Another Life Lesson Learned

[lydy]

Lesson 1: Do not slip on glare ice.

Lesson 1a. Should you fail to learn Lesson 1, do not fall such that the dowel of your embroidery scroll frame is perpendicular to the ground, and then land such that your head impacts the dowel.

I'll remember that next time.

So I fell. Not so unusual, gods know, but perhaps a bit ironic given that I'd just spent the evening watching ice skating competition. I got to the car, slung my purse in, forgetting about the issue of glare ice underneath my feet. The momentum of the purse was just enough to take my feet out from under me. Fine, I go down. I can't walk real well, but I fall real good. Unfortunately, I didn't make allowances for the garbage bag with the various impedimenta of my cross-stitch project thaqt I had in my other hand. I hit my head on the dowel, lay back on the ice, and had mild hysterics. I don't usually cry after falling, but for some reason, I was especially rattled. I didn't realize I was bleeding.

I got home, sat down to watch a nightcap of television, and felt liquid in my ear. I reached up, and my hand came away red. "Huh," I thought. "I guess I am bleeding." I finished the show, went into the bathroom, and swabbed my ear with hydrogen peroxide. You know how above the earlobe there's a triangle of cartilage? I caught the dowel at the notch just above the triangle, where the shell of the ear starts to curve away from the skull. That's where the primary cut is. There's another little one inside the shell. That, however, is totally nominal. It's the one at the notch between the triangle (what the hell is that called, anyway?) and the shell that hurts like a total bitch. When I swabbed it clean, it sent headache pains across my forehead, as well as just hurting in its own right. Now how fair is that? Two hours later, and it's still bleeding. Not heavily, you understand. I'd worry about that. This is just enough that it'll stain my pillowcase and generally be annoying. I currently have cotton stuffed in my ear. It's not really a place amenable to the placement of a bandage. I guess I should really invest in some liquid bandage; this would be the perfect use for it.

So, learn from my experience. Cross-stitch is a dangerous hobby, and should be approached with caution. Professional klutz, closed track, do not try this at home.

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

That part of the ear is the tragus. The stiff bit of cartilage at the top of the lobe (which often curves into the shell) is the anti-tragus.

The outer ridge of the shell is the Helix, and the bit of the shell which curves away from the anti-tragus is the anti-helix.

The cup inside the anti-helix is the concha (so what we call the shell, of someone's shell like ear, isn't really).

TK

[jiawen]

Ow! Crap! I hope you're feeling better by the time you see this. If not, go to the hospital immediately! And not just to work!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I hope it's feeling much better this morning. Wish there was something we could do to be useful.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Ow, ow, ow. What a horrible thing to have happen. *hug*

[carbonel]

I'm very sorry that the glare ice on my step caused you to slip and injure yourself. I should be some salt and sprinkle it there.

I'm very glad you made it home safe, though.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the sympathy. Admittedly, it hurt like a bitch, but am I the only person who thinks that it's funny? I mean, this is the oddest injury I've sustained to date. I expect my eventual death certificate to read something like, "death by crochet," or "the victim died while being so engrossed in a book she forgot to eat." Given how frustrating my hobbies are (which is how I like them, for some unfathomable reason) it seems only fair that they should be hazardous as well. I do wish I knew why it was still bleeding (well, leaking, at any rate) at 4:30 this morning. I'd wish I knew why I was still up at 4:30 this morning, but unfortunately, I know the answer to that one. "It was all the fault of the drugs, your honor. Not enough drugs."

Ouch!!

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

I'll send Major Sympathy your way, post haste.

[sraun]

I can see why you find it funny - but sympathy, nonetheless. I hope it's stopped oozing by now!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I fell on the ice outside school about 2 weeks ago, and busted my whatchamacallit. It's only now feeling OK again.

K.

[pameladean]

Owwwww. I don't suppose it is really practical to always wrap your instruments of destruction in bubblewrap.

Geeze, the one single time I don't check with you when David's gone, this goes and happens.

I hope if it's still bleeding at this point that you consider talking to somebody at a clinic.

P.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

That's terribly unfair. Definitely.

Okay, a bit funny, too. I can't really *picture* it as funny, but the *description* is funny.

[jry.livejournal.com]

I was laughing and cringing simultaneously. Have you checked to make sure you're not james_nicoll?

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I'm sure. I don't have nearly as many colorful near-disasters as he does. Too many of mine are in boring black and white. On the plus side, I don't have the high frequency that he does.

[mom23cats.livejournal.com]

we are definately related!!! wonder which side of the family clumsinees comes from? Pops or Muddoo/Meemaws?

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Didn't Poppy paint houses for a while? If so, then being as clumsy as I am would have been fatal. On 'tother hand, you'd think Meemaw's patients would have complained if the clumsiness comes from her side of the family. Hell, as far as I'm concerned, it's all Nickersons as far as the eye can see, what with Daddy being from the same clan and all. Looking at the Nickerson Family site (yes, there really is one) the only notable thing our illustrious ancestors did was have many, many babies.

There's a new book about the ship Essex which was sunk by a whale. That's the story upon which Moby Dick was based. The new book, _The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale_ has, as well as the usual narrative by Owen Chase, which is considered to be the authoratative one, the journal of a 15 year old cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson. Figure he has to be some sort of relative. New Englander, fisherman, last name Nickerson? Yeah, he gotta be one of us. Been meaning to see if I could figure out just how distant he is. If I were willing to spring for it, the Nickerson Family has huge books of geneology for like $60. I think there are two of them. They'll also trace your family tree back to the guy who first came to the colonies in 1600 something or other for free, if you give them some basic information. Been meaning to do that, too.

[mom23cats.livejournal.com]

I see to remember Meemaw recovering in Lisbon of broken ankles???
with all those Nickersons in Nova Scotia, they must all be inbred anyway.
Thomas is probably related somehow. I heard we are related to Currier of Cirrier and Ives but no one has explained how. Peregrin White is an ancestor, so I am told. I think he was born as the Mayflower was coming into Plimouth Harbor. I have thought it would be fascinating to actually to be able to find all this stuff out.
I plan on being in Iowa in March to see Meemaw

[mom23cats.livejournal.com]

forgot to ask where is the Nickerson clan site???