will do that to you), but I opted to take it off before going to work that night. I mean after all, it was all in my head right? No. The doctor called my husband that night to tell him that my elbow was cracked and I needed to come back in for further x-ray's to see how bad it really was. When I hung up with my husband I turned to my boss who asked me what my phone call was about. I simply told him I had a broken arm and got back to work. His face was comical, but my arm really did hurt. I never did go back to the doctor, after the way I had been treated earlier, I thought if it wasn't bad enough for them to see on the first x-ray then it must not be too bad, and I would just let it heal.
Later that week was when the real pain started. I woke up unable to move my head. My neck throbbed. I tried to go about my day, but it wasn't easy. At one point in time I went to lay down on the couch and got half way leaned back when the pain over took me and I fell the rest of the way. I was stuck. My neck hurt so bad I couldn't get off the couch. I had two babies sleeping in the other room, and my husband and the boys weren't home. I was terrified. By the grace of God my husband got home before the girls awoke and helped me off of the couch.
This pain lasted several days before it started to subside. I thought I was healing, and someone, somewhere, at sometime told me there was nothing you could do to treat whiplash, so I didn't go to the doctor, after all, I was healing right? Wrong!
The headaches started about a month later. At first I would just get a slight headache that would last for a day and then it would be gone. For someone not prone to headaches I thought this was horrible. Looking back, it would be like comparing a skinned knee to a broken bone. My headaches grew in intensity and severity. They started lasting for weeks at a time. I couldn't focus on anything.
I went to the eye doctor thinking I needed glasses, I didn't. I have never been so crushed to hear that I have amazing eye sight. Something was wrong with me and I wanted to know what. My mother-in-law kept telling me that my headaches started about the same time I had fallen, and I kept not listening to her. My head hurt, and I couldn't figure out how a broken elbow could have caused that.
Then it finally happened. I came down with the flew and when it was over I couldn't stand up without feeling like my head was either going to be ripped in half or explode... or maybe both? It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. We got me to the doctor who ordered an MRI, this came back with nothing. I mentioned that my mother-in-law thought it had to do with my fall, so they x-rayed my neck. I had severe whiplash. My doctor proscribed me this highly addictive, crazy side effect, insanely horrible pain medicine and said that a trip (as in one or two visits) to the chiropractor would heal me! Woo Hoo!
For any of you who have ever had chiropractor care, you should know that was the biggest line of who ha ever. My husband recommended his old chiropractor to me and I have been seeing him now for close to 3 months. I am off the stupid pills (really, they interfered with my ability to think clearly, and if I forgot to take them they caused insane withdraw headaches so I couldn't think at all). I am doing so much better, and well on my way down the road to recovery. All of this just from a one fatal step. One slip on the ice.
One small step for me, one major change in my body.
