I had
a scare Sunday night, but I'm ok now. I had no intention of blogging
about it but when I emailed this description to Carole, she said I had
done all the right things and should put it in my blog to remind other
people of what you should do. So.
My neighbor Jean
dropped me off at my house about 10:00 p.m. after book group and went
on up the street. I tripped going up my walk and landed on my knees and
then the momentum carried me forward and I hit my head on the edge of
the bottom (brick) step. It made a big groove right at the hairline.
Everything hurt, but I was worried about my head, because my friend
Kathy's thinking was affected by a closed-head injury. Also, I know
you're supposed to be checked for symptoms of concussion every few
hours, and Claudia is in New York. So I walked over to Jean's house and
caught her as she was getting out of her car, told her what happened.
She took me in and checked me for blood, none, and, since she had
forgotten to put the ice pack back in the freezer after her last
migraine, she gave me a packet of frozen peas for my head and frozen
corn for my knee. Then she looked up head injuries in her Kaiser home
medical book and we decided we didn't need to call Kaiser or take me to
the emergency room. I would have been more worried if Claudia hadn't
once gotten a groove in her head in about the same place from a parking
garage gate coming down on her, and she recovered just fine.
The
book said I should be checked every few hours for signs of concussion.
Jean checked my pupils then, and offered me a bed at her house for the
night, but I set it up the same way I had last time I thought I might
have a concussion (Claudia was also out of town then, and I set it up
with Carole). So Jean and I set our alarms for 1 o'clock and if I didn't
call, she could assume I needed help. After I got home I knew my brain
was working ok when I realized that Jean should have a key to my house
in case she had to come in and rouse me.
Then
I couldn't get to sleep, so I finished reading the book-group book
(rare for me not to finish before the meeting) and called her at one. I
felt fine, so told her we could skip the next check. The checking is
supposed to go on for 24 hours, but all I did was to refrain from
driving till a four o’clock appointment, 18 hours, close enough. The
dent is still a dent, so icing it right away and again when I got home
kept me from getting a lump. It's still a little red; I was afraid it
would be big and purple.
The book, by the way, was terrific. A Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich.
NEXT TRIP
Friday I leave for the Children’s Music Network national gathering in Asheville, NC. Bonnie Lockhart
and I will be singing Malvina’s “Magic Penny” at the beginning of the
Magic Penny Award ceremony. This year the award will be given to Tom
Chapin. You can hear him singing the song he wrote with John Forster,
“Not on the Test” on his website. If you don’t like “No Child Left Behind” you’ll love this song.
PS: A SLEAZE PRIZE GOES TO ECHOMETRIX
A
company that markets software for parents to track their children’s
internet use is collecting the data and selling it to people marketing
products to children. Here’s the whole story. Eeww, gross!
©2009 BY NANCY SCHIMMEL
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
TRIPS, GOOD AND BAD
