TIMMMBERRR!!!

The terrible spinach reaction was Sunday night, and on Wednesday I was scheduled to return to work for a really difficult 3 day assignment. I still felt sore and achy and NOT my best, but I wasn’t bad enough I felt calling in sick was an option.

Besides, thanks to vacation in November, that was my last work assignment for the whole month! It was good money, too.

So two Wednesday mornings ago, sore and achy, I went back to work.

Amazingly enough, by Thursday night I felt 100% again, even with flying 11-14 hour days on Wednesday and Thursday.

One more day of work and I could go home for a well deserved break.

And then…Friday morning.

I was in Orlando, Florida, scheduled to be on the plane at 6:22 a.m. Our van was scheduled at 6:00 a.m.

We arrived curbside at the airport at 6:08 a.m., and as I went to get off the van (which was one of those hotel vans that has three large steps to climb up), I fell.

I fell HARD.

From the top step.

At 3 feet in the air, I suddenly went from vertical to horizontal in a moment.

I landed directly on my left kneecap and the tip of my left elbow on the concrete below.

I lay on the ground, stunned, and couldn’t move for about a minute.

Finally I felt I could move, so my crew helped me up and, with one person on my right side and another on my left, they helped me hobble/wobble over to a bench.

Then I saw that the fall had ripped through my pants and heavy winter tights and my knee looked terrible.

The pain in my elbow was quite intense, and within a few minutes had decided to radiate all the way from my elbow up to my shoulder and down to my fingers. I couldn’t move my hand or arm very much at all without extreme pain.

Paramedics were called. A nifty ride to the hospital followed.

In the ambulance, they checked my blood sugar and it was 49. Apparently that is low enough they didn’t believe it and instantly took it again. The second time it was 65.

Apparently still low. So they said they were going to give me something to suck on to raise my blood sugar.

Oh, hell, no!!

That meant some kind of hard candy or lollipop, and after 5 years of dealing with Jed, I knew that meant something loaded with high fructose corn syrup. After my reaction on Sunday night, the LAST thing I wanted was anything that even hinted  at fructose in my body!

So I got an IV glucose push instead.

About a minute after he finished pushing the glucose? My blood sugar tested at 253, and I was WOOZY.

I’ve been sugar free for over 3 years, y’all! My body didn’t know what to do with all that sugar!

It took a few hours to feel normal again, and in that time I was x-rayed and left to sit in a hospital bed alone for hours.

Fun times.

Turns out, nothing was broken or dislocated, so they released me with instructions to follow up with my primary care doctor at home.

Suddenly I was back in my ripped up uniform, escorted with my luggage (still limping and unable to use my left arm or hand) out of the hospital into the warm Orlando air, and left wondering “What now?”

Fortunately, I have to give my airline a gigantic “Bravo” in the way they handled my injury. I’d been receiving frequent phone calls from myriad company people while in the hospital, and when I called our crew coordination desk to arrange transport home, they knew who I was and my situation before I said more than my name!

A shuttle van was sent for me and positive space seats were arranged for me to get home right away.

In Houston, a supervisor met the plane to meet me and see if I needed anything at all.

Truly impressive.

Even more impressive is the fact that the flight I was supposed to work on Friday morning was only delayed by about ten minutes. Without me, there weren’t enough Flight Attendants to work the flight, so a cancellation was not out of the question.

Somehow, the operations people in Orlando managed to swap around crew members and find someone else to take my place in that brief amount of time.

Bravo, airline. Bravo.

Anyway, when I arrived home, my Dad and Darrel came to rescue me. Since my whole left side was basically out of operation, I couldn’t drive my manual transmission car home.

My parents kindly kept the boys another day at their house, and I slept 12 hours Friday night.

Obviously that weekend was not my most fun weekend ever. I’ve slowly improved, but even today (12 days after falling, in case you’ve lost track) my knee still hurts to bend and my elbow is still painful to touch.

Thankfully, the radiating pain and neck pain are gone, and I can use my arm and leg…I just don’t want to tap my elbow on anything or bend my knee because that hurts.

Oh, and to cap it all off? While I was in the hospital in Orlando, I got a photo text from my mom.

Jed had decided to do something acrobatic, and managed to cut the back of his head open on their coffee table.

The cut did not look good when I got home. Sunday we had to shave part of his hair in order to be able to doctor and band aid the wound.

Thankfully, it’s healing nicely now.

Still, I kind of want to look at reality and say “Reality? I’m going to sleep now. Don’t wake me up until things are easier and I don’t feel beat up and conflicted, okay?”

And I have a far better appreciation for what my kids go through.

I already had a great  understanding and sympathy for their food issues, knowing that I have been affected by food my whole life, but this spinach reaction?

Wowza!

I was a little scared to trial another food. I can’t imagine what our precious food intolerant/allergic children must feel.

Poor babies.

In fact, I bought green bell peppers to trial next, and it took me 2 days to work up the nerve to trial them!

Good news, though: green bell peppers are safe for me!

That emboldened me to trial sweet peas last Saturday, and they seem safe, too!

I must admit, the speed of these food trials is a little unnerving. Having spent 2-4 weeks trialing every new food for Zac for 3.5 years has me habituated to long trials. This is almost dizzying!

Speaking of Zac, we were able to trial black pepper on him to great success!

We’re holding off on starting a new trial because we want him to eat turkey at Thanksgiving this week.

Oh, and he’s – finally – basically potty trained…as long as he’s naked. As soon as you put anything on his heinie, he stops using the toilet completely. Sigh.

Further making me suspect my family is on Candid Camera, Darrel is sick right now. He cocooned himself all day Sunday and yesterday visited the doctor to learn he has both a viral AND bacterial infection. Fortunately, he can get the “good”, cheap drugs. They said he should feel better in about 3 days.

Just in time to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Not in time to help make any of it. Of course.

Truly, y’all. I HATE Fall. This is just beyond ridiculous. 

Anyway, sorry I’ve been so silent lately, but, as you can tell, it’s been rather INSANE for quite a while.

With Thanksgiving this week, I’m going to be re-sharing some of my best Thanksgiving-themed posts on Facebook and in a compilation post tomorrow.

I sure hope things are going more smoothly at your house than they have been at mine!