I hadn’t used to barricade myself in bed but I do now. Pillows
everywhere! It all started with a fall just prior to Christmas.
One minute I was dreaming, the next I was wondering what hit
me. I had actually rolled out of bed in my sleep and landed on my knees with my
face resting on a glass on the bedside table. Fortunately it wasn’t a drinking
glass, just a heavy glass container for odds and sods that might be needed in
the night: phone, inhaler (a leftover from a cold), indigestion tablets
(another leftover), a pen, two mini-book lights, small notepad, and a voice recorder
in case I was inspired to compose. Apart from feeling shaken, I was bleeding to
death. Or so it seemed by the amount of blood on the carpet and bed. Not
knowing what injuries I had I rushed out to get something with which to mop up
the blood that was pouring out of my nose. Yes, I’d smashed nose and lip on the
glass container and broken a blood vessel.
Joe wakes at this point, senses my state of panic, and comes
to help. It was five o’clock in the morning yet amazingly he managed to remove
every bit of blood from the cream coloured carpet and the bedclothes.
The bruises on the knees were quite pretty, but it was my
face that sustained the worst injury. What a sight! Apart from soreness on the
bridge of the nose there was nothing else to see, but the cut on the bottom lip
took what seemed like ages to heal. It was quite swollen, bringing about a somewhat distorted effect like something out of a Dracula film.
The incident was a jolt, I can tell you. I mean, rolling out
of bed in my sleep wasn’t something I’d ever done before. I was sober too ... thought I’d better
include that to stem any evil thoughts you might have.
On top of the soreness, it was all a damn nuisance. Christmas
was approaching and there was I ... injured. A WI Christmas lunch at the golf club
had to be cancelled because (a) I couldn’t eat properly and (b) I felt too
grotesque to be seen in public. I had just a few days to try and get back to
normal. Okay, so what’s normal?
There’s no moral to this story, just a vague suspicion that
I’m getting accident prone. Now that IS worrying. Perhaps the trend for falling out of bed has moved from the US to the UK.