Klutz Strikes Again

We were at the gym meet on Saturday morning with the little level 3 girls (including Jillian.) it was a super meet and I was so proud that she went for it again since she had been so tentative before. After the meet and talking to one and all we left the gym in Albuquerque through the back door which meant we walked around a lot of the equipment. I missed falling into the in-floor trampoline which was covered with a mat as there was a parent stationed there to keep unwary klutzes from falling in but...the was no one at the uneven bars at the back of the gym. You guessed it I ran right into one of the guy wires and chains that support them. I was launched into the air, thanks to my right shin, and did a left ankle,left wrist, left shoulder and twisted body plant that probably looked like I was trying for at least a fancy rotation before I landed on my head. Lynne and Anita came running back to me saying "agree you okay?" being really embarrassed since I had not stuck my landing I said" I am fine". Of course, I wasn't fine...two days later and I hurt all OCR. My shin is swollen And bruised, I twisted my left ankle and foot, twisted my already damaged left wrist and jammed my poor unusable left shoulder that needs some for of therapy or surgery. Am I feeling sorry for myself...you bet. I can't believe I didn't see the wires but I was looking a different direction. I have always been this unaware of where different parts of my body are. Over 65 years I have fallen over lines painted on sidewalks, missed the bottom stairs, run arms, hands, feet, toesand my head into more things than I can count. When I was 5 I was pretending to be blind at least that is what I was thinking at the time and holding onto my dad's hand walked right into the corner of a building cutting my head above my eye. My mother was furious at my father for letting me do this. In university, I was riding in my morher' car riding shotgun without a seatbelt. She drove into a ditch when turning the car around on a dark road and of course i hit the top of my head on the windshield...i lived through the experience thNks to a hard head but the next morning I went out to the milk (this is when they still delivered milk to your house) and slipped on the wer porch floor twisting my neck. I ended up having cervical traction and physical therapy for around 3 months while the tendons repaired themselves. That next june,I tried out a skateboard (at the top of a hill) and not being able to stop at the bottom properly I stopped on my right wrist. While still bandaged from this episode I had a porch swing land on my right calf. For my sister's graduation from high school I am all dressed up and wearing a wrist brace and on crutches. That was a rough year for me. Good thing I was young! Two years later at TWU, I crushed my foot in a potter's wheel. Good thing I was wearing heavy leather loafers or it would have broken. For two years, the pottery instructor used me as an example for safety in the lab...he told every one I had been barefoot but that was another girl in the class. I subsequently ended up in a walking for a month and a half. I did poorly in organ and bowling since I couldn't use my left foot for either of them. The stories are endless. Stepping in a hole in Mississauga walking to the store with 4 year old Ian. Landed on my knees. His comment " we should have driven"...crutches again! Stepped in a hole I front of the York Minster in England, again with Ian, no crutches just ice and elevation. Only time I ever broke anything out of all this was 1968. I closed the garage door on three fingers of my right hand. All I could think when I looked,at them trapped in the space between the door slats was I hoped they were Still attached. I broke two of them and crushed the other one. That pain was incredible. They are right when they say that a break doesn't feel like anything else you can ever experience. When I told my mother I was taking skiing all she could say was I was crazy! That was the only activity that I ever did that I didn't get hurt doing. So far my children haven't inherited this tendency for self destruction. Lucky for them.