So, where do I start? My last post was written more than a year ago. I still thought that I was going to get to continue my hike. I still thought that it was only dehydration that I was dealing with. I still thought that my life was going to go on as planned…
Okay - let’s start with the hike. What the heck happened? Well, after one of my AT training hikes (6 months before I started the actual hike), I fell. I full-on face-planted on the asphalt 10 feet from my car. The hike was over, I was relaxed, and my trekking poles were put away. My hands were in my pockets because it was so cold. I was yapping with my husband, not paying attention, when my foot caught a ragged edge of the asphalt and I fell forward. I managed to get my hand half out of my pocket, but only enough to break my wrist - not my fall. The initial impact was on my forehead, and then my glasses hit - which caused them to scrape up and down my nose. My nose was next and it broke in two places. My knee hadn’t even hit yet and my eyes, nose and mouth were already filled with blood. By the time that I stopped falling, my face was partially submerged in a quickly expanding lake of rusty, metallic-tasting, Val juice. Yuck. Head wounds bleed - a lot.
I’d swear that it happened in slow motion because I can remember every detail. I remember thinking that the fall was going to be bad when it first started and I remember cussing a bit on the way down. I remember the initial “thunk” when my head hit, and I remember thinking that Tod was going to pass out if I didn’t hide all that blood. I remember the “crack” as my wrist hit and I remember worrying about my new hiking pants when my knee hit. I remember remember trying and failing to wipe the blood out of my eyes and seeing the sticky red stuff everywhere. I remember the smell of the creosote of the asphalt mixed with the rusty smell of the blood. I remember everything.
Anyway, I was able to get up right away. I was pretty gory looking, but the rangers helped me clean up and Tod didn’t pass out. He was laughing. “That was such a Val thing to do!” I was so relieved that he was okay, I started to laugh too. I comforted him all the way to the Urgent Care. We arrived 20 minutes before they closed, so they asked if I was nauseous or if I lost consciousness (nope on both counts), so they sent me home. They didn’t even clean the cuts on my forehead or nose.
So, over the next two weeks, my bruises spread and then disappeared - except for the one on my forehead. I’d swear the bruise kept spreading. It also stayed blue - never turning yellow or brown like the others. My occasional migraines became my frequent companions, and I started having occasional dizzy spells. Of course, I ignored these symptoms and never even put them together with the fall. I just figured that they were side effects from all of the training that I’d been doing.
After I arrived back home from my AT attempt and after I’d recovered from the “dehydration”, I noticed that my symptoms weren’t improving. I went to a new doctor and tried to tell her what had happened. She interrupted me to ask, “What in the hell happened to your head?”. This is when I learned that I had a depressed skull fracture (from the fall) and that my brain was swelling - causing all of my symptoms. No more hiking for me. At least, not anytime soon.
So, my hike was over, but my schedule was clear. Not a great combination. I had a lot of free time ahead of me - and a lot of shattered dreams to deal with that autumn. Luckily, you know that tired old phrase about closed doors and open windows? I actually saw it in action. The door was slammed shut on my AT thru-hike, but boy did a big, beautiful, picture window open up…
