Oh, No. Not Again

When I glanced outside yesterday morning, I saw snow falling, in a shifting, light curtain of white. It wasn’t the snow coming down again, but the driveway. Last February, the driveway was a sheet of ice that had a slippery layer of water on it in pools, and that was what I was seeing. My car was parked in the middle of an ice skating rink with no way of getting to it without crossing that dangerous obstacle.

Almost a year ago, I was sweeping the snow from my walk to carry some bills up to my mailbox. After putting the broom down, I don’t remember anything until much later in the afternoon. Apparently I had fallen and hit my head. I had to wait until the next month to see if I made it to the mailbox or not and whether my bills had been paid.

My daughter told me later that I walked up the stairs and stood outside of her bedroom. She told me that I said I thought I needed help. She quickly drove me to the hospital. I don’t remember it at all.

Now, I must say thank you to all of the people who cared for me at Frick hospital: the doctors, the nurses, the radiology techs, and anyone else who had anything to do with my short stay. I want to thank the ambulance personnel who ferried me to Pittsburgh, the E.D. staff and the floor staff who cared for me in Pittsburgh. The C.T. scan done at Frick revealed that I had two bleeds in my skull: a subdural bleed and a subarachnoid bleed. One bleed was in the brain itself and the other was between the hemispheres of the brain. I had a large hematoma on the back of my head.

After a twenty-four hour stay in Pittsburgh, I was sent home with a week’s worth of anti-seizure medication. For a short while I had difficulty concentrating and had phantom smells. They have almost disappeared by now.

I just tossed out some salt crystals. I usually don’t, because it makes the drive muddy, but I’ll hazard the mud to get rid of the ice. When I went out after it warmed and snowed, I wanted to clear out the large pond of water. It formed because the mounds of shoveled snow gave it no channel of escape. I was preparing myself for the daunting task before it refroze, when my neighbor drove by in his tractor with a large scoop. I was thankful when he stopped and cleared out several mounds of snow to allow much of the water to escape.