Tuesday, June 13, 2006
If Joey Fell
As is typical on a Monday morning, my alarm goes off, I hate life, I shower, smoke 2 cigarettes and leave the apartment for work. My ipod is on, I'm listening and trying to get my mood up as I enter the steps to the subway.
In the past, I've had a weird experience with this particular set of stairs. For some reason, as I go down them, my eyes always blur and I feel like I'm going to fall. And as though it was a psychotic premonition, I fell.
My sneakered toe stubbed on one of the steps and I tumbled. First the right knee, then a 180 to catch the entire weight of my body on my left arm. PROTECT THE FACE! PROTECT THE FACE!
There were gasps and screams from the other people and two wonderful black women who came over and assisted me to my feet. "Are you ok?", "Can you walk?", "Do you live around here?". "Yes, I'm fine. I'll be ok. I live around the block."
I walk into my apartment, immediate panic.
My jeans are ripped, my right knee is HUGE, and I can't move my neck either way.
After much hemming and hawwing (hawwing?) on my part, I ended up in the emergency room.
6 hours, a cortizone shot to my spine, a few recommendations for physical therapy later and I was released.
Of course I immediately came home and went to bed, Paul bathed me, and I joked about how I hoped the rest of my life wouldn't be ruined by a set of stairs.
But never fret!
Sitting here now, cortizone shot setting in, Hydrocodone doing it's thing...I think I'm ok.
But I'm still reminded...
How easy is it to ruin your body? How easy is it to fuck yourself up so bad that you could never walk again?
So I took a tumble, but others have taken the same tumble and been paralyzed. How easy? So easy.
Shit.
Time for Joe to be even MORE cautious than ever before. And thank God that I'm going to be ok.
Ay.
yi yi.
And also...so embarrassing.
