Labels
Hospitals use ugly socks to motivate you to get out of them sooner rather than later.
A year ago today I was labeled a FALL RISK.
Yep, I slipped in my cheap, no tread flip flops. I did a precise Greg Louganis down my stairs but disgracefully landed on my back. The doctor told me I was very lucky, and pain and healing would take some time. He said that I would have to work at healing and find help.
I had never broken a bone before but that pissed me off. He didn’t know me! I was not about to be labeled FALL RISK and succumb to pain. Nor inactivity. But I could barely shift my body to one side without the assistance of a nurse.
I continued to look at my labeled wrist band and the doctor’s words kept pushing at me through pain. I missed my kids’ first day of school. I missed my first workout of my “back-to-school parent resolution” when I was so excited to get back into the routine and then…a broken back. No bending, lifting or twisting for three weeks. No driving. I would have to rely on family and friends to help me for the next three weeks. There were the pain meds - but that's a whole other blog post. And the hardest words for me: No working out for six weeks. I thought to myself, “Kiss my mental stability good-bye!”
Thank God for cable television in hospitals. It was serendipitous that the Rocky movies played during my two-night hospital stay. It hurt like a (insert your own expletive here) and I knew that as soon as the nurses came in the next morning they would make me walk. To go home. There is no easy way out. My fight kicked in. I didn’t want to be there any longer either.
In our world today there are so many labels just screaming for attention. It’s just the same as in life. Thinking in terms of your own personal brands, we end up putting labels on ourselves.
“I’ll never be able to do that. I’m fat. I can’t do it.
I am so insecure just look at me!
I just need some help…”
What are the good things about the labels we create?
If we pay attention to them - own up to them, they can teach us a lot about ourselves.
It took me almost a year to grasp the label FALL RISK.
I was a trauma patient in the ER because I could not move my left leg. Lying there uncomfortable and writhing in pain, I asked myself what seemed like a lifetime of questions:
“What if I’m paralyzed? I’ll have to move. I won't be able to care for my own house.
How will my kids get to their activities if I can’t drive?”
The stillness of the hour and a half MRI brought out my peace. I remembered to breathe and to lie still and know that I cannot control the outcome. But I can get myself through this moment. I prayed. After seeing my x-rays three weeks later, I believe a lot of other people also prayed for me.
With everything we do in our complicated, busy lives we come to a point in time where everything is turned upside down. It might be a slip down the stairs. But it could be your marriage suddenly shattering before you. It could be the sudden death of a spouse or a child. Or a long road ahead with a cancer diagnosis. It could be the stress of coming up with “the big idea” at work. There is always the risk in falling. In failing. Of losing in life.
All I know is that on the back end of that impact (or on the back side of that label) there are important tools on how to deal with it and get through it. It is inside, just fight through the pain and learn.
I love this Brené Brown quote, “When we deny the story it defines us. When we own the story we can write a brand-new beginning.”
And that’s what I am doing here today on my quiet blog.
On the anniversary of being labeled a FALL RISK, I can safely say (not wearing flip flops) that over a full course of a year I had to navigate and shed my own labels before I could understand the one I was given. I am pain-free today and I accept the risk that comes in the form of tomorrow.
I think I can own that. And I am excited about writing this brand-new beginning.
No matter how bad it hurts, just get out there and move. And be thankful that you can!
#startsomewhere