Just a short post, a little food for thought.
A couple of nights ago, I was awakened by my wife calling to me from her bedroom at the other end of the house from where I sleep. She falls occasionally and needs help getting up, so I got out of bed and called out to her that I was on my way.
While crossing the living room, I tripped and fell forward onto the floor. I was too slow in breaking my fall, so I essentially fell face first and hit my forehead really hard against our hardwood floor.
I may have felt worse pain, but aside from wearing a catheter for 10 days a decade or so ago, I can’t think of anything.
At any rate, I was convinced that I must have fractured my skull.
Luckily, I didn’t.
I didn’t have a contusion or even a concussion.
I did have a fairly bad cut over my left eye that will probably result in a lifetime scar.
The picture is about 18 hours after the fall.
if anything surprised me about it, it’s that for all I’ve heard about scalp wounds, it didn’t bleed very much. If there is one lasting effect 36 hours later, it’s that I apparently jammed my neck, which is aching pretty badly.
So what’s the point of this tale?
Well, if you heard that someone less than three months from his 75th birthday, a man in mediocre health at best, tripped and fell flat on his face without even breaking his fall, what would you think would happen?
There are certainly the things I mentioned — skull fracture, cerebral contusion or concussion.
Then there’s TBI — traumatic brain injury.
And of course the big one, the worst-case scenario.
Death.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to overdramatize this. I think the chance of the worst-case scenario was probably very slim, but if you saw or heard the impact of my head against the floor, you might think the chances of no serious head injury were almost as slim.
I was fortunate.
Very fortunate.