Excersise and Slipping

I've started exercising about 5 days a week. I've been on this new plan for about 6 weeks and it is starting to pay off, one being that my church slacks are very loose. The other benefit is that I feel stronger, more physically able then I have for a good few years. Those benefits paid off today as I went to church.

I had a rushed morning since I overslept by about an hour. I packed up like a tornado, and I made coffee to go. I took my 4 month old son with me to church early, so my husband only had to feed and dress one for church. Plus I still had to nurse my little guy so it made sense to take him with me as I set up as the sound tech and did mic checks before the service. I grabbed my new baby-carrying framed backpack as well as my purse, big diaper bag, new down coat and my son and headed to church. It was only about 8:20am so the parking lot in front of the church only had 1 other car in it. I parked close and felt a twinge of guilt for parking close, though I am an able bodied person. Late for my sound checks, but able bodied nonetheless.

I carried my son in his carseat in my left hand and I slung the backpack over my right shoulder, my purse, and large diaper bag over my right shoulder as well. I took my coffee in my right hand and I headed for the door of the church. As I stepped on to the sidewalk from the parking lot it happened. I slipped on the thick ice.

It would have been comical had it not been so painful and shocking. One second I am upright headed for the door and the next second I am flat on my back with my coffee upright in my right hand. I actually slipped so fast that I landed flat on my back..like a move from a cartoon. I look to my left and see every mother's fear, her child suspended upside down in his carseat on the ice. The handle of the carseat was what kept the seat from landing him flat on his face, it broke the fall and his little head hung down. My heart stopped. I called his name and he moved. I set my coffee down and rolled to my left to pull his seat to rights. He started crying hard. I looked around, there was no one in sight. I tried to get up, and I couldn't. It was so icy I couldn't get a foot hold, and I kept slipping. I thought of my father in law in his office inside the church and I wondered if I could call him on his cell phone for help. I wanted to get my son inside ASAP so my mother in law could look him over to see if he was OK. She is a nurse in the NICU unit and I was worried my son had whiplash from flipping upside down. I couldn't wait for a call, so I took off my shoes and used the slight grip from my pantyhose to give me a chance to stand up on the groomed cement. I got us inside and as I got into the sanctuary a I sent my other sound tech up to the choir loft to get my mother in law. By the time she got to the sound booth my son had calmed down and I started to bawl. I was stammering from the fear my son was hurt and crying from the pain I was feeling all over my body. She checked him over and he was fine. I was soaked through in my pants where I landed and sat on the melting ice and relieved that he was OK. It was then I realized that I landed slightly on my left side on my back and the backpack and diaper bag broke my fall and kept me from cracking my head on the sidewalk.

Which brings me to another point: I love the men in our church. They are cowboys of sorts, men from another era who go to war without request, who open doors and take care of the ladies. Since I slipped on the icy sidewalk, about 4 men went looking for the sidewalk de-icer and went to task to ensure no one else was injured right there. 3 of them remarked about how thick the ice was and later another church member told me he slipped at the same spot a few minutes after I did, though he didn't fall. I was later told that my fall very well cold have saved a few broken hips, since our church has so many elderly members who park in the front of the church and walk down that sidewalk. Our regular custodian who checks the sidewalks on Sundays is out of town, which was why I was going early in the first place: to take his sound tech shift for the first service.

So I am thankful my son was in his carseat, buckled in safely and I am glad I have been exercising and I was able to get back up quickly. I am also glad I've lost so much weight and my slacks are so loose, I didn't split my pants up the back as a result. Because who needs insult added to injury?

I'm OK all in all but I can feel the pain in my left elbow and I know my back will feel this tomorrow.

* Update as of 8:14pm...I am already feeling the pain...tomorrow will be lots of Blues Clues on TV and Aleve for the elbow, the neck, the lower back and the left side of my sit-down.