Cracked Head

Don't you hate it when you know something bad/stupid is about to happen, and no matter what you do you can't seem to stop it?

Just outside our place there is an old water-pipe sticking up in the air, all old and supposedly blocked off. Well, it started to leak a bit, all of a sudden. We saw it when we came back from Beijing, and it looked so pretty - there were icicles and stalagmites and stalactites all over the nearby bushes from the spray as it froze.

Well, that was all well and good, until the leak got worse, and it was squirting across our driveway ... and then of course the water on the ground froze, and it was very very slippery.

So we went out in the afternoon, and came back after dark. The pipe was still spraying across the road which was totally awash - and frozen by now - and it was pitch black. Peter and Bea headed out carefully into the icy section, and I took a tiny step and then stood still, waiting to think what to do and how to approach. The ground under my feet, I suddenly noticed, sloped gently downwards. All of a sudden my feet just went off by themselves. I fell flat on my back like a tin soldier, hands still in my pockets! Peter turned around and said, "What are you doing? Come on, get up!" But I didn't think I could. I felt the back of my head, and I had a huge (instant) lump.

So he helped me upstairs. I pointed out that I needed ice and there was none in the freezer. "Ha. Ha." he said and headed back downstairs to fill a tea-towel with ice and snow. And I sat there with it on my lump for hours.

It seemed like I was looking through a sheet of broken glass, the light reflected and sparkled off the jagged crack across the centre of my vision. I was relieved that that slowly cleared after the first hour or so.

I went to bed, but stayed sitting up because I have heard that with concussion you have to stay awake so you don't fall into a coma and no one knows. I found I was falling asleep sitting up, so I gingerly lay down. It was like diving headfirst into a deep abyss, spinning all the way. I sat up again, and started vomitting.

Poor Peter, he stayed awake most of the night, he was so worried. So was I, and feeling so grotty. In fact I haven't been out of the apartment since - a week ago now. The bump has gone down, but I have a real sore spot on my skull still. And I still feel nauseatingly dizzy whenever I turnover to the right in bed, or turn my head the wrong way when I'm sitting up. But I'm much better. I have had a heavy cold, too, a reaction to the bump, I suppose, and that is almost gone now too.

We are tired of snow. Its very pretty, but cold and uncomfortable. Yesterday, again, it snowed and snowed, and I watched it through the window. Our CNN weather forecast email service says it will be 16 degrees on Monday. We are finding that hard to believe as it hasn't been over 2 degrees for weeks. They also reckon it will be -13 degrees tonight, which is also unlikely as it generally goes down to -5 most nights. I think they make up these figures for fun and don't believe there is anyone out here actually reading them!