Imagine If You Can.

Never Could I Have Imagined that One Day I Would Have.


Imagine if You Can...
By Rosanne Catalano (aka R.C.Kayla)

Never could I have imagined that one day I would have chronic pain so bad that I would have to survive on pain medication. Not in a million years would I have believed that my physical lifestyle would alter so drastically. I loved to dance. I took ballet and modern dance classes. I also
 was an avid bowler. All that changed the day I fell down a flight of stairs on my way to my secretarial job. Now my physical activity is limited, even the slightest movement can change my day from good to bad.

It was a warm, bright and sunny morning a month after my beloved grandmother had passed away. I thought I was going to be five minutes late to work so I rushed getting ready. Just as I hit the stairs to get to my car, one of my high-heels caught on the scraggly rug my landlord had down and I literally flew out of my shoes. I didn't have a chance to grab the banister. In an effort to save myself from possible brain damage, I twisted my entire body around in mid-air to land on my left side.

I cried out to my landlord for help. I could hear the pounding of her feet walking inside her house so I know she heard the fall. I lay there waiting for what seemed to be an eternity but no help came. I prayed to the spirit of my late grandmother to give me the strength I needed to carry on.

Although my knee felt like it was broken and was throbbing painfully, I proceeded to gingerly stand up. I figured that if I was able to stand nothing must be broken. Since I was no longer wearing both high heels, I limped to my car putting pressure on the good foot, the high heeled one. I don't know how long I had been lying on the stairs and then struggling to get up, but it took me an additional 45 minutes to get to work that day.

I immediately sat down at my computer workstation rubbing my left knee vigorously once I got to work. The boss walked over to me. And I told him what had just happened at my house... His reaction was, "you can still type, can't you?"

Related information
 
Comments 1 - 2 of 2  
Comments
Type in Your Comments Below

For what it's worth, the basic idea behind the "You can work through it, you'll live, don't whine" type of reactions is that ignoring pain makes it go away faster. Unfortunately, although this approach works for surface wounds, it does not necessarily help people with back and knee injuries.

Posted on 12/31/2008 at 7:12:23 PM

I'm so sorry! (Some of us grew up in subcultures where everyone but your own mother WOULD say things like "You can still type, can't you?" I'm working toward more compassionate-sounding reactions...without much support from my own people, it's hard.) It might be worth checking whether E-cises (stretching routines as taught by Pete Egoscue) or pain erasure (basic massage as taught by Bonnie Prudden) could help; both techniques, used alone or together, help many people with old injuries avoid pain medications.

Posted on 12/31/2008 at 7:12:28 PM

Comments 1 - 2 of 2