Holy Crap I fell off a mountain

I’ve never climbed a mountain but on this particular sunny and humid morning, my daughter had asked me to go hiking with her.  I guess I should say, when I was a teen I did go hiking at church camp but that’s been WAY over 20 years ago.  I figured it would be a great thing to do considering I entered a biggest looser challenge.  What better way to start the weight loss challenge right? Well the hike started very early at 5:15 am.   Due to the fact that I’m clumsy, the very first thing my daughter says to me is, “don’t get hurt because I only have 1 band-aid” HA!  All was well and dandy… or as well as one can be hiking early in the morning with constant stops so I could catch my breath.  However, I did feel as if I were on top of the world because I was conquering something I had never done.

 

Once we reached the top, my chunky 41-year-old body was out of breath and worn out.  We were resting and saw an older woman walk up towards us. She however came up what seemed to be a makeshift trail and not the actual trail that one was supposed to be on.  Well that makeshift trail was definitely a HUGE shortcut to get off the mountain. I convinced my daughter to take that route because it was possibly 3/4 shorter than going back the way we came. After all, if an older lady can go up it, why couldn’t we go down it?   As soon as we started going down, my daughter said, “I don’t feel good about this. Let’s go back on the trail”  I of course am a tad stubborn and even though I felt that it was going to be a challenge going down because it was a tad steep, I wanted to tough it out which ended up being a huge mistake.

As we were going down, I slipped a few times but didn’t fall.  My daughter kept trying to hold my hand because she obviously knew that my body wasn’t meant to go down that steep mountain.  Then it happened.  Due to it being steep, my short stubby legs started going faster than expected. My daughter told me to be careful and to slow down, but I couldn’t. Before I knew it, I was uncontrollably running down the rocky desert mountain in full force.  Just picture Speedy Gonzalez running in the Olympics… yeah, that was me. As I was running down the mountain, I was scared because I literally had no control over my legs and had no clue how to stop.

I am yelling, “I CAN’T STOP!!!!” My daughter is yelling, “MOM!!! MOM!!! MOM!!!” It was rather intense. When I finally came to a stop, I flipped in the air landing on my hip, then did 2 somersaults in the air but instead of landing on my feet like a graceful gymnast, I  rolled, tumbled, bounced off my hip, landed on my shoulder & neck from the 2nd bounce, slid as if I were trying to win the world series making it to home base and finally came to a stop.  It was a miracle I didn’t break my neck or hip. I have never been so grateful to have extra fat on my body that allowed me to bounce (several times) instead of breaking in half the first time I hit the ground. ha.  Being chunky saved my life! ha ha. Never thought I would ever say this, but I sure am happy I am not skinny!

Anyhow, I took a deep breath to make sure I was still alive and saw my daughter WAY up on the mountain freaking out still yelling my “MOM!!!!!!!”. I was in pain but knew I was able to move so I yelled back telling her I was okay. That little dipwad RAN down the mountain herself to come where I was. As she’s running, I’m thinking, “Oh crap! She’s a clumsy and accident prone like me and she too is going to fall” so I’m yelling at her to not run. Luckily she got to me safely. All together, I ran, rolled, flipped & tumbled about 200 feet. It really was a scary site.  My daughter was freaking out on the verge of tears saying, “I don’t know what to do”. She wanted to call 911 but I didn’t let her because I knew I was capable of VERY slowly and painfully limping down the mountain. After all, my fall had me almost all the way to the bottom of the mountain anyway. ha. And besides, I was not about to pay the ridiculous amount of money for an ambulance that was not needed.   Once she got to me I asked her to take pictures and of course that made her upset and said no. I told her I needed them for my blog. ha  She hesitantly obliged.  (Yeah, I raised her well. ha)

I mainly hurt my left side.  My arm was bleeding. I had difficulties moving it. My leg was non stop bleeding. I had to pull LOTS of rocks out of my arm & leg. Poured water on the wounds to wash it off to hopefully help stop the bleeding. The cut on my leg was very deep but not too wide.  My daughter was still freaking out, so I didn’t let it show how much pain I was in because she would have just freaked out more and one of us had to be calm, so why not be the one that was hurt and in pain? Ha! So in order for me to not think of the pain, I started joking around (she wasn’t too happy with that, but it helped me stay upbeat and calm).   She got upset that I told her she should have video-tapped the fall.  It would have been a video that would have won on the show Ridiculousness.

After getting a little lost, we slowly but surely made it to the base of the mountain and were able to call for help for someone to take me home.

My hip was in excruciating pain and I couldn’t put weight on it. As time went by, the pain got severe.  My daughter kept trying to convince me to get checked out in the ER. I didn’t want to go for two reasons, One, even with insurance it’s $300 to be seen in the ER but mainly because I already had plans with my youngest daughter and her cousin to use our Pogo Pass at Jump Street (an indoor trampoline park)  My daughter told me I was crazy if I thought I was still going to Jump Street.  I figured I could still take them and watch. Heck, if I could wobble &  limp like an old drunk person, then it wasn’t broken, which luckily nothing was.

My daughter ended up calling my mom which I was upset about because I knew she would force me to go to the ER. But of course I had to take a shower first because I was super sweaty. I had dirt all over my face, in my mouth, legs, arms… pretty much everywhere.  Heck, I even had a necklace made of dirt.  ha. Showering was painful to get in and out of the bath.  The water stung so much so I had to hurry and get out .  At least I was able to wash all the dirt and rocks out of my hair.  My ponytail broke off during the fall, so it’s a miracle I didn’t bump my head or have one scratch on my face or head.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh curses! In the process of uploading pictures from  my cell, I permanently deleted many pictures. AGGH!!! But I have a bruise on my hip that goes down my butt and down my thigh. I guess that’s probably a good thing I didn’t share that picture. Ha.  I have a small but painful lump on my back. Today is day 3 after my accident and I feel as if I fell down a mountain. Oh wait, I did fall down a mountain.

I still can’t put much pressure on my left leg and my hip is still in a lot of pain,  but I’m alive and doing as well as can be after falling down a mountain.  My 90-year-old grandpa has been laughing at me because he says I walk worse than him.  haha  My daughter says that I am the opposite of an exaggerator and more of a down player because I always joke and make things seem as if they aren’t bad even when they are.  My response to that…. {life is better when you’re laughing}