A good walk spoiled...

[autographedcat]

One of the things I'd been greatly looking forward to with our new apartment was its close proximity to my office. It really is "around the corner", and I thought I might take advantage of this one some nicer days and walk. Despite the fact that rain was called for today, I decided to chance it and stroll to work this morning, to get a sense of the timing.

Now, there's two ways I can do this. I can stroll up the street to the light, and then down a short block, and then around the circle which leads to my office building. We'll call this "the long way". The other way, which looks so much more preferable on the map, is to cut through the back parking lot of the office building that is two buildings down from mine. This is the route I took this morning.

Right after coming out of our complex, there's a path leading up a fairly steep embankment. I climbed up, and thought to myself that it really was just a bit too steep for comfort, even if there was an obvious path. But I made it up ok (about 15-17 feet from bottom to top, with a relatively severe incline), caught my breath, and then had a nice stroll across the parking lot to my building. Total time in transit, from my door to my office door: 11 minutes.

At lunchtime, I strolled over to the shopping centre next door and had lunch at Mellow Mushroom, a local pizza chain that I've always been fond of. While I was eating and reading the back half of this weeks Creative Loafing, the sky opened up. This wasn't a shower, this was serious sheets of rain with gusting winds. But I had time, so I leisurely nibbled on my pizza and, having finished reading Creative Loafing, leafed through their far inferior competitor, the Sunday Paper. (The Sunday Paper is an alternative weekly newspaper if it were written by your dad.) The rain finally slaked off and I strolled back to work through the now-light shower, getting wet but not drenched. It was warm enough that this really wasn't terribly unpleasant.

By the time it was time to go home, the rain was gone, so I merrily set off for home. As I got to the top of the embankment, I thought "this really is a bit steep. I'll need to be careful." Unfortunately, two steps later my foot slipped and, unable to recover, I landed hard on my tailbone and slid down to the bottom. I picked myself up and shook myself off, and limped home.

My jeans were a muddy mess, and my dignity suffered a near-fatal blow, saved only by the lack of anyone watching. I have a great deal of pain in my bottom and lower back, but I don't think I did any serious damage to myself. If I'm still in great pain after 24-48 hours, I'll go see a doctor. But I'm afraid that walking to work is going to either have to be the long way around, or I'm going to have to find a less steep pathway that parking lot, because I'm not going down that hill again.

Ow.

Comments

[celticmoni.livejournal.com]

Owie!

Be sure to take either some naproxen or some ibuprofen before bed tonight, so that you'll be less sore when you wake up tommorow. You may also want to make a ziplock bag full of ice, wrap it in a towel, and have Larissa (or a good friend...heh...) hold it on your tailbone area for you for about 15 minutes or so.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Oh, no!! Ice, dear boy. Poor you.

[shaddyr]

Oww.

I hope the pain is gone soon!

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Mellow Mushroom.... mmmmmm. Lucky so-and-so, that's *good* pie. (Used to work for them, the one that used to be on 10th and Peachtree...)

(Although it's just as well; having that good a pie that close to work would be bad bad bad for my waistline. :)

I'm with the rest of'em... *hugs*, ice, and naproxin, not necessarily in that order.... owwie.... I'm not sure there's much they can do if you broke your tailbone... but then, if you actually broke it you probably couldn't stand to sit for long enough to type that.

Take care...

[telynor.livejournal.com]

Owie!

But it is a *very* good thing to do more walking. You may find you want to tackle that hill again when it's not raining if you do much more of this. :-)

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Up the hill in the morning, around the long way in the afternoon?

Best of both worlds.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Ow. :(
Mmm, perhaps the longer way round is the better option for starters... or, alternatively, good shoes & a walking stick for the embankment, perhaps in time (or when it's not wet.) I second Telynor, though! :)

[kayshapero]

Yeowch! I used to take the dirt path down the hill next to the stairs at school (more scenic), but not during a rainstorm... Looks like everybody's given the appropriate advice, anyway.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Hope that turns out to be just bruising!

Would a walking stick help with the embankment? It can give you both extra oomph going up, and stability coming down. (And of course, there's the "having a musical instrument with you all the time" factor if you get one of those fluty ones :-)

And here I thought I was lucky, having only a half-hour door-to-door commute.

[aunty_marion]

Ow! I hope you're just bruised, though I know how painful that can be. Ice it, even though it may feel terribly undignified to do so. And if you still have pain in a day, do go and see the doctor, though as far as I know there's not much that can be done for a broken coccyx. Apart from possibly a full body cast...

I speak from experience. In 1977 I fell off a bus - an open-back London red double-decker - while trying to catch it. I'm well-padded there, so I thought it was just bruising. Then at home, later on, I sat down and leaned back and went OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!!. Got myself upright eventually, limped into the next bedsit where the girl there took one look at me and phoned the ambulance. I had X-rays, they sent me home as a 'possible cracked coccyx' and told me to take painkillers. When the full report came through a week later, they denied it was cracked: "Oh no, it's just the way your bones grow!" But I know it was cracked, because I could feel it move. Thirty years later, and it still gets uncomfortable if I sit in the wrong position. No, I don't think anything physical could have been done for it, but they might have told me about proper sitting positions/cushions/exercises etc.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

There is stuff that can be done for a broken coccyx. I had one, and after much research on my part, telling off the specialist who wouldn't look at my xrays or listen to my symptoms, and finding a better specialist, I had a coccygectomy, surgery to take it out. As it turned out, mine had been not only broken but broken off, and was floating around in there all sharp edges, ow. Going from sitting to standing was almost unbearably painful before the surgery. It was no fun, and major recovery, but I'm so glad I had it done.

Hopefully Rob's isn't broken, just bruised. But ow ow, poor autographedcat! Definitely don't want that happening again. I'm glad your dignity was saved. Certainly cats never like to have someone watch them slip up.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I'm all in favour of walking, but owies! Watch that, take ibuprofen if need be. I second the suggestions about a walking stick if you decide to tackle that hill again (or avoid it in slippery conditions), and possibly shoes other than sneakers?

(Is it an actual path or a drainage path, perhaps?)

*hugs*

[gingicat]

The long way around sounds like more fun anyway.

*sends you hugs and NSAIDs*

[gnomedude.livejournal.com]

Keep walking, avoid the hill (at least on rain days) and hope your back is just bruised like said mentioned dignity (which will also heal).

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

Silly, walking to work is supposed to be GOOD for your health. Trust you to get it backwards. *sigh* Whatever shall we do with you? :)

Take care of yourself, you're the only "you" we've got in these parts. And I hope we'll see you and kitanzi at the filk this weekend!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ouch! It sounds like the 'long way' isn't that much farther, but much less hazardous... (and I bet you'd end up seeing how quickly you can do it :-).

Congratulations on the new place, btw; may you enjoy it in good health (er, after this ;-)

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Ouchie! May it heal soon and well, and not deter you from further walkies.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Ouch... I hope you feel better soon. I suspect your pride might have returned a little... :)

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Oh honey. I hope you feel better soon!

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Sounds similar to the embankment on my old foot-commute. A walking stick -- often improvised -- was mandatory when the ground was wet, and useful when it wasn't.

Hope you feel better soon!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I hope you feel better soon.

[hilfy.livejournal.com]

OW! I can sympathize. I broke my coccyx about 9 years ago - slipped on ice while carrying a bag full of mail back from the mail room. As has been said, ice and the nsaid of your choice. If sitting hurts too badly, you may need to get a "donut" pillow to sit on.

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

I hope both your coccyx and your jeans and dignity are in better shape. Um, do you have Supertramp's "Take The Long Way Home" on your iPod? [g & d]

Ann O.