Trauma

Trauma or "I fell down the stairs and couldn't get up"

Two weeks ago - we were having a book release at our house and for some reason one of my dogs decided he wanted to bark at the guests. It was loud and kinda annoying so I figured the way to get him to settle down was to take him to the back yard. I started down the stairs faster than normal and truthfully, I don’t know if I slipped or was accidentally tripped by the dog. What I remember next is losing my balance — starting to tumble and then realizing I was falling backwards while my legs went overtop of me. A somersault worthy of the Olympics in my mind with lots of thump, thump, thump and I’m told I screamed but I don’t remember that. There was absolutely no way I could stop or right myself so I went with the flow and figured I’d assess the damage at the end of the stair. When I got to the bottom — I was standing — I must’ve had my hand on my head, brought it down and it was covered in blood. I was fascinated and started trying to explain it to myself as I didn’t remember hitting my head.

Just then, a lady was saying to me something like “just lie down”. At this point my eyes were closed and I kept hearing “lie down”, “hold this on your head”, “apply pressure”, “stay down”. “You’re ok” — of course this might have been in my mind to myself. Ah denial, it’s a wonderful thing. They were all trying to figure out whether to take me to the emergency room. They asked me the year and who’s the president. I got those answers right and made as many jokes as I could think of. That’s one way I deal with trauma. We debated whether to take me to the ER (and if I needed stitches) for some time. Ultimately, after cleaning some blood, we figured I probably didn’t need stitches and we very slowly sat me up. Two friends carried me into the bedroom, got me on the bed, helped me change, cleaned my gash on my head and butterfly bandaged me up. They then tied a bandana round my head as the cut was on my hairline and they were none too sure the bandages would hold. I ended up looking like Aunt Jemima in a horror film with the knot of the bandana on top of my head and blood stuck in my hair.

We did all the ‘right things’ (except of course calling 911 and taking me to the ER), ice, ibuprophen, made sure I didn’t have a concussion and later when the shock wore off we assessed additional damage, broken toe, LOADS of bruises and swelling — mostly on my left side. And then when Monday came round I went to the doc who chastised us for not calling 911 as my neck could have been broken and I really should have had stitches. Ah those pesky doctors.

One of the reasons I’m sharing this is I found when looking to my regular healing resources very little that addressed the full extent of trauma to the body/mind. Falls, car accidents and other events that jar the body can be most debilitating and it seems that our medical system and even more alternative healing resources mainly address the syptoms and the ways to treat the symptoms. While it’s important to treat the symptons, I believe it is also important to find ways to heal the body as a whole. To that effect, I’m putting together a list of things you can do to help your body deal with trauma.

Finding Resources to Heal Trauma

And on a purely medical note: If you are involved in any kind of serious fall, and if you’ve twisted your neck or your head is bleeding… don’t think, do not pass go, and don’t be like me. CALL 911 AND GO TO THE ER.

Yours in healing, Tanya