You Shake My Nerves And You Rattle My Brain

Walking is complicated.  We don't think it is since we have been doing it almost all of our lives but walking is  balancing act. Did you know that when you walk only one foot  is in contact with the ground as you move along? It's true and when you walk your torso moves slightly back and forth from one leg to the other as you move forward.  This is something any woman who has worn a necklace with pendant on it knows since the pendant will annoyingly swing back and forth with each step you take.  So when you are walking you are actually in a very precarious position every time you lift one foot off the ground.  I found that out yesterday.

I took the dogs up to the cemetery yesterday and since it was a crisp, cool  morning they were very frisky.  Both ran around sniffing the ground searching for rabbits, mice, and the scent of birds.  When they got tired of  that they began playing a racing game that Little Sally Pumpkinhead had invented when she was a puppy.  The game started with Little Sally Pumpkinhead  crouched down in the grass watching Duke intently as he went about searching for birds.  When Little Sally Pumpkinhead felt the time was right she leaped up and raced straight at Duke hoping to slam into him with her body before he noticed her.  Just at the last moment Duke wheeled away and  ran to the left,  Little Sally Pumpkinhead right behind him.  When Little Sally Pumpkinhead drew even with Duke he turned sharply and ran in the opposite direction and Little Sally Pumpkinhead  followed.  Since Little Sally Pumpkinhead did not know when Duke would be turning her turns were a little sloppier, causing her body to slide a bit before she completed her turn.  This game always goes on for a while with both dogs making quick changes in direction many times before they exhaust themselves and quit playing .

I usually do not watch them as I walk along and yesterday morning was no different.  I was in mid-stride when Little Sally Pumpkinhead's body slammed into my lower right leg just under the back of my knee.  This was the foot that was on the ground so when her body hit me it knocked that leg up in the air and, since my other foot was off the ground and her body in one of her sliding turns,  she also pushed my other leg up in the air which caused my body flip up and back. I felt my upper back and shoulders hit the ground and then, even though I instinctively pulled my head in,  the back of my head bounced off the dirt.  I lay there stunned for a few seconds.  I had hit my head hard enough to cause pain and I wondered if, (1) I had hit it hard enough to cause a concussion and, (2) if I had hit it hard enough to not cause a concussion but instead to cause a hematoma to form between my skull and my brain.  The second option was more frightening since I knew that  would  lead to a stroke and/or death.  Then I realized Little Sally Pumpinhead slamming into my leg had been more painful than the blow to my head so I was probably fine.

By this time I had laid there long enough for the dogs to think my being on the ground was part of the game and they started licking my face and jumping over my body.  Both of their tails were on high speed wag.  I pushed them away and sat up.  I slowly stood up and walked over to where I had parked the car,  put the dog in the back seat, and then drove home.   I took it easy the rest of the day and went to bed last night wondering if I would wake up dead this morning since I was still worried about a hemotoma.  Today my muscles are a little stiff and I have good size bruise just below the back of my knee on right leg.  My head and brain seem to be fine but I made the mistake of reading up on subdural hemotamas and found out symptoms of a subdural hemotoma may not show up until two week after the injury.

I've got to stop reading.  I won't really stop reading,  I'll just stop reading about subdural hemotomas.