Sadder but Wiser

One of my favorite MS medications has the unfortunate side effect of making it difficult to fall asleep. Because of this I routinely take a prescription-strength sleeping pill every night. Sometimes I manage on a half. Anyway, Monday I felt I needed a whole pill for various reasons. (Maybe part of this was because the Angels were eliminated that night and I didn’t want to lay awake thinking about the botched squeeze play and happy Red Sox.)

I thought I’d give the pill a head start, so I took it before going upstairs to tell Kara good night. While with Kara, I remembered a few things I needed to discuss with her. Five minutes tops. When I got up to leave the room, she noticed that I was really off-balance. She knows that means sleeping pill and chastised me for taking it before coming upstairs. I just laughed it off. OK, I’m a little dizzy but I’ll hold the hand rail going down the stairs, I would be fine. It wouldn’t be that bad.

And it wasn’t. I made it down just fine and despite a few harmless wall brushes, I made it to my bedroom just fine. I could tell that I was slightly more impaired than I usually am but I’m getting used to it, and pretty adept at compensating moves.

I turned off our bedroom light, and turned to make the final two or three steps to my bed. The combination of the turn and the darkness (which really plays with my balance) resulted in me helplessly crashing down into a free-standing full-length mirror. There was no broken glass or broken flesh, but wow, did it hurt. I hit my head pretty hard and I somehow broke the leg off the mirror. Two days later and I still have no visible bruises or anything, just a sore ear and neck.

It wasn’t pretty (though no one saw it, including me) and it wasn’t funny at the time, but it was educational. It was so preventable. I will be more careful about when I take the sleep help and be more cautious in the dark. As I went to sleep I considered that as bad as I felt at least I didn't miss the bunt on a suicide squeeze in the last inning of an elimination game with the score tied!

(My handiwork)