“Watch your Step” or “Pay Attention To The task At Hand”
This is the first chance since the start of the new year that I’ve been able to get to my computer and felt well enough to start using it. This posting explains this hiatus and is closely related to a previous posting with the title “Falls Can Kill You.”
It all started on a day during the first week of January when I was scheduled to give a presentation on Maintaining Your Health and Vitality to the Rotary Club in
Early that morning, hurrying to make sure that I will be on time and not keep the audience waiting, I was on my way down to the car with my lap top that I use for slide presentations. As I started out the front door, I thought to myself, this is silly. There are some packets of health information that I have to put in the car too. Why make two trips. So I go back in the house pick up the packets and start down the steps carrying my laptop in my left hand and the box of packets in my right hand and thinking more about the presentation than the task at hand.
What the heck, I’m a very active guy, and never use the hand rails anyway, so no problem – Right? Wrong! I forgot to take into account the “brain glitch” factor – thinking more about the presentation than the task at hand.
When I get to what I thought was the sidewalk, but wasn’t, my left foot hits the front edge of the last step, my left knee buckles to the left and I fall hard to the right. I feel something slip in my left knee. I try to stand up, but when I put weight on my left foot, the leg buckles again. “Ah ha, I thought, something’s wrong” – another brilliant deduction.
Of course, the presentation is cancelled and my wife drives me to the emergency room at a near-by hospital. My worst fears were realized. After several X-rays, it was determined that I had torn the patellar tendon from the knee cap (the large tendon that attaches the quadriceps to the knee cap. Three days later I had surgery to reattach the tendon, which resulted in a 7 inch incision with sutures secured with staples and stainless steel screws. The knee was stabilized with a knee brace and will continue to be so for another two weeks, after which I will probably start physical therapy. I was told that therapy would continue for about three months.
My therapy at this point is walking with crutches and putting about half my weight on the injured leg. The healing process is slow but I make a little progress every day. While this fall didn’t kill, it sure knocked the heck out of a knee.
So here is a guy who was in very good shape, has been very active playing tennis and working out regularly at the gym but didn’t heed his own advice, and now he is laid up for several months. In the blink of an eye, his world changed.
Take his advice; don’t be too sure of yourself or your abilities, concentrate on the task at hand and WATCH YOUR STEP!
Now that I am on the mend, I hope to be able to continue to write at least three health-related postings a week.