ouch, ouch, ouch....

Cattle drive on Sunday on Hwy 16

I gotta tell ya, some days it just doesn't feel like I have the effort to chew through the straps! Yesterday, while I was working on some web stuff for Rob, my entire lower right leg evidently fell asleep, without my noticing.  Picture me standing up and whirling around to run to answer my cell phone, which I had, of course, left in another room. Kersplat...down I went with the full force of my body, totally twisting the bejezus out of my ankle.  I swear I saw the entire galaxy of stars as it felt like I did the whole crumble in slow motion.  You know what I mean, it's like you have enough time to go through all the options of how you're going to end up, but in reality, the whole disaster was no doubt occurring in an instant.

Now, it wouldn't have been so very awful if all I did was fall and sprain my ankle, which I did, by the way. I had to hit the rolling file hanger we keep near the computers, as well. So, here I am, lying in a crumpled mess in the office and Thistle comes flying over to me and plops herself snug up against me. She's bound and determined to be as helpful and supportive as possible, this being the first time she's ever heard me moaning in pain, I guess.  She patiently waited while I lay there trying to figure out if I needed to try to crawl the rest of my way to the phone for help or just relax and wait for the waves of pain to subside. I opted for the latter,  after determining that there were no bones sticking out anywhere. So Thistle and I  had a nice little spooning for about 5 minutes, which is about how long it took for the excruciating part of my ankle pain to get down to a level where I felt I could sit up.  Upon sitting, I was rewarded with seeing three great big scrapes on my knees that I musta gotten as I fell on the cork floor.  That cork is not so yielding as I thought.

I wrapped up my ankle after determining that it was indeed just a sprain.  You know, I'm an expert on ankles, having broken and sprained them more times than I care to think about over the years. Once, in high school, I was coming around the side of the building of the school, in tennis shoes, and turned out both ankles somehow, breaking one and fracturing the other! Another time with Rob, I was expressing my exuberance as we were walking across a street and I jumped up to do a "whoopee" and came crashing down and breaking ankles right in the middle of the street.  Yes, I'm a klutz, but I'm a darn good one, I don't do things half way!

None of this deterred me from getting most of my stuff done for the day, though.  I had to stop in at the Moose to see who had not picked up their auction items and run by the bank to hit up our safe deposit box for papers we need for our retired military I.D. we are getting this week.  The ankle was letting me know it was injured, but it wasn't that bad.  Having had all kinds of problems with my ankles before, I've also gotten quite proficient at driving with my left foot, does that make me ambi-ped-dextrous?

Anyway, so I got through the day just fine and it wasn't until Rob and I were sitting around last evening that everything started really hurting again. For some reason, my right hip was very uncomfortable, but I kinda blew it off.  You know, as we age, things just hurt, so I paid it no particular mind.  When we went to bed last night, though, I had to stay off that hip, as it was a little painful.

Well, I woke up this morning to what felt like a heartbeat in my hip, folks!  I'm talking that thump, thump of pain and pressure that usually indicates something really wrong.  So I slowly walked/limped in front of my big mirror and lo and behold,  I have about a dessert plate size bruise right at the top of my thigh.  I think it will make some pretty colors real soon.  I'm having a little difficulty even sitting on that side of my body this morning.  Once Rob got up, he came and inspected the area and sees a huge area that is all swollen and like I said, turning a lovely shade of purple.Guess who won't be wearing shorts for the rest of this week? I don't think I did any real damage, though, it feels like it's just one of those really deep bruises and I don't have a lot of meat right there.

Just one of my cherry bushes, they are loaded this year!!

So, I'm going to take it easy today, for real.  I think this looks like a day to maybe pick all those Nanking cherries that are ready all over the yard and start planning my jelly making. At least, if I'm doing that, I'm standing pretty still so my ankle shouldn't pound too much and I won't be sitting on my hip.

Hope you are having a better day than me.  Life is funny sometimes, it can sure tell you when to slow down, right??