ARRIVAL IN CHARLOTTE

On our hike in Kennesaw Battleground Park in Atlanta, Georgia, the troop battalion Maggie Commando Unit 2 went down hard. I tripped on a rock while rubbernecking all the trees in bloom and wildflowers. I didn't even have a chance to catch myself.

Went to the ER (very impressed with the efficient and fast service at Emory Hospital) and my list of injuries included: skinned and abraded knees, bruised and swollen left hip area, broken right elbow and fractured left rib. Broken ribs are no longer taped and bound because people weren't taking deep breaths and aerating their lungs so a lot of them especially in the senior doddering age range were getting pneumonia. I had  a shoulder to wrist rigid splint and sling put on my arm.

So instead of running across the parking lot to greet our daughter, Alicia, and flinging my arms around her neck and giggling with joy, i was shuffling, hunched over, limping and unable to laugh or talk excitedly.

I can't believe how much having just ONE broken rib can hurt. any movement really just takes my breath away with sharp stabs of pain or sort of a rolling deep pulling apart all my muscles pain or my personal favorite the lightning flash of my entire chest wall which momentarily paralyzes all movement.

I find myself reliving my trail steps and correcting where my foot went and avoiding the rock and being able to complete the loop and get "on with my life" which included unrestricted activity and my stretches in the morning and long am walks and hikes and laughing and being able to roll over in bed without planning each maneuver and being able to wipe my ass.

But even though right this moment i do not feel grateful inside myself, my outer self will type words of optimism and adult coping and focusing on what i CAN do because there have been improvement changes.
I had the sling and splint removed by the ortho doc i saw in Charlotte.
I'm off narcotics and just popping ibuprofen like mad. The benefit of the pain relief (which was still not total but 75%) eventually paled compared to the degree of constipation i had with the oxycodone.
I can most obviously write and type.
I can walk short distances (like to a car; around Walmart)
I can now brush my teeth fairly well with my right arm.
and i am in Aliciaheaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have already gained weight and am imagining the roly poly gal that i'll resemble with weeks and weeks of no exercise.

but living in the moment and staying NOW, everything including me is a-ok. This event is one of those described over and over by Pema Chodron; the rug has been pulled from under me and i am awash in groundlessness. So i either become bitter and angry and live in the past and start blaming others (like the park service for not maintaining their trails to the requisite smoothness) or i go with the flow of life and smile and grin at the cosmic absurdity of thinking i can have everything go my way all the time.

hey, that sounded grownup, huh?