It started with a delivery to the house... but to the wrong door, the one with the sign on the door window with "use other door" and an arrow. The wrong door is a step down with just a screen door to hold onto. The mentioned "other door" exits on the same level as the floor inside and has a covered porch to help mitigate rain and allow useful movement with full arms, whatever their burden. Our regular delivery people know where packages go. Others don't, and go for the one closest to the road, however awkward it is for us.
Steve got a notice that a package he ordered had been delivered. I was better dressed, meaning I had been outside recently and was still in extra layers due to being slow to warm up. It's a windy walk to the mail shed, and November is chilly in late afternoon. Plus, I'm generally in better shape, in terms of mobility. I went to check at the regular door... nothing. Back through the house to the other door, and there it was, a little thing leaning against the door, an oversized envelope with small items inside.
I have to unlock two doors and step down to grab it, then turn, step up, and pull the storm door in behind me. As I turned, one of my shoes caught on the threshold, and down I went. I didn't even have time to react by putting an arm out to stop the fall, which, considering my shoulders, is probably a good thing. These days both will dislocate with the wrong pressure and angle. I knew I'd stopped falling when my forehead hit a lump inside the package which had landed on the floor just ahead of it.
I'm getting too familiar with needing help getting up after a fall these days. There was an added wrinkle this time. Inside that door is the utility room. You have the outer wall with that door and a window on one side, and lined up on the other are the water heater, a small cabinet, the stacked washer/dryer, and the furnace. In normal use there is room for one person either ahead of or behind a laundry basket, exiting or entering, with room to turn around and maybe carefully trading places with the basket. Yes, it's a bit tight. And I was in a lump between the wall and utilities.
I wasn't exactly dizzy from hitting my head, but I wasn't perfectly steady either. Even if I could stand at that moment, I wasn't sure it was a good idea.
Steve was ten feet away in his chair and heard me. Did I need help? Absolutely, but I know not to ask him for the physical work of it. Neither of us can or should pull the other person up. I asked him to call 911, which he did. I wasn't sure yet if I was hurt or not, so they dispatched an ambulance with paramedics, but a young cop got there almost as Steve hung up the call. I managed to partially sit up, cautioning the cop against pulling either arm in order to avoid dislocating either at the shoulder. It's way to easy otherwise to just assume you can grab hands and pull. He suggested he could put his arms around my chest under mine and do a dead lift.
I gave him a quick look-over. He was slim and I knew I outweighed him. I also knew the consequences of it not going well. So I gave him my scale weight to let him know what he was in for in case he wanted to wait for a helper, but he assured us both he was good for it. He readjusted my position a bit so all four of our feet were secure on the floor and gave an apparently easy lift. My legs worked fine as we complete getting me to a stand together.
Once I was vertical I gave myself a pause to be sure I was steady, and once I was he followed me inside to my chair before he cancelled the ambulance at my direction, received our well expressed grattitude, and left. After a couple minutes sitting properly in mychair, I went back out to lock doors and turn off lights. Places that hurt were starting to sort themselves out from ones that didn't.
Sitting here writing this, I am aware of a possible bruise showing up tomorrow on my forehead, as well as more on the arm I landed on, a couple on the other knee and on that side's foot. Even the uphill arm is twinging, so I must have managed to get it down to break the fall a little before I actually landed. That's the worst shoulder of course, and doesn't really need a new reason to bark at me. I am left wondering why the side that took most of the impact, based on my final position, took the least damage. Just luck?
On the plus side, I finally have decided to trust Tylenol enough to start taking that for pain on a twice daily basis, one in the morning, one in the evening. That still leaves a lot of time without pain relief, but it also makes the bad shoulder more tolerable until I see the surgeon next month. It also isn't an NSAID, the only thing that really works for bone-on-bone grinding for me, but I'm still recovering from pancreatitis and am not willing to take the chance of interrupting that healing process. I will be taking the evening pill early this evening however.
In fact, now is good.
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