Yesterday I went on an unusual, unexpected trip to the floor. All had been going okay, if not wonderfully well, when I got up from my desk, turned, and suddenly found that my left leg was locked and unresponsive. After a moment or two of struggling to make a movement, I found myself slowly but inexorably headed to the floor, where I landed with a sickening shock right on my ass.
Luckily my nephew Kameron was in the house with me, so I did not have to summon help. Not that he could help me physically (his strength is no match for my weight) but he could, in the best Lassie tradition, go for help. Unluckily his parents weren't at home. While we waited for one or the other to arrive, he kept me company and did what he could to keep me comfortable and run little chores.
Eventually my sister Susan got home, and together she and I managed to wrangle my inert corpse up onto the bed (which is not far from the desk), from where I was able to once more gain control of the puppet strings. Andy (having just got home from being on a job) stuck his head in, ready to help, only to find to his relief that I was doing alright, Kameron hung around another hour to make sure all was well.
One thing being on the floor reminded me of, was how much a part of my life was lived down there when I was little. A part that now in normal circumstances is another world. I was somehow reminded of how, when I was little, I could sit on the floor, bow my legs apart, and put the soles of my feet together, a feat that is now unthinkable in my condition. I thought of how little kids exist on this different plane, which is like another world, and how when adults descend to this level they are meeting them in their own world. I thought sadly how I would never meet our little ones in this parralel province, but remain like a distant gray promentary, a being that could never descend into epiphany in their youthful eyes.
My little trip to the floor was a bugger in more than obvious ways. It got me thinking, and that is rarely a comfortable thing. As it is, it also put me a little behind schedule in my blogging goal, so I thought it could make up a little bit for its unpleasantness as grist for a post.
I had much the same experience but it happened because I was unfamiliar with the limitations of my leg immobilizer and found my leg buckling. I went down like I have never experienced before, with absolutely no control of the fall; I used to be able to land properly, a gift from my martial arts days. Instead I fell on my left buttock and a big metal water dish for the dogs. My head smashed into the containers we have for dog and cat food and since they were on wheels they skittered away so no head injury. But how to get up when you can't bend or use the leg? Fortunately, my wife and 2 of my sons were nurses aids in the past and we had a belt to aid in lifting. The hardest part for me was the moment where my body decided it preferred the comfort of the floor, about mid way up. But my lads were strong and set my on my feet, shaken and feeling lower than I have in the last few years of mobility issues. I say I regret having the surgery as things were worse, not better, but I repented of it and prayed for healing and blessings instead.
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