Lucky to have survived.

As injuries go, it’s not very much; Just a quarter inch long gash in the center of my forehead. I’ve been told by people that they would not have even noticed it had I not pointed it out, but these are co-workers, people that I am pretty sure don’t look at me long or hard. I would ask Angel, but if it is hideous, she’ll just lie to me and say otherwise, she’s sweet that way.
I’m pretty sure that it’s quite noticeable, as it is the first thing I see in the mirror.
No stitches required, it is only a gash, surrounded by a red area indicating that healing is underway. It didn’t bleed, I don’t think, I was actually afraid to look and too far from a mirror to check, and most of all too preoccupied with the task at hand to bother.
I’ve had injuries before, a playground swing ripped open my hand when I was eight or nine, I got five stitches for that and still have the scar. I shoved a pocket knife between a couple of fingers in my left hand a couple of years later, permanently damaging the nerve endings, which still occasionally tingle. And I burned my thigh on a motorcycle exhaust; it left a permanent mark, looks like a bruise.
And of course the car wreck back in 1999, when I flipped the SUV and suffered a severe beating from the air bag. Fractured my clavichord, or whatever that thing is between the ribs, oh yeah, sternum… I just looked it up… Anyway I fractured that and it put me down as much as anything else I’ve suffered. Other than that I guess I’ve been pretty lucky, except maybe the time I was shooting hoops (wait for shock to subside) and caught my right foot in a gopher hole, spraining my ankle… yeah that’s about it.
This gash in my forehead is not as bad as any of those… I think more than anything else it reflects my general state of slowing down. Motorcycles, basketball, careless and imprudent driving, knife-play, I really don’t do risky things like that any more. Medical bill – wise that’s not such a bad thing I’ve taken a lot of the risk out of my life.
But the troubling spot is this: no matter how careful you are, no matter how sedate, cautious and vigilant, there plenty of stupid accidents ready to pounce on even the most inactive.
I was at peace, my mind wandered about, here to there, playing with the images in my mind, feeling waves of heaviness come and go, warmth rising, and rising, somewhere between drowsy and full-ahead REM, I drifted. At some point in this euphoric state I sensed that the pillow needed to be flipped to the cool side. A quick twist and pull, a simple move practiced over time to perfection.
It jammed.
Somehow the pillow locked into place, my clutched fist slipped off the edge with full momentum towards my face, my thumbnail slammed into my forehead.
I was thankful, once again for the thickness of my skull. It hurt like mad though; this was a self induced sucker punch, and a mean one.
I considered that it might have cut open, it felt, gashed. But the cool side of the pillow seduced me, and I decided then and there to just let it bleed.
If there are those among you that likewise have experiences with ‘nap-related-injuries’ I would like to hear from you. Surely I am not alone, and surely there is a support group somewhere, or a telethon, or a celebrated sports figure with a book, or made for TV movie….

Healing nicely.
DB