Recently I had a mishap outside my house. I will say that at times I display a special talent for tripping over nothing, but this time I tripped over some uneven concrete. I stubbed and broke my right big toe, half twisted my right ankle, crashed onto my right knee and badly twisted my left ankle. Yes, when I do something, I like to do it properly.
I had only popped out to grab something from the car. Barefoot. No phone.
As I sat on the ground, repeating the words ‘oh shit, oh shit, oh shit’ over and over I realised that I could be in serious trouble. Adrenaline kicked in and I got up, hobbled into the house and made it to the freezer where I grabbed every available ice pack. I then hobbled to the couch, grabbing my phone on the way, elevated my feet and packed myself in ice from the knee down. I was pretty sure I hadn’t broken the ankles, although they were swelling nicely, as was the toe. Therefore, the only thing to do was to keep icing everything, keep it elevated and wait.
To cut the story short the ankles were not broken (yay) but the toe was. However, I could not put any weight at all on either foot. This meant that I couldn’t hobble, I couldn’t use crutches and I live in a place where I couldn’t use a wheel chair so basically, I was stuck in bed. Fortunately, my husband was able to stay home for three days because he had to carry me everywhere. By day four I could walk to the bathroom with some assistance, by day seven I could shuffle to the kitchen and get a drink and stand to clean my teeth. Two weeks in and I was still relying on my husband and friends for everything, I was still showering sitting on a plastic chair (sexy) and unable to stand or walk for any length of time.
Something like this gives you a lot of time to think about what is important, and my independence was top of this list. We take it for granted, don’t we? The fact we can do things for ourselves without help. When suddenly you can’t, it’s a big shock. We often think that our loss of freedom will come with advanced age. I have always been confident that I will still be living independently at 98 because almost all my family do. We have good genes and I eat well, I exercise, I work my mind as well as my body but mostly because this is my plan. I plan to be a feisty, self-sufficient, outrageous and possibly scandalous old lady. In no way does this plan include walking aids, shower aids and having my butt wiped.
But the truth is we don’t know what will happen do we? We don’t know if we got the good genes or if all that exercise and getting extra sleep and limiting alcohol and chocolate and cake will mean that we will be a nimble 90-year-old. Perhaps it will. We know it makes us feel better now but what about the years to come? Everyone knows that one person who is the exception. They do everything ‘wrong’ and drop dead at 100 with a cigarette in one hand and a gin and tonic in the other whilst dancing the night away with the hip and younger crowd at the local octogenarian disco.
We all hope that we will live a fit and long life and never need to rely on aged care or family and that any problems we may have will be minor and easily fixed. But what if a mishap derails all our carefully made plans? Well, my little mishap has demonstrated that the answer to that question is it’s scary and it sucks big time. Don’t get me wrong, I was very lucky, mostly because I apparently have very strong, healthy bones which is great because they need to be a match for my occasional clumsiness.
Ultimately though I have learned some valuable lessons.
1. It’s ok to ask for help
2. It’s ok to let people help you
3. Appreciate everything your body can and does do for you and thank it every day
and
4. Sometimes you just have to chuck it in the f**k it bucket and eat the damn chocolate because you never know.
Until next time remember “Be gentle with yourself. You’re doing the best you can”.
