Happy With Myself?

BEWARE OF THE AFRICAN GIRAFFE!

I had a very productive morning yesterday. My house was relatively tidy and the boys were doing their schoolwork. I had started working on the Christmas Program (I am the Children's Choir Director) and was practicing some songs I hope to be able to play by Christmas. By 11:00, the boys had eaten lunch (we get up absurdly early at my house) and finished up language, reading, and a small study on Vincent Van Gogh. I told them to take a break and I went to clean up after Felix. He had taken all the books off the bottom bookshelf. He's such a big helper. I plopped my fanny down and went to work, him handing me a book and me putting it back on the shelf. I had to hold up the books already on the shelf to put more on and so I continued to add and move books. All of a sudden - BONK - and I was holding my head in pain and looking around for whatever thing I was about to hurl into oblivion. Ah, the wooden giraffe Missy brought back for the boys from Africa. Can't hurl that into oblivion. Besides, Felix was already holding it saying "No, no giraffe!". Corin was watching me lie on the floor holding my head and screaming "Mama, what should I do? I should tell Mr. Clayton! I should call 911! Mama is this an emergency? Mama!". Woah. What happened? Did I really get knocked in the head by a wooden giraffe? Should it really hurt this bad? I told Corin to just "be still and let me think". Yeah, think about the last time I got a concussion.

Embarrassingly, this is my second concussion within a year. Last Winter, I was changing the sheets (cursed sheets) on the boys' bunkbeds upstairs and knocked myself UNCONSCIOUS by slamming my head on the ladder. I passed out several times and don't remember chunks of the morning. I called Quinn, who was out of town for the day, to ask for instruction (I knew something was the matter because of the huge bump off my eyebrow and the fact that I kept drifting off to sleep) and promptly forgot what he told me as soon as I got off the phone. Gladly, he knew I was incoherent and called Ginger Donahoo to check on me. She called and Corin told her I was asleep on the kitchen floor. I think that I was on the phone with Missy at some point in the morning. It is still a little blurry. Ginger came over and dressed me (oh yeah, still in pjs) and took me to the doctor. I slept for two days and had blurred vision for about a week.

So now I'm sitting on my living room floor, checking for blood, and wondering what should I do. I knew, from my last unfortunate experience, that soon I would probably be feeling dizzy. I finished putting the books on the shelves and loaded the lunch dishes in the dishwasher. Now what? Quinn was in seminary classes in Atlanta and I did not want him to worry. I called Crissy hoping that her husband would be with her (he's a respiratory therapist). No answer on her cell. I called the church and she answered the phone (weird) and said that she would send Chris over. By this time I was unable to walk without holding the wall and the light was hurting my eyes. (Felix was also still holding the giraffe and periodically coming over to me saying "giraffe hurt mama?"). My eyes were not dilated weirdly and I was coherent. I did not want to go to the doctor. Pay $30 for the doctor to say "Yep, mild concussion. Go home and sleep for two days." No Thank You. So I laid in bed all day and couldn't do anything. ANNOYING. Chris and Crissy came over for the whole day and took care of me. It was nice. Ginger came and picked up the big boys for soccer. Paige got my stuff I needed to teach my co-op class today. The gospel at work.

Quinn was slightly annoyed I did not go to the doctor, but I rationalized well. (Oh, sure, trust the lady with the concussion). This morning I woke up with a slight headache and was glad I felt almost fine. Nevermind that nagging cloud in front of my eyes. It was smaller than yesterday's cloud anyway. I did go to co-op to teach my music class. Where we made homemade kazoos. And danced. Dizziness and headache back by 11:00. It was a GIRAFFE. A small wooden carved, docile animal. Crissy said, "Thank goodness it wasn't a lion, huh?" Cute.