When it Rains, it Pours

Last night I was working in the kitchen while the men folk of our household worked together to move a large desk from the back of our truck to our downstairs.  There is a cement sidewalk that winds down the side of our back yard.  Although it is a long path, it is the easiest route for moving furniture.

Here's the weird thing.  As I was working in the kitchen, the thought occurred to me that they might need my help.  I decided to finish with the cucumber I was cutting before going out to see if they needed my help.  I should have followed my first prompting, because about thirty seconds later I heard a "Wham!" and then an "Ow!".  I hurried to the back upper deck and looked down to see my husband lying on his stomach in the garden.  My kids' reaction was something like, "Dad, did you hurt yourself AGAIN?!"  I heard them say, "Are you all right?", and I heard his answer, "No."  I looked and saw a trickle of blood starting to pool on the cement under his head.  I immediately hurried in to the kitchen and grabbed an old kitchen towel and soaked it in water, and then put a few ice cubes inside.  I hurried down the deck stairs and went to assess my husband.

I remember one Christmas when I got a pair of roller blades as a gift.  I went with the kids down to the school driveway to try them out.  As I was coming down a slight incline, my feet went out from under me and  I landed flat on my back.  Wow that hurt!  It hurt so bad that I just laid there groaning for awhile, and didn't get up for a minute.  I think that's pretty much how my husband felt.  As he was walking backward carrying the desk, he tripped on the side of the sidewalk and fell backwards.  He hit his head on the wooden supporting post of the deck.  After laying there in the same kind of "groaning" posture that I had assumed after falling those many years ago, he finally sat up.  I took one look at his head and said, "Well, I hate to break this to you, but you are going to need stitches."  He had about an inch and a half cut in his head that was kind of gaping.

As the doctor stitched him up, he told me that it had cut clear to the bone.  "shiver"  But it only took 5 stitches, so I guess we are lucky.  He did hit the bone that is right behind his ear, so they did an x ray to make sure his skull wasn't fractured.  Then the doctor educated me about head wounds, and about signs to watch for.  I paid close attention.  You see, about a year ago, a cousin of mine fell down her front steps and hit her head.  She went to the doctor, who couldn't find anything wrong with her.  But she had an internal bleed that they didn't know about, and died within hours.  Died from a tumble down her front steps.  So even though my husband appears to be okay, I'm still watching him closely.  These kinds of brain bleeds can occur up to a week after the incident.  Some signs to watch for are:  uncontrolled vomiting, nausea, difficulty walking, speech problems, and bruising that increases in size over night.

About a month ago my husband fell while moving our belongings from California.  He thought he had broken a rib.  We read online that there isn't much they can do for a broken rib.  He never did go to a doctor, so he took advantage of the time spent in urgent care to ask about his rib.  The doctor said he thinks it is what people call a "separated rib".  He gave my husband good advice on how to help it heal.

Today I was browsing Facebook when I got a message from my neighbor in California telling me that my house there had caught on fire!  Someone took pictures and in one of them I counted at least 5 fire trucks that showed up.  It sounds like they caught it just in time, and that the damage is relatively minimal.  Mind you, it will be expensive to fix, but no one was hurt, and most of the damage is external.  Thankfully we have insurance that will take care of this.  They think the fire had something to do with our gas meter   I'm just thankful no one was hurt.

Tonight my son was talking to my husband about something to do with our roof.  My husband said, "I could go up there and check on it."  I said, "You are NOT going to climb up on the roof while you have the black cloud of bad luck hanging over your head!"  :)  I sure hope that bad luck comes in threes, and that we are done.