I’m a Klutz!

My Jaw probably feels like this guys Torso does!

Odd news about ME for a change instead of my writing about other people and their silly accidents or stupid crimes.

The hubby and I were walking over to a nearby school this evening around 7:30 pm. We were going there to vote in a provincial by-election. I had wanted to go earlier but my husband was busy working in the yard.

We should have gone earlier!

I don’t know if I was a little bit dizzy or if I actually tripped on the sidewalk … or knowing me over my own two feet. I am, after all, well known as being a klutz. Really I am, I’m not too proud to admit that.

Either way, I guess I stumbled. I knew I was going to fall and I somehow managed to try to stay on my feet. So there I was sort of stumbling staggering along ahead of my husband. My arms were probably cartwheeling around by this time too. As I got near some bushes I think I reached out to try to grab them to stop my fall and I could hear my husband behind me say “Are you alright?” and then I went DOWN. Face first on my chin.

Naturally my hubby was immediately by my side as I lay face first on the ground. “Oh my god, what happened, are you ok?” I didn’t know. I heard a loud cracking sound when I hit. I slowly rolled over and sat up carefully. “Oh, look at your face! Do you have any kleenex?” my husband asked me. luckily I did and I quickly found it and pressed it to my chin. My coat was covered in blood.

With help I got to my feet. Stunned, but looking around to see who observed my major act of clumsiness. Doesn’t everyone do that when they’ve just done something stupid? No matter how much pain they are in?

While I was standing there my good husband was trying to gather up all the items from my purse that had flown out of it on impact. I hope we got everything!

I asked my husband how bad it was and he said it was pretty bad. Surprisingly I only scraped my left hand a little bit and nothing else. At least that’s all I’ve discovered so far! One of my first silly thoughts was whether we should continue on and go vote. Yeah, I actually did ask, and my husband thought about it too. But by that time I’d been standing for a minute or two and I started to really shake. We decide no, better get back home, and my hubby thought I needed stitches too.

We carefully walked back home, and as I walked I noticed that my front lower teeth were really hurting, and my neck and up both sides of my head. I wasn’t sure if it was the pain radiating from the gash in my chin or if I’d broken my jaw or what.

So here I am, walking home, shaking like a leaf from the pain and probably from the adrenaline rush, wondering if I’ve broken my jaw and how bad my face looks and I turn to my husband and say “If anyone saw that it must have been hilarious”. Hubby knew I’d be ok when he realized I still had my sense of humor.

I was re-living the accident and realizing how funny it must have looked to see a woman kind of stumble, stagger at least 5 feet, arms waving wildly in the air, and then go crashing straight down onto her face. It must have taken at least 10 seconds for all of the events to occur. If I saw that happen to someone I probably would have thought “Oh, that’s gotta hurt” but then I might have giggled a bit too. Hey, at least I can laugh at myself.

When we got home I put some gauze on my chin, the Kleenex was sticking, and I applied an ice pack. Then we headed off to the hospital. Now if you read my other bl0g “Tricia’s Musings” you might know that I happen to work in the Emergency Department as a nurse. Let me tell you, it is very embarrassing going to your own work place to be treated for a stupid accident. I’ve been away from work for the last few months due to illness so people were happy to see me, but sorry that I had hurt myself. I’m sure they had a bit of a giggle too.

I had to wait a short while to be triaged but I was allowed to go directly to the minor treatment area after being registered. This is a minor perk. I was in a lot of pain, still am actually, but I would have waited for more serious cases to be seen if needed. When I did get to the minor treatment area the doctor was seeing patients that had been there before me, as he should have been, but he got to me fairly quickly.

The doctor didn’t tell me how many stitches he put in. I asked but he didn’t say. He did say that my wound is right to the chin bone, very bad. Skin and tissue split and exposed the bone. I told you I went down hard, didn’t I? The gash is about an inch long, and when I had looked at in the mirror at home it was just a big gapping hole. That’s the only time I got teary/ weepy, but it hurt too much to wrinkle up my face to cry so it ended quickly. I went for an x-ray of my jaw and so far so good. The doctor didn’t see any damage but a radiologist will view the x-rays tomorrow to be sure that nothing is fractured.

Doc also said that I’m going to have a very swollen chin for several days, and that it will take several months to fully heal. There’s no bruising yet but I’m sure that will follow. My neck still hurts a bit and my jaw hurts too. I’m not talking much, only mumbling through a partially open mouth. The left side hurts the worst and goes right into my ear. Actually my ear keeps popping. It’s almost like when you have a cold and you are so stuffed up that when you swallow the increased pressure or suction from swallowing makes your plugged up ears hurt. Well it does that to me anyway, and that’s the kind of pain I’m feeling in my left ear.

Hmmm maybe I should have written this on my other site after all? I thought the funny image of my wallowing around stumbling would be suitable for this site, but I think my story needs less details and more funny to qualify for Odd Planet. Oh well, this is the only personal thing I’ve written on Odd Planet, and now my regular visitors will know me just a little bit better.

Anyone ever take a silly chin dive like I just did?

For anyone who’s been in a fist fight – what does it feel like when you get hit really hard in the jaw? As a nurse I have been swiped at a few times by confused patients but I’ve never been hit hard … not like this face first into the pavement thing I did this evening. Does being hit very hard in the jaw feel like I’ve described?

Now, since I tried to dig my way to China with my chin, I thought it would be extremely appropriate to rent my space this week to Rob In China. I almost made it there Rob! I’ve been admiring his site for a while now, and his site is similar to this one in that he also writes about weird news – but his weird news stories come straight out of China. He’s got some great stories this week and some hilarious pictures to go with them. Make sure you visit him and tell him Tricia sent ya.