I Fall Into a Bit of Luck . . . Literally.
I returned home from my latest mainland trip feeling a bit under the weather—fatigue and a nagging cough. Then, a few days ago, coming back to our house with a couple of light packages, I parked the car in the garage and started up a flight of eight steps, leading from the inside of the garage through a door onto a covered deck.
Halfway up the steps, I guess my foot slipped and I sagged to one knee. And, try as I might, I was unable to summon the strength to get back up on my feet.
Contemplating my situation, I decided to stay where I was figuring that five or ten minutes of rest would restore enough strength in my legs to permit me to stand and finish my trek to the kitchen.
That’s when things went bad. Evidently I was precariously perched on one of the steps and I can only guess that my foot slipped and —THUMPITY-THUMPITY-THUMP— I slid down the stairs on my back, arriving in a heap at the bottom, stunned and surrounded by a smattering of a few grocery items, including my favorite treat, two packages of frozen grape popsicles.
My wife had left for Oahu to visit her brother two days earlier. Fortunately, I was able to reach the mobile phone in my pocket and I was able to get her on the line. I explained the situation, she swung into action, and it wasn’t more than ten minutes before the paramedics were coming down our driveway, sirens blaring, which set our two dogs to barking furiously.
Long story short, I was whisked off to Maui Memorial Hospital, where it was determined that I had suffered several ugly bruises when I fell, but hadn’t broken anything. That was the good news. Then came the twin surprises: hospital tests showed that I had pneumonia AND I had also tested positive for influenza!
As one of the doctors pointed out, if I hadn’t fallen down our back stairs and been taken to the hospital, we might never have discovered that I had pneumonia and the flu . . . and either one or both could have done me in!
Footnote: Two days later I was released from the hospital, but it wasn’t until the following day that I discovered that one of the firemen had carefully stowed my grape popsicles in the freezer drawer of our refrigerator. How’s that for service!