One Month Ago This Morning

The morning of June 6 began much like this morning - beautiful weather, sunny skies, a perfect summer day - that went terribly wrong in a matter of seconds. 

But first, a little back story. Near the end of April I had a regular six month meeting with my primary physician. All was as usual, nothing of note. Except - I mentioned feeling dizzy often. Not enough that it stopped me from my normal routines; just bothersome. Dr. K. asked if I would like to try some therapy to see if that helped. Therapy for dizziness? That was a new one for me. I said "sure". So in April I had my first session and then three more in May. I felt so much better. So much so that on that first Tuesday in June I decided it was time to get back into walking outside. Lake McKinley here my camera and I come.

It was only going to be a short walk to ease back into a daily routine.

The first photo I took was of a nice patch of lamb's quarters, aka, wild spinach. I remembered fondly years ago when my mother subscribed to organic gardening magazines and had read about foraging for edible wild plants. 

Lamb's quarters were on that list and she wanted to try them so one weekend when I was there, we did. This picture was in homage to my adventurous Mom.

Next was a patch of, what I think is, Boneset.

This was on the north end of the lake.

Which is also where this Red-winged Blackbird was singing.

All the time I was walking, taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful morning, I was also composing a blog post in my mind.

This photo of yellow sweet clover was the last one I took before my life took a huge turn.

Bud had walked up to and around the lake and was ready to start back home before he met up with me. We started walking together - something we hardly ever do - but on this day it turned out to be quite provident.

Talking and walking side by side until I stepped off the pavement onto the gravel and started falling, doing that fast foot movement you do to try and catch yourself. I faceplanted into the gravel and that was the last thing I remembered until at some point realizing I was in a helicopter.

The next thing was being in an exam room with Bud as a doctor came in to stitch me up. I had my first, and I hope only, helicopter ride via life flight straight to the trauma center at Unity Point (Iowa Methodist) in Des Moines. I came home with pain meds, antibiotics and instructions to go back a week later to the Iowa Clinic ENT department.

We didn't even tell my children about it until a couple of days later. 

I kidded that I could have starred in a horror movie without even having any special effects make up.

This picture was taken a couple days after the fall - after I had managed to wash some of the dried blood off.

Bud said I didn't lose consciousness, but I have no memory of the CT scans, etc. I had at the trauma center.

Nine days after the accident I went back to therapy. My dizziness was even worse than it was originally. And we've been working on it ever since.

Today is the first day I feel as though we're making progress. I have been using my walker so I don't fall but I am able to walk some in the house w/o it. 

There have been days when I've been really down, but generally I am staying positive, believing that the dizziness will get better, though my face is permanently scarred. My nose was broken and I have opted not to go through surgery, though that is open if I change my mind. 

With Bud's excellent help, we have managed to keep the flowers watered and blooming beautifully. I have been out and pulled weeds once. I am doing laundry, cooking and for the first time today actually vaccumed! In the interim, my sweet granddaughter Katrina came down and did some thorough cleaning for me. 

And now, with the exception of June's end of the month book report, I have posted a new blog. It has to be uphill all the way from here. Besides, after I hit 'publish' on this report, I only have seventeen posts to go before I hit number 2,000. Incentive. 😄