Stella Reddy's Story

I Had a Terrible Fall

In the early hours of Saturday, August 2, around 3 am (you know those middle-of-the-night trips), I had a fall that I’m still processing, physically and emotionally. I tripped and landed flat on my face, with both knees hitting the floor hard. My knees took the brunt, ending up scraped and stinging, while my right palm and finger were bruised from catching myself instinctively. I still can’t bend my right middle finger…

To top it off, my head hit (right by my right eye) my hubby’s toolbox, which was there, leaving me dazed and sore. What a knock to my head! The combination of pain, shock, and the suddenness of it all left me feeling rattled. My body froze, and it took a minute for me to move and get up, with hubby’s help.

I was up the rest of the night, with an ice pack on my head and knees, feeling my back seize up as time passed. I am getting a doozy of a black eye! It’s in the dark purple stage, and scary looking. I couldn’t move much on Sunday and Monday, but thankfully, I had no concussion! I have a hard head… When falling, our bodies stiffen up, trying to catch ourselves. This stiffening up of my body, in combo with the smack to the hardwood floor, has seized me up, especially my back.

I just hope I am recovered enough to enjoy hubby’s next vacation! While we have no big things planned, other than the Zip-Lining he wants to do, I don’t want to be sore and going around with a droopy black eye! I can’t even go fishing for a bit, and that is a bummer.

I share this not for sympathy, but because I believe in being real about life’s struggles, something I’ve embraced on my healing path. Moments like this, unexpected and harsh, can feel discouraging. They’re reminders that no matter how far we’ve come in our journey, setbacks still happen. Falls happen, but it has also made me realize I need to start being a bit more cautious.

The physical pain is one thing, but the mental and emotional wave that follows can be just as heavy.  It’s easy to slip into frustration or self-blame, to wonder what you did wrong or if you could have prevented it. But those thoughts don’t lead to healing for me, so they don’t last long anymore.

Hubby went through the room on Sunday, looking for anything that could have caused my fall. He installed an automatic night light and even moved his toolbox from behind the door. While helpful, it didn’t help me much.

Instead, I’m choosing to approach this with compassion for myself. I fell, and nothing I think will change that. My body is doing its best to recover, and I need to let it. I focused on caring for my scrapes and bruises, moved gently, and listened when my body told me to rest for the past couple of days. The area above my right eye swelled, along with my eyelid, so much that I couldn’t see much on Sunday.  I do feel better this morning, good enough to go out today, black eye or not, but I will take my cane with me. I don’t mind how I look.

Life gives us hard moments, but they do not define us. They are part of our reality, part of being human. By sharing this, I’m honouring my journey, not just the strong parts, but the fragile ones too. I’m real, I’m healing, and I will keep moving forward, one careful step at a time, mentally and physically!