banged up on a tina tuesday

Yes, I have fallen again.

Damn.

This time, it was at the cinema in Hinesville.

I had traveled there for 'Tina Tuesday with my first niece.

The movie was done and the credits were rolling and we'd both said we needed to pee... 

so I'd started up the broad steps toward the exit, popcorn bag and drink in my right hand...

and the top of my right sandal caught the lip of the stair...

causing me to stumble in that direction...

and next thing I knew, I had crash landed in front of the seat, my right knee falling onto the floor, my left bicep coming up hard against the cup holder of that seat.

Ouch.

Immediately I had folks around me trying to help me up.

There was no way for me to rise on my own.

I simply did not have the strength.

Damn.

I tried to work my way over to the rail on that left wall, but it was too slippery.

By that time, the manager was in there, trying to help, as was a paramedic that happened to be at the cinema for a film.

He had positioned himself in front of me, on the next lower step.

The next lower step...

that's when the advantage of the physics of that position came to me.

I scooched down until my feet were both firmly on that lower step, essentially giving me a boost up as my butt was on the higher step.

The paramedic was then able to help me stand straight up in one smooth movement.

Physics.

The manager took my name and info for his report, then got Christina's as well.

We were able to sit and wait for a while, thanks to the thunderstorm raging outside.

i thank You, God.

Christina had wanted me to stay the night with her, but my meds were all at home.

I drove in the rain all the way, thinking of how fortunate I was to have had so many people there to help me, thinking of how I need to be sure to lift my feet higher when I am on steps, thinking of the need to use stair rails for extra support.

Getting older calls for loss adjustment for lack of younger reflexes.

Damn.

I kept icing my right knee all evening after I got home.

I also started taking Tylenol then, one every four or five hours.

This morning, I woke up with an ache in my back and my right shoulder, confirming that I had twisted to try to catch myself as I fell.

My right knee was bruised but, thankfully, not stiff and only slightly swollen.

My left knee was unscathed, mercifully.

Even my upper right foot and toes, that I thought had been scraped by the top of the stair when my shoe came off, were fine.

i thank You, God.

My right arm, though, is an absolute fright.

I did try to ice it, off and on, last night, but it was problematic.

Water from the ice bag kept soaking me with its run-off.

Placing a kitchen towel between the arm and my body had not been an adequate solution.

In other words, I had resolved to live with the expected bruise.

And what a doozy it is, as broad as my palm.

It's a little sore to the touch, like my knee, but that's to be expected.

Lesson learned: my mind may still feel 18, but my body does not.

Yeah, I'm getting that, stubborn as I can be sometimes.

i thank You, God, that I am retired and can heal at my own pace.