And a ONE, and a TWO, and a THREE, and a Ka BOOM!!!

I sure wish that I had heard this countdown at about 3:00 this morning. Instead, I was still quite doped up with all of my prescription medications that I had taken at about 10:00 last night. Some of the meds insure that I sleep even better than a baby. Getting awakened suddenly is probably tougher for me than it is for a baby...

So there I was, sound asleep on my side of our comfy queen sized mattress. One of the reasons that we had purchased that particular Serta mattress set was because it had a pillow top built in at both sides of the mattress. We lie down on our bed and just sink right into it. Aw--heaven... Little did I know that after Stan had vacated the bed at 3:00 a.m., Abigayle had taken his place. Now, Abi is a cuddler which I sooo love. While she is in bed with you, she gets closer and closer and... I know that some people don't like to be touched by others. I am not one of those people. (Back up here, there are some people whom I would prefer not touch me but my family is not included in that group.) Leighlyn, who normally sleeps with Abigayle, has been complaining as of late, that Abi has rolled her off of the bed that they share a few times. Given the fact that our bedroom floors are wooden, there is not much of a soft landing for anyone who falls onto them. Needless to say, Leighlyn doesn't much care for this. Stan and I have not taken Leighlyn's complaints about this as seriously as Leighlyn might want us to. We've just had a chuckle about it. So far, no one had been injured in any way.

That was, until last night. Evidentally, Abi had pushed me to the extreme edge of my side of the bed. And if there was a countdown or any other kind of a warning system in place, I missed it. Probably while I was dreaming of all of the great food that we would be eating today for Thanksgiving and all of the wonderful memories that our family and I will be making, it happened. All of a sudden, I was awake and in GREAT PAIN! I landed on both of my knees and a curled up big toe. The pain was excrutiating! Believe me, I was not laughing about being rolled out of bed. LOL!!! There must've been a loud crash when this giant of a body landed on our bedroom floor, or maybe, it was my yelping that had awakened my bed partner who, just seconds before, had been cuddling next to my sleeping body. It did not take Abi long to realize what had happened. Afterall,she had been through this before with her sister. Immediately, she was apologizing and asking me what she needed to do to help me lift myself back up and into my bed. Poor little 9-year-old girl, there was not much that she could do. It was up to me and me alone. I could see light coming down the hallway that connected our private rooms from the public rooms. Stan was enjoying his morning coffee while he watched some western in the living room. He was completely oblivious to the tragedy at the other end of the house. By this time, I had tears rolling down my face. I just knew that both knees and that one big toe were broken beyond repair. LOL!!! There's just something about pain in the middle of the night that awakens you from a deep sleep. It seems much worse than if you would have you been awake when it started.

Somehow, I managed to crawl from the hard floor to the side of the bed to the top of the bed. That's when the second round of pain began. I have known that I have rheumatoid arthritis in my back since the early 1990s. In order for me to get out of bed, I need to sit up slowly and then remain in that position for a few minutes to allow my back to awaken slowly. This really cuts down on the pain factor. This time, I was not thinking, I guess. When I don't get up slowly, terrible back spasms appear. So for the next few minutes, I put up with the feeling that a bunch of tiny and BIG sharp knives were jabbing me in the back. Abi rubbed my back until I was able to lie back down on it. Bless her little heart! Shortly after that, the pain in my back disappeared. Unfortunately, the pain continued in my knees and toe. Abigayle was also very concerned so she turned the lamp on. I guess I expected to see blood flowing out of my torn up knees complete with bones and cartilege sticking out of the knee cap. Boy, was I surprised when they were only red from the pressure from all of my weight being forced on them suddenly. No other visible signs that they had just been involved in any kind of tragedy remained. I then looked down at my right foot. I fully expected to see 4 toes where they belonged and my big toe just hanging on by a wee bit of skin. Hmmm...guess my foot had not been as damaged as badly as I figured either. It still remained, fully intact, to where it belonged on my foot.

At that point, Abi and I decided to pull our many layers of a sheet, blankets and bedspread back over the tops of our bodies and we eventually returned to a nice deep sleep. This morning, my toe still hurts a little bit but my knees have returned to normal. Good thing since I have A LOT of cooking to do today!

So, anyway, you now know what kind of an experience I had last night. Because of it, I will be much more sympathetic to Leighlyn's woes when she complains about being pushed out of bed... LOL!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

VLE-B