Imagine this in your leg…

See that part at the bottom (the part in focus)… yeah, that was in my leg Sunday evening. David and I had just gotten back from grabbing a bite to eat and I decided to put the last bin of Autumn decorations up on the loft in the garage. While I was 8-9 feet up on the ladder, I decided to grab the Christmas tree decorations. Problem #1: I was wearing loafers and not sneakers or something with good traction. Problem #2: I did not have the ladder set up so that I had to step straight in front of me to get on the loft, but rather I tried to step over at an angle. Problem #3: The garage is full of crap since it’s where we store everything while we work on the house and I did not think to clear the area below me.

So, stupid me lost my balance and fell 8-9 feet off the ladder and landed on a small cabinet and some plastic bins. On top of this area was this little metal decorative branch. It decided that it needed to embed itself into my thigh. Not my idea of a good time, although to tell the truth I barely felt it when it happened. The scariest part was falling, and the weird thing is that I can’t remember feeling this thing go into my leg, but somehow I knew that it was there. David ran out to rescue me and pulled this thing out of my leg. I immediately started to go into shock and almost passed out. David rushed me to the emergency room. Cleaning my wound was a BITCH and hurt like hell… especially when they had to pull all the little pieces of my jeans out of the wound that had gotten pushed up in. But at least I was okay. So now I take Motrine and Tylenol every two hours, switching between the two, and some antibiotics that I take every six hours. I guess the biggest problem with a puncture wound is infection, so pray it does not get infected or I may be in the hospital for Christmas. Surprisingly the wound barely even bled, although it’s sore like a %$#@^* (insert your own cuss word here). I also have a pretty deep gauge out of my hip area that really kills, and of course bruises all over. Not fun. My attempts to fly were certainly thwarted.

I’m actaually pretty lucky though. Had I fallen 6 inches further away, it could have gone through my knee cap and a foot-and-a-half in the other direction and it would have been in my back and probably piercing a major artery. PLUS, if you look at the picture of this thing, it has several protruding parts and I only hit one of them…. can you imaging if all 5-6 of those went though my back? Yeah, I’m feeling like the big man upstairs was looking out for me.

I think we’ll stay off ladders for a while. I’d like to live until Christmas.