We just got back last night from 6 days in the Seattle area and in general, it was a great trip. We saw friends right in Seattle and did some hiking and the downtown thing with them. My SIL has a cabin on the water a couple hours west of Seattle and we had a reunion there of my husband's family, walking on the beach, fishing, clamming and watching the wildlife. It was all fun.
However, the very first day we were hiking way up in the mountains east of Seattle, I had a little accident. The trail went around a lake way the heck up those mountains; there was still snow around and the trails were muddy and slippery. We were about 3/4 around the 5 mile loop when my feet went out from under me to the right and I fell like a big fat woman hard to the left. It wouldn't have been anything but embarrassing and muddy, except there was this dead tree lying right there.
I must have thrown my left hand out to catch myself and it worked! I caught my left hand on a stubby little branch and ripped a big nasty hole in it. I hit the tree right under my left arm pit. I looked down at my hand and it looked really bad, so we stuffed it with tissue and I kept pressure on it while we hiked out to the car as quick as we could. I washed off some in the parking lot, but I was still mud and blood from head to toe when we hit the ER.
They spent a lot of time cleaning my hand out (biological contaminants like wood can be nasty) and the doctor decided not to stitch it right then because he wanted to make sure there was nothing in it and because it was so swollen. It wasn't until the nurses had me lie back on a bed that we figured out I had cracked 2 or 3 ribs. They bandaged my hand up, cleaned out the numerous other scrapes I hadn't noticed and sent me home with some very nice pain pills. I went back in 3 days later and they decided I didn't need stitches but I would have "a gnarly scar!" The hand is healing, with no major loss of function and only some "pins and needles" in the thumb which may be permanent or may just be bruising and swelling around the nerve. The ribs, on the other hand, are turning out to be a pain in the butt --- coughing, laughing, sneezing, lifting, anything you do across your body, etc all hurt like the dickens.
However, I still did quite a bit of walking on the rest of the trip; we just were sure someone steadied me if the footing was at all uncertain, because I was NOT going to risk falling down again. I won't be doing any weights for a while, but I can keep right on with the walking. And I came back exactly the same weight I left (and you should have SEEN some of the great seafood meals my SIL cooked --- oh, yummy squared!)
I missed you guys! And I knew that you were the only people (except my very understanding husband and son) who would have a CLUE how different I have become that I would keep exercising and doing things after this fall. Hope you all had a great -- if less eventful --- 4th yourselves!
I hope things heal for you quickly!
