Fitness, Falling, Friendship

I think I mentioned last fall that my friend Lisa, my niece Amanda, and myself had created a little fitness challenge group on our text chain. We started slow, and then each month would switch up part or all of the challenge. Each day we did some sort of exercise/movement/effort, we would text when we were finished and encourage each other. 

The accountability has kept all of us going, and we are still doing it! We are all realistic - for instance, during the holidays, we allowed ourselves some grace, since we knew that each of us would be busy with work, holiday plans, etc., and each of us managed to keep going. I'm really proud of us.

I had a hiccup at the beginning of October, though. 

Substitute "walking" for "running" above, and this could easily be me. After a week of rainy days, we had a beautiful, sunny, fall day. So I took myself out for a nice long walk outside. It was glorious, and I had walked quite a distance, had turned to head home, crossed Washington Avenue in South Philly (if you are local you know Washington Avenue, it can be harrowing), and then ... 

Well, I *sort* of remember someone saying, "Don't worry honey, I'm a nurse, I've called an ambulance. Oh dear, look at her teeth." And I *sort* of remember a paramedic asking me how to contact my husband and being with it enough to give him my phone to call. But mostly the next thing I remember is waking up in the Trauma Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. 

Yes, I'd fallen. Just like years ago when walking the dog. PLOP and then waking up and remembering absolutely nothing about it. Last time, I had lots of bumps and bruises, and had broken a tooth and my glasses. When they had scanned my person for interal injuries, they had found the kidney cancer, which turned out to be a good thing because I could have it dealt with before it got really bad. But overall, it was a terrible fall that hurt, nothing more.

Many tests, many doctors, and many tellings of the story over, the closest they could come was that I had had an episode of syncope. Gradually, I managed to regain confidence and went along with my life.

This time, however, the results were much worse (well, OK I didn't have cancer again, but ruling that out and moving along). I had fractured my nose, shredded the septum, and all of my top front teeth had been pushed back into my mouth. Plus of course cuts all over - my knees were shredded, I had serious cuts on my face - and bruises to give me "color." 

That night, a maxillofacial surgeon came to my hospital room and with the help of his resident, pulled my front teeth forward again and put them in temporary braces. Those were on for eight weeks. 

The next afternoon, an ENT surgeon got my nose back where it was supposed to be on my face, repaired the septum, and placed splints in my nose to keep it in place until it healed.  That took 4 weeks until the swelling abated, and 4 weeks until the splints were removed.

After that nose surgery, I was allowed to go home. THANK GOD. I had to sleep sitting up for two months, but I was home! I missed four weeks of work, and could not wear my glasses for those four weeks. Which meant not only could I not knit, but I couldn't read, or even watch TV that well. 

In late February - again, after many many tests for heart issues, neurological issues, and any other issues anyone could think of - I had a cardiac loop monitor implanted in my chest so that any irregularities could be seen whenever they happened, not after the fact. 

And really, I'm doing OK at least as far as anyone can tell. So that's good.

My fitness check-ins became the "today my neck doesn't hurt as much" variety, but Lisa and Amanda still kept me in the text chain like I was exercising as usual. Which really kept me going, you know?

And gradually, I've upped my activity and gotten back into the swing of things. 

But I do have to admit that this time around, it is taking me longer to regain my confidence when I am outside walking or bicycling. I do it, and fortunately nothing terrible has happened, but since my injuries were so awful, I tend to worry I'll fall and hurt myself again, or worse, not make it across a street, but collapse in the middle of one (for instance, if I had collapsed while crossing Washington Avenue instead of after crossing, I might have just been a goner. Yikes!)

Lisa and Amanda are not here in person, BUT they are not only helping to keep me inspired to keep moving, the fact that we still check in with each other is a kind of comfort, since I know if they didn't hear from me, and didnt know ahead of time why, they would check with The Tim. 

Still though, I'm now hyperaware of where I am and if people are around or not.

But I'm getting there. I'm still doing my best to keep fit, and my friends are doing it with me. I have something in my body that will immediately alert the doctors if something happens, what exactly happens, and hopefully why.

My hope is that it never happens again, and never that the monitor never has to report anything. In the meantime, all I can do is keep going. And I hope this will encourage you to find one or two more fitness friends, to both get you going and keep you going. You won't regret it. Ever.

*****

Don't forget - you can ask me any question you may have (even related to this story) in the comments of this post! There aren't many questions at this point, so head on over and add yours, and I'll answer them all on Monday, April 24.

In the meantime, have a good weekend, and if (God forbid) you are like me, try really hard to remain upright! 😊