It Happens in a Flash

Everything can change, without warning, in an instance.

It was Friday night, my wife and I had driven to restaurant near us, BrickTops.   We were meeting my daughter and her family to celebrate my granddaughter’s sixteenth birthday and for a pre-Mother’s Day event. My wife drove. We parked in the restaurant parking lot. I got out of the car. I was using a cane in my left hand and had a great bottle of wine cradled in right arm.  I step up onto the curb of the sidewalk leading to the restaurant’s door.

Unfortunately, my left leg has not been very cooperative lately. I have difficulty lifting that left leg. It’s something I have been working on through physical therapy.  It all stems from problems in my back either due to structural issues or nerve damage from prior cancer treatments. So instead of my foot being securely planted on the surface part of my heal was hanging over the edge of the curb. As I raised up my weight shifted toward my back and over I went. There was nothing but air to grab or hold on to. My feet would not move fast enough to shift them in an effort regain balance. I twisted as I fell. Somehow, I had enough presence of mind to know I didn’t want to fall holding on to a breakable bottle.  I threw it. The wine landed unbroken in the soft turf of a landscaped area.  I didn’t land on anything soft. I landed in the hard pavement of the parking area. It was a sliding fall with my right arm and shoulder taking the brunt of the impact.

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I spent the next five hours in the emergency room.  My elbow required seven stiches (five visible), and the fall tore the skin off a large area of my forearm which is going to take a while to heal.  The arm is really suffering.  I am eating lefthanded, which isn’t easy, and can’t lift my arm.  It is swollen and bruised. The doctor says, I may have a torn my rotator cuff, but I going to wait for the soreness to go away before pursuing that possibility.  The picture is of my right arm.  The elbow is on the left in the picture.

It could have been much worse.  I didn’t hit my head. I didn’t break anything. And, the wine survived!

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. Audio versions of The Claret Murders and  Diversion are available from iTunes, Audibles and Amazon. eBook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBook’s Store and Smashwords.com. 
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