Broken jaw

So Christmas went well, I'd just about recovered from flu, managed to get the kids present made (I'll share the video in my next post) and we'd spent lots of time with friends and family. Then on the night after boxing day I'd cooked a turkey curry for tea and sat down to eat it with the wife and kids.

I'd been struggling to get rid of a cough that I picked up with the flu, during the meal I got up during a coughing fit to get some water. This coughing, coupled with the getting up quickly made me back out and faint.

Turns out I hit the floor hard, face first. When I came round a couple of minutes later my wife and kids were crouched down my me, I was lay in a pool of blood. I had no idea what was going on, I thought I had my ear buds in and was working! I managed to get up and go lie down, my ears was hurting like mad, I'd broken a couple of teeth and cut my chin pretty bad.

My wife phoned 111 and we waited for a call back that never came. In the end we rang again and decided to go to A&E, my friend came over and picked up the kids to look after them.

Got to A&E about 9 and had to wait until 1 in the morning to get seen. Then things got moving pretty fast when they saw blood had come out of my ear. They wouldn't let me be on my own then! I was taken to have a CT scan and then three x-rays of my head and one of my chest. 

Look After Your Back

At the moment I feel about as strong as I ever have, I'm never going to be slim but I about the right size for my build and although my fitness could be better I still feel good in myself. 

Back in the summer I was mucking out a shed I'd used to keep sick sheep and lambs in during the spring when I was lambing. Whilst doing this I picked up too much on my muck fork and as I twisted to chuck it in the bucket of the tractor I felt my back twinge. This really knocked the wind out of my sails, for the next week or so it really slowed me down, everything was harder, I was hanging doors at work and I found lifting them difficult. 

This cleared up but then a couple of weeks ago I was loading out bricks on the the scaffold and had the same thing happen. It's better now but I've decided to get my back looked at. 

I always worry that I could have structural problems from a fall I had a few years ago (you can read about that here) and at 33 I need to use my back for a while longer yet so I decided to get it checked out properly by a chiropractor. 

We went through my history and he looked at my back and he thinks that my pelvis is out of line by about 3/4 of an inch, something that could cause me problems later on but it was probably caused by a fall or a knock. 

It's not going to stop me doing anything now but I am going to go through a course of treatments before it becomes a problem. There's always an element of doubt on anything like this as it's not something I can see, hopefully a few visits should start to put things back in line where they should be and I'll have no future problems. The downside of this was I had a treatment today and then was told afterwards I couldn't climb a ladder! I was gutted as I have so much to do on this roof, but I can get back up there tomorrow! 

I lead a very active life. I am constantly using my body and there's not many nights where I don't fall straight to sleep from being physically tired, so I want to make sure I look after it and deal with things before they become a problem, although I should have done this sooner! 

Do you look after yourself? 

What are you proactive about when it comes to health?