Days 10-11

Well, day 10 was actually productive, though I have to give at least part of the credit to the Daytona 500. There's something about a 500-mile stock car race that makes me want to knit fast - and there was a free in-car preview, though it didn't work very well. Seems the helicopters that re-transmit the pictures and team audio were grounded by thick weather.... And then, since Lisa and I both had today off, I stayed up and watched the Olympics until midnight. (Wasn't the ice dancing scary??) 

My results? 20.5 inches total! OK, I'm still on the back, but I'm in sight of the end. Or maybe it's just lap 1 around the stadium.

This morning, however - and now I have to be serious for a bit. Lisa had a fall. She's had balance issues since the surgery last June, because the original tumor was in the cerebellum, in a balance center, and cutting around in there causes problems. So, as she was getting up, she was standing on one foot, lost her balance, and fell into the corner of the dresser, hitting it with her head. No cut, but there was a dent in the skin that felt soft when I touched it. She was otherwise OK, so I got her up and sitting on the edge of the bed (which is about two feet from where she fell), told her we were going to the emergency room - and she blacked out. That's a scary, incredibly unmistakable moment: her eyes were open, and there was no person, no presence, no intelligence there.

So I called 911. You hear a lot of bad things about service in emergencies, but I have nothing to complain about. The dispatcher got the vital information, told me what I needed to do to check on Lisa (who had resumed consciousness almost immediately, and was sitting up and wanting to put on her shoes), and then told me what I needed to do to get the animals out of the way and get the EMTs in the house. They were here within 10 minutes of the fall, checked her out - she was fully conscious, not in any pain, and as much embarrassed as scared - and said she still ought to go to the hospital because of the cancer history and the loss of consciousness. Or maybe it was in the opposite order....

In any case, they put her in the ambulance and took her to the emergency room. I walked and fed the dog (wishing we'd trained her to defecate on command), grabbed a book for Lisa and my knitting, and headed to the emergency room. 

Where she was sitting up, answering questions (I was the one who got her age wrong), and otherwise showing no ill effects. She didn't even have a headache. There's a lump on her head, a tiny red mark where she actually hit the dresser - all of which you can see because she still doesn't have any hair - and the beginning of a bruise on her shoulder. That's it.

So we are basically fine. We weren't even at the emergency room long enough for me to do more than a row and a half of my sweater-back, and the examining doctor said she really wasn't hurt. But we are both just a tad stressed.

She said I could use this as my excuse for not finishing if I needed it, but that would be cheating.