Flowers can be Hazardous,,,,tponetom

[tponetom]

FLOWERS CAN BE HAZARDOUS,,,,, tponetom

TO YOUR HEALTH!

Play “Hearts and Flowers.” [[the song, that is.)
Or: “Counting Flowers on the Wall.”

Our mania for flowers these past few years had reached a summit. Then came the descent.
Our living room is a modest, 16’ x 18’. The west wall accommodates our two L-Z-Boy chairs, separated by a large end table. I have an additional end table on my right hand side.
Digression: [[This allows me to store eight books, vertically, under each table. I was fortunate enough to find a piece of paneling that matched the carpeting, [[Oatmeal.) The slick surface allows me to slide the books out far enough to get two hands on them to lift them.)
For many years we would have a bouquet of cut flowers on the kitchen table and the bedroom dressers and one in the living room and even put a single dying survivor or two, in the bathroom.
Then, about two years ago, a crescendo of inspiration exploded in my head. “Why the heck don’t we put all of the flowers in the living room where we can enjoy them, all day long?”
Peggy kind of snickered, “and just where are you going to find the room to place them? You have so much stuff on your table now, they resemble a Domino train. Knock one thing over and everything else falls down and goes boom!” [[We did not know it at the time that her words were prophetic.)
I snickered back, with a smirking triumphant face, “We will put them on the FLOOR!!!
My quenching argument to her was when I said, “If you are walking through a garden, you do not lie down on the grass and LOOK UP at the flowers. Rather, you walk and LOOK DOWN
She gives me that ‘oh my god what will you think of next, look.’
I sallied forth.
The east wall had room for our entertainment center, a two passenger love seat, another end table and then the end of another love seat that was angled to cover the corner. There was a large window, with drapes and a Venetian blind behind the first love seat. To operate the ‘wand‘, all I had to do was walk to the space between the TV and the loveseat. No problem.
After the first day, Peggy was sold on my genius. [[?) We have had as many as six bouquets, dancing, on the floor, around the love seat.
And then,,,,,. It was two days after New Years Day, in the after noon. We both were reading. There was a glint of brightness coming through the ’blinds.’ she asked me to close them. It would soon be, in the immediate future, an ill advised request, to say the least. The descent began
There was one bouquet on the extreme left hand side, blocking my usual approach to the ‘wand’. Rather than bending over and sliding the vase out of the way, I chose a more direct avenue. There was enough space on either side of the center vase that it made. it easy to straddle and then just lean over a little to reach the wand and make the adjustment.
“Not so fast,” said the big god, ‘Vertigo.’ [[Imbalance, Dizziness or whatever.)
I began falling ’sideways’. In the space of three seconds or so a few things flashed in my mind:
1. I am falling slowly.
2. I can grab the hand rest on the love seat.
3. I cannot get a grip on said ’hand rest.’
4. Get my right arm in position to break the fall.
5. My Leprechaun left me, momentarily. [[He may have had to whizzz.)
When I fell, I knocked over the two vases on the left side of center, and the one on the right side of center, was the one I fell on.
My right arm absorbed about half of the impact. The other half was accepted by the lowest rib on my right hand side.
My first realization was feeling something wet on that side of my chest. I felt it with my hand. With a bit of reluctance I brought my hand up to see what kind of ’wet’ it was. Relief! It was water, not blood!

As it happened, “Leppy,” my Leprechaun, had returned to my shoulder in the tick of time and he threw out both hands to help soften my ’landing.’
Fortunately, the glass vase just happened to be of an extremely thick nature. If it had broken, I might have had flowers growing out of my lung.
Summation: The bottom rib was gently sore for about a week. My lung, or whatever was behind the rib, gave me some exquisite moments when I coughed, sneezed, hiccupped, or took a deep breath.
The moral of this story is to keep a little sunshine in your life. Also, it is without saying, having a leprechaun on your shoulder is not a burden. To paraphrase Father Flanagan, “He’s not heavy, he’s my Leppy.”

　
　

[Jimaz]

‘Vertigo.’ [[Imbalance, Dizziness or whatever.)

Just as a practical point, there are a couple of surprisingly simple and easy exercises that can sometimes correct that problem if it's "benign paroxysmal positional vertigo". One is the Epley maneuver, the other is the Semont maneuver.

Top-notch story telling as usual, tponetom!

I am not a physician.