Translation: This past weekend I decided I was going to put up Christmas lights at Casa Disco. I got the eaves on the porch done with no problem and decided that I was up to do a string on the eaves on the second floor as well. I scaled the ladder up to the porch, climbed onto the roof and stapled up a stringer of lights. When it came time to climb back down, I thought better of trying to actually get back onto the ladder. I was by myself after all, it was windy and the ladder was pretty shaky. So I decided to shimmy down the tree beside our house the same way I’ve done quite a few times before. The most challenging part is the three foot drop from the bottom-most branch.

This time, the three foot drop turned out to be my downfall. My right leg landed on a frozen mound in the garden causing one leg to take the entire force of my landing. It hurt a bit causing me to wince, but it certainly wasn’t painful enough to keep me from finishing up my lighting job and doing a few more chores around the house. It wasn’t until much later in the evening that the pain started to creep in. At one point, it was bad enough that I almost blacked out. I decided it was time to make a trip to the hospital when I started to get nauseous – Amanda had made the same decision a lot earlier, I probably should have just listened to her.

To make a long story short, we made it to the hospital by 10:30 and by 3:00AM the ER doctor had just finished draining a whole whack of blood that had accumulated in the joint of my right knee. The doc gave me a pair of crutches, set me up with a followup with a specialist for the next morning and cleared me to leave. 

One small problem with his plan was that I was supposed to be in Ottawa for a CIRA board meeting at the same time I was supposed to be following up with the specialist. The ER doc didn’t think that I needed to be seen right away since he had just drained the joint and gave me clearance to hop on my flight.

Fast forward to this morning. I’m back from my two days in Ottawa and on my way to my followup. I was feeling good enough that I stuck my crutches in the back of my truck and drove myself to my 7am appointment.

I got in immediately and within minutes the specialist was examining my leg. He wasn’t as impressed with my progress as I was – he put me into a full leg brace that completely immobilizes my right leg. He also informed me that I’d likely be in recovery for at least four weeks and probably have to do some rehab before I completely recovered. And he also informed me that what he was able to gather from his manual examination probably didn’t uncover all of the damage that my little flight caused so he scheduled me in for an MRI.

Sheesh.

I’ve got no problem flying halfway around the world and swimming with Great White sharks in some of the most dangerous waters in the world. But, heaven forbid that I spend the afternoon in my front yard hanging Christmas lights.

Good thing I didn’t try and shovel the walk or something dangerous like that.