So, I'm not sure I should be allowed on my rollerblades anymore. :) Jason and I got these on a Sunday afternoon, and decided to go play in our empty parking garage at work. After rolling about on the flat surface outside our building, Jason came up with the bright idea of going up to the top of our parking garage. We took the elevator up, skated about for a bit watching the sunset, and then we started down the garage floors. I almost bit it on the first turn, and Jason was behind me saying "don't freak out, don't freak out", and I didn't, and we made it down 4 floors, to the first level, when I came into the final turn, I thought, "I'm not going to make it", and, in fact, did not. I fell to the side (obviously), and felt the skin of my thigh under my jeans just sort of hit, stick, and then move another few inches before I came to a stop. Meanwhile, Jason has heard me go down, and as he turns to see if I'm all right, he loses his footing and goes down as well! So there we are, flat on our backs on the concrete - I'm about 50 feet above him on the ramp, and he lifts his head and says "are you OK?" and I say "yes", and he goes "good", and his head drops back down. I think we stayed that way for about a minute or two, when I try to rise, with MUCH cursing and, well, cursing. Loud and very profane cursing. And some laughter, as I struggle down to Jason and help him up and we both hobble back to the car moaning and laughing and bitching. I peeled my pants off in the bathroom to see the damage, and boy, was there ever damage. You can't see the swelling from the view in these photos, but it's been two weeks now and I'm still really swollen and hurt. I dropped my pants to show folks for two days afterwards, and I'm glad I memorialized it in print here, because it's a very butch injury, don't you think? I mean, it really could have been so much worse (that could have been my face), and the colors are kind of nice, right?
And yes, we had on wrist and knee pads. We went out and bought helmets the next day, and we're still searching for elbow pads. Even doing really tame things can cause you to be injured!
I actually had a chance of having a stroke from a blood clot in the first 72 hours following the accident, but the nurses I spoke with gave me some warning signs to watch for, none of which ever happened (except in my head, where sometimes I was just certain I was stroking out!), but it's strange to think that you can have that kind of reaction from just a bruise (ok, it's a really bad bruise, but still).
For good measure, and because I had it handy, here's another bruise I suffered recently, when Pitter got a little overexuberant and chomped on my arm (completely accidentally!) while we were playing a game.
- Help Me Keep My Site Afloat!