No One Ever Accused Me of Being Graceful

I'm not in my office this morning. On a typical Tuesday I would have been up and out before six to beat the traffic. This morning I am on the couch with a wicked headache and a sore and bruised left side. I spent yesterday evening in the ER.

Yesterday was my regular work at home day (the boys aren't covered by after school programs on Monday). C gets off the bus first and I don't need to meet his bus; he'd be mortified if I did meet it. M gets off about 40 minutes later and I do have to meet that bus. On the way out to meet him, we thought we'd take the dog down to the bus, too, to greet the kids.

Turning out of the driveway, Miss T, the dog, saw the neighbor's dog and took off. I was using the retractable leash, and had a pretty good grip on it, but did not my finger on the little button that holds the length, so Miss T was able to get some good momentum, thus knocking me fully off my feet and pulling the leash completely out of my hands,

It happened so quickly that I don't quite know how my body hit the ground, but I do remember thinking (if not shouting) an expletive as I felt my head hit the asphalt.

I was able to sit up but not stand up. I was disoriented and woozy and shaky instantly and just sat there on the ground stunned. C ran and got a hold of Miss T and took her back to the house, to the basement. Then he brought me some gauze for the bleeding on my forehead. My neighbor came to help, too, and after about five minutes or so helped me into the house.

Once on the couch, with ice and gauze, I called my husband to come home right away, and pick up S. I stayed put. The boys brought me what I needed.

When my husband arrived home, he looked me over, saw that I was still pretty out-of-it and decided the ER was the place to be. We found a friend for the boys to stay with and took S with us.

It was a long evening, but everything is okay. I have four stitches in my forehead. That cut was all the way through the skin layer to the fascia. There are scrapes on my left shoulder and knee, and big bruises on my left hip and elbow. The kind that turn psychedelic shades of yellow and green and blue before resolving. The nurses said I should be expect to be sore all over for a while, and that soreness has set in this morning.

I was showing some classic concussion symptoms (including sensitivity to light, light confusion) so I was sent for a CT scan as well. The scan looked okay, so it's minor as such knocks on the head go.

I know I'm lucky and I'll be fine. I just feel so dumb about it.