Splitting

Let me regale you with the tale of my aching brain.

I was on my way to divorce mediation. I parked on 12th Street in downtown Boise. As I nervously exited my car and proceeded to the parking meter, I tripped on a curb and went crashing to the sidewalk, my right shoulder and temple hitting the pavement.

No one was around to see me biff it in my ladylike grace.

Not suspecting I'd seriously injured myself (though my head and shoulder were bleeding), I brushed myself off, and proceeded to the mediator's office. I held a tissue to my leaking head and got some very funny looks from fellow pedestrians on my merry way.

I found the mediator's office quite easily. It is, rather unfortunately, located just beyond a bridal shop. You have to walk through said shop to get to the executive suites. Oh, fate. How she laughs.

Upon arriving at the mediator's door, I spied with my little eye something yellow. A large note explaining that the mediator was in the hospital. I scribbled down the contact number with a pencil, hoping to get more information. Then I called my husband, and called my mother, and cried quite a lot.

Telling my mother I felt I didn't need to see a doctor, I walked my injured self back to my car. I was shaky and weepy but still somewhat intact as far as my mental state was concerned. I turned on the radio and fate smiled again, as a singer described how he was going to "get [himself] off the side of the road."

I arrived home to a very concerned mother, grandmother, and daughter. Violet helped my mother get me ice packs and pain reliever. After a while, I called the contact number to see why the mediator was in the hospital.

She had fallen.

Fate, you are fickle and you've had your fun.

Feeling rather wonky and with blurred vision, I went to urgent care the next day. This was half due to my symptoms and half due to my vivid nightmares. In these horrific visions, I was going blind because of my head injury. I kept attempting to climb stairs only to have a bloody blackness enfold me. I awoke from these nightmares into a fresh dream, only to somehow end up climbing in the dark at each terrifying conclusion. I woke within the nightmare four times.

Anyhow, on to urgent care. The doc looked at my eyes and made me follow fingers, ultimately deciding that I definitely had a mild concussion.

But this was not the end of the story. Because my dumb ass had gone back to work like nothing happened. Staring at screens when you have a brain injury is a definite no-no. So by the end of the  second work day my blurred vision was far worse. This called for brain imaging in the ER. No brain bleed, which I consider to be a plus. I scheduled a follow-up with the local concussion clinic.

Before my follow-up I worked 24 hours in customer service in three days, all the while staring at a touch screen. I could not follow simple instructions by the end of the third day. My head ached so badly that I have difficulty describing it.

At the concussion clinic I was told that my brain needed time to heal. No screens at all until the headaches and vision went away. No work until Monday and then only with restrictions.

Long story short, I have stared at this screen for far too long. Somebody get me more pain reliever.