Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This...

I don't usually blog about myself, but this time, the story is too much to pass up.

I guess I qualify as subject matter, since the title of the blog is "The Life and Times of the Scacco Family".  Anyway - Here goes...

It all started at 4:30am on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010.

I was awakened by Dane, who wanted a bottle.  When I went to get out of bed, I noticed that somehow my neck had become out of place.  (How your neck goes out while you sleep is a mystery for another day.)  My neck *really* hurt as I tried different methods of sitting up, but finally I succeeded and headed to the kitchen.  My intent was to make the bottle and then get Gary, who was sleeping on the pullout couch in the TV room (something you do when you have 2 small children), that I needed help.  As I walked to the kitchen I thought to myself, "My stomach hurts.  I think I'm going to throw up."  

Well, I don't remember even crossing the threshold of the kitchen.  The next thing I knew, I was face-down on the kitchen floor between the island and the range oven, with Gary leaning over saying, "LeAnn!  Can you hear me???".  At that point I could hear him, but barely, over the LOUD white noise I was hearing in my own head.  My vision "faded in", the opposite of what a TV show might do at the end of the program.  I now knew that I had passed out on my way to get the bottle, and that I was a mess.  I sat up and leaned against the refrigerator to gather myself, and Gary started asking questions.

Mostly they were questions like, "Do you know your name?" or "Do you know what day this is?"  (That one I had to think about, but not because I passed out.  Life is moving so fast these days that I rarely know exactly what day it is.)  This exercise was strangely similar to questioning I received from my mom as a child, after I had fallen out of trees or off of stacks of hay bales.  "What were you doing?"  "Do you know who I am?"  "Who is the President of the United States?" Cringe.  

I answered the questions to the best of my ability and began to survey the damage.  The left side of my face was cold and throbbed a bit.  It didn't exactly hurt, per se, but I could tell that the impact point was just outside of my left eye.  "That's going to leave a mark," I thought - a common phrase from my husband.  I must have passed out just as I was entering the kitchen, and, since I was moving at the time, I made it to the range oven and fell on it, smashing the side of my face on the way down.  He said that I knocked the salt & pepper shakers and sugar & creamer containers off the back of the range oven, which made a huge CRASH, and then he came running.  So I must not have been out for very long.

We decided I needed some water and a bit of food.  Since my neck was still in pain, I determined I'd have to sleep in the recliner, upright, and call Dr Fager (my chiropractor) after they opened.  Dane did, eventually, get that bottle, but not from me.  :)  When I saw Dr Fager later that morning, he was alarmed that I felt sick to my stomach and then passed out.  He sent me for an MRA (like an MRI, only for your arteries) and told me we'd have to wait on the results before I could be adjusted.  Even though it was an "Open MRI", I have to tell you it was NOT fun, especially with excruciating neck pain.  I don't consider myself claustrophobic, but after that... I may reconsider.  It didn't help that I was having "shock shake" between sessions.  But I made it through.  The results came back completely normal, and after a few days of letting my neck  muscles relax enough to be adjusted, I went to see Dr Fager again.  (He and Tara take such good care of our family!)

I am now about 90% normal, save the BIG black eye I now sport.  By now, it is starting to go away, but I must share with you the crazy self-photos I have of the damage.  At this point, I just have to laugh about it, and chalk it up to a good story.  I think I'll even devote a scrapbook page to it.  More to come...

So, without further ado, here they are:

The day of the incident - Swelling, a little blood, but not terrible:

Starting to get purple:

 

Very purple: 

  

Starting to get green now, joy of joys:

  

Very green, but losing purple:

That last one is from today, more than a week later.

I probably have another week to go.

You should see people look at me at work.  My coworkers have started to make up stories of what happened to me, just for fun.  I even did three interviews with this lovely shiner.  Tell me THAT was fun...

I'll keep you updated on the healing process.

LeAnn