Oh Snap!

It was going so well.  November began after successful October dog shows and charity photo sessions, and the push was on for Christmas photos.  Napa Wine Country Dog Show is one of my big kick off shows for Christmas and the Holidays and it was coming true again.  Day one was wonderful with 14 clients and multiple dogs.  Typical first days are slow and I’m lucky to get five or six.  Saturday was a door buster!  I had over thirty sessions for multiple dog photos, and people and their dogs on multiple backdrops and with many props.

I stayed in the RV park next to the Fairgrounds, my husband with two dogs relaxing as I worked.  He put up an x-pen arrangement so the dogs could go out without dragging us down the stairs – they’d be contained. 

But I was stupid, too cocky or not fully awake.  I let them out at 5:30 Sunday morning and they didn’t ‘do their business’ as usual.  I’m thinking, well, maybe I’ll open the gate (they were still on leashes) and do a short walk.

Mistake.   See, I inherited some kind of strange family gene for being a klutz.  As the gods would have it one toe (because of course I was barefoot) caught on the lip of the x-pen gate and I was airborne.

I landed on my left shoulder and side and knew I screwed up.  At the same time I’m realizing my pain I’m working on keeping the leashes in my right hand and thankful that my boy Lab came back when I told him come.  I couldn’t get up.  I gradually sat but could not get up.

With luck my husband opened the RV door because he thought he heard something.  “I fell,” was all I could say and he was in recovery mode.  Dogs got back in, we did a crossed arm pull to get me vertical and I kept my tears away while berating myself in my head.

I got my much-needed coffee, returned to drink it in bed – and couldn’t sit up, couldn’t use the left arm to help me scoot back without searing pain.  While at first I thought It was just a deep, heavy bruise, something in my head told me it was worse.  I used a scarf tied as a sling and my husband dragged the cart to my booth.

I wanted to see if I could work – I knew there were so many people who wanted these Christmas sessions. As the hours ticked off and my pain more severe I kept telling my husband I want to close.  But did I ?  Did I go to the ER or Urgent care?  No.  I kept at it. When editing photos later I noticed aw that the last sessions were terribly framed due to no second hand to help with camera angle and framing.  I salvaged those sessions in the editing process but I was way past done.

We closed at two with people still coming up for photos, my husband, a dear friend and my wonderful booth neighbor all dismantling the set up.  The next day I drove the 2 hours home thankful that I didn’t have a stick shift and stopped to my medical offices. 

Confirmed.  I broke the head (top part) of the humerus.  I had to cancel out on my next show, cancel plans to bring my stepmom down for Thanksgiving and look at the next two months as rehab and recovery.

And the icing on this cake is I am receiving a much-anticipated puppy right after Thanksgiving.  Plans for training and total engagement for socializing and photo taking have been rewritten.   Now I contemplate how to manage potty breaks with one arm (can’t pick him up, he may not be able to navigate stairs), how to accomplish visits to all the places I wanted him to go for socialization.  I can drive but how to manage getting him from the dog crate in the car to the puppy sling since he can’t be on the ground?  How do I even get him in the crate when I can’t pick him up?! How do I wear a puppy sling when I’m in a human sling!?

It is an incredible reality check when one thing you take for granted is gone.  I took use of my arm, twisting motions and strength of one side of my body for granted.  Opening cans, opening lids, buckling the seatbelt on the left side, folding clothes, doing dishes, pulling up my pants – all with the ache and pain of a mending bone.  Oh, and please – being able to sleep?  Five hours max.

So, all this to say - - take care of yourself.    Nine times out of ten we fall because we’re distracted or in a hurry.  In the season of distraction and hurriedness: Take Your Time.  Don’t rush, take your time.  Think about what you are doing now rather than not paying attention to what is going on in front of you.