Since my last entry Robbie's mid year report came and it was excellent. His teachers say he has a good understanding of all the concepts in the two maths and physics and chemistry. Even his English teacher was complimentary and he hates English.
Yesterday after dropping him off at Emerald I worked again on Steve's hedge. I needed 50 bunches for an order for pick up that afternoon. After the first few bunches I moved my ladder along the hedge. It's an orchardist's ladder, a tripod, a set of rungs between two legs and a leg at the front which moves in or out and the legs can be carefully positioned on uneven terrain to obtain reasonable stability. But you must be careful in setting up, which becomes instinctive. The ground at Steve's is level and does not present difficulty.
I went to the second top rung, at 7ft, from where I brace myself with my shins on the top rung. This leads to sore shins which callous and bleed often because the skin there is so thin and does not get a chance to heal properly, but that's another story. This time when I reached the top, the ladder moved suddenly. I fell. but somehow my right lower leg was stuck between the two top rungs. So as I went down I swung to vertical head first, my ankle being reefed out by my body weight and I landed miraculously on my upper back with a very powerful jolt.
The fall would have only taken one second but in that time I had visualised a wrecked knee or a broken neck as the brain tried to keep up with the event. Fortunately I could stand straight away but was aware of pain in my back and didn't feel I could walk for a while. I gradually recovered composure and looked at the ladder to see what had gone wrong. The third leg, which I had positioned inside the hedge, had fallen into a hole beneath the surface causing me to lose footing. I had never had this happen before. I've had the ladder tip sideways and even fall straight down flat when the legs have slipped on concrete where they couldn't get a hold, but I would not have anticipated the front single leg dropping a foot suddenly into a hole.
I gingerly finished the 50 bunches, more slowly than I would normally and aware of pain in my ankle and back. Then it was off to Cockatoo to pick thirty bunches of pitto at Craig and Leanne's. The ankle was very sore when I finished and I went home for lunch. Lib had the day off because she swapped shifts with someone as a favour and had worked last Saturday. It was a lovely day and she was doing a good job of pruning the hydrangeas and enjoying the sunshine. I had made another curry last Saturday when she was at work which we'd had for dinner last night, and we had the leftovers for lunch.
After sitting down for lunch and a cuppa, my ankle became so sore that walking caused excruciating pain. A phone message had come through that a customer wanted as many winter poker flowers as I could find that afternoon so I knew I was going to have a hard time of it. Meredith helped me pick the pokers and I was very pleased to be finished. On the way home I bought an ankle bandage from the chemist and some anti-inflammatory tablets. I didn't feel well at all. After tea Lib bandaged my ankle and I went straight to bed, where I lay awake for hours with aching in the ankle. After awhile I found that if I pointed my big toe down gently then lifted it up the other way as far I could the aching would stop for 3 or 4 seconds. These little breaks were blissfull. The pain eventually subsided and I fell asleep.
When I got out of bed at 5.30am I could barely walk on it it was so painful but I decided I had two choices, either go back to bed and stay off the ankle in which case it would probably seize up and take much rehab later, or keep moving and functioning and endure some pain but come good quicker, which I chose. Besides I have to get Robbie to Emerald to catch the bus and Lib's car to Bruno's in Ferntree Gully for a service where it is booked in at 9.30.
