I very much lost yesterday, but matters seemed that my life was about to become far more adversely affected.
I had gone in the wee a.m. to exercise at the elementary school playground three or so blocks away, and was back home in the darkened house. I'll not get into an extended description of what befell me, but suffice to say that in the dark I was descending a short set of stairs and apparently believed that my right foot was on the floor ─ actually, a thin rug over a cement surface ─ and so I stepped forth with my left leg believing of course that the floor was there.
Stepping of course into space, down I came. My right leg bent at the knee because its foot was still upon the last step, and my knee basically did a 'pile drive' into the barely covered cement ─ my right thigh and of course my upper body were still perpendicular, so most of my bodyweight came down behind that 'pile drive' of my knee.
I exclaimed in shock and disbelief, for the flashback came of 14¼ years ago when I had another fall here in the house that resulted in my left thigh's quadriceps tendon tearing (avulsing) entirely clear of my knee cap (patella).
To this day I have been affected from that accident and the surgery four days later to have the tendon reattached. And of course the three or four months with my leg immobilized into a straightened position that froze my leg that way. I still cannot bend my leg to its full range as easily as I had before been able to.
Was this now to be my fate with my 'good' leg? I am 75 years old ─ even at the age of 61 the first time, it was a gruelling recovery that initially took over a year to return to even a facsimile of what I was before.
As I endured the intense excruciation of my experience yesterday, I was able to reflect that I never heard the 'pop' that attended the avulsion 14¼ years ago; and the pain was not causing me quite the level of nausea that the first experience did.
But I was damaged. In touching the top of my knee as I sought to remove myself from its impact posture, it seemed to me that the expected smoothness of my knee cap now felt ... well, like there were small chunks.
I cannot recall now how I ascended the stairs to my bedroom, but I got to bed and hoped / prayed for a miracle to materialize once I was asleep.
The morning was otherwise sort of normal, apart from my injury. I managed to get downstairs to join my brother for some T.V., of course explaining what had happened to me earlier. I don't remember what all we watched, but we definitely rather enjoyed the 1988 movie Tiger Warsaw that is currently available at this Janson TV channel link. It proved to be quite touching. Patrick Swayze was definitely a good-looking young man.
As for the plot, I couldn't quite figure out what the father was so angry about concerning his son in regards to the daughter (played by beautiful Mary McDonnell). Did Tiger play voyeur on his own sister, and do so more than once? What went on was not explained.
It was well into the noon hour when I finally established with my brother that I ought to be taken to Surrey Memorial to be assessed as to whether I required surgery, for I believed it likely.
So there I was taken. There was a massive lineup just for checking in, so my brother left me there. I don't think that it was yet 1 p.m. Suffice to say, I was not actually seen by a physician for something like 13 or better hours. Meantime, I had eaten absolutely nothing since ─ at most ─ 7 p.m. Friday. Once while I was in the lineup to check in, I even began feeling oddly overheated and then somewhat prickly, and started to wonder if I was going to pass out. I had no choice but to sit down and weather the awful experience.
Ultimately I was to have four X-rays, and a doctor concluded that I had no breaks of any kind. He counselled that in four or five days I ought to be largely recovered.
I cannot now say when it was that I at last phoned for my wife to come and collect me (she insisted that I phone her), but it was definitely after 2 a.m. It happened that she was a passenger in her car, for her youngest son came as well, driving.
She and even he were amazingly solicitous, and my wife declared ─ after fixing up my bed for best convenience as well as bringing me a very desirable supper ─ that I was to phone her during the night if I needed anything at all. We have separate but adjoining bedrooms.
As for today (Sunday), I found myself able to move about without crutches, but stairs are problematic in that I have to take the steps by planting both feet on each one before moving up or down the stairs. I seem to have no stability with the knee.
Towards the end of the afternoon an expected guest of my wife's finally arrived to share in preparing a supper based around lamb ribs. So much red wine was drunk! Bev got forced into joining the three of us, and her white wine-drinking became accelerated. Ultimately my brother finally got home from his social drinking and he joined us as well.
The guest ─ whose Thai nickname is something like Ui ─ spent the night with my wife. My wife had tried to limit her own drinking because she had a full workday scheduled (the restaurant where she is employed part-time opens at 11 a.m.) for today, but Ui was a fairly bad influence.
It was a late night that didn't end until the wee a.m., although Bev had to cancel out far before due to overindulgence on her white wine.
I was the last, I think, to come upstairs for the night, but I did not do so before having a fall in the living room that I barely remember. I do recall having concern that I was going to suffer serious injury by falling onto the glass top of the coffee table. That happily never occurred, but I may have banged my head on it, for there is a sore area in back of my right ear.
But I will say nothing further, since this narrative has progressed into Monday, March 3.
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