ouch

Well, I had my first experience with a hospital emergency room in Mississauga. I'm fine, and feeling a little silly that I went to the hospital, but I guess that's how it is when it turns out nothing's wrong.

Walking the dogs yesterday morning, I slipped on the ice and fell. Hard. And my head hit the sidewalk - hard.

It's been warm during the day, the snow melts, then it's colder at night, everything freezes again, and in the morning the sidewalks are treacherous. There was a light dusting of snow obscuring the ice, and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back. There's nothing quite like the sound of your own head slamming down on the pavement.

I wasn't knocked out, and I got up, found my glasses in the snow (all bent out of shape) and limped home. Allan took me to get my glasses fixed, but after he went to work, I had a horrible headache. Half my family is in the health professions, and I've known a few people with head injuries, so I know you have to take it seriously. I don't have a car on Saturdays (Allan drives to work), so I called a cab and went to Trillium.

What can I say? It was the same as hospitals anywhere. Much less crowded than an emergency room in New York City where half the people are there for primary health care, but more crowded than your doctor's waiting room. It was probably busier on a weekend when the walk-in clinics are closed, but it wasn't what I would call an overcrowded zoo.

I waited, I was seen, I was fine. I have a mild concussion, and today I feel like I had the most strenuous workout of my life. Every muscle hurts. But nothing worse than that.

As I said, I feel a little foolish that I went to the hospital. But if Allan had fallen, I would have said, Go. My sister (a nurse) said, if it were my child, I'd take them to the ER. So in my attempt to treat myself as well as I would treat others, I went.

The moral of the story is don't walk your dogs on the ice.