I am a cautious person most of the time and really try to hold fast to my conviction of living life without regrets, but just a short three weeks ago I threw caution to the wind and somewhat changed the immediate course of time.
It was our grandson’s fourth birthday party in Vancouver and of course we needed to be there for this momentous occasion. I had great expectations of enjoying a brief vacation with both of our sons and their families at their respective residences, as well as some me-time shopping in the big city.
Within approx. half a day after arrival and already at the birthday party where I possibly should have been acting a little more my age, I got up from a side-bench in the gym to show-off my basketball prowess. Twenty-four 3-5-year-olds were having the time of their lives, so I thought I needed to get in the mix; I hastily attempted to scoop the basketball where our son was shooting some hoops. Apparently, the skills that I thought I had were lost decades ago and I did a slow-motion awkward fall into the very hard floor. It was not a pretty site, as I was dressed in costume with a pink spikey wig and very flashy outfit; the theme was superheroes so I made an appearance as ‘super grandma’ …and after-the-fact fell very short of that.
That is when regret set-in for a decision hastily made. As they lifted me from the floor to the on-looker bench, I was able to sit without extreme pain until the paramedics arrived. With the encouragement of laughing gas I entertained them to the best of my ability in the ambulance ride to the hospital where it was confirmed that I had broken my hip and needed a replacement.
The rest is history; I had one, spent most of the week in the hospital and have been on the mend since…no shopping, no fun. The good news is that I am healing remarkably well and have already progressed from part-time wheelchair to a walker and now to a cane. It isn’t an immediate process to get back to where I was but apparently in a very short time I will be there, on all accounts. I am diligently working towards that end doing my exercises and behaving myself.
I don’t think I will ever act my age but for sure I might weigh consequences in advance of making spur-of-the-moment decisions.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
