Falling and fast heart rates

Day 1,524.

The time since my move to this beautiful new place has made me so grateful and reflective. I love living in my new home. I now live in a place where I journaled a few years ago while on holiday:

Not that Wellington doesn’t have art. It is just different here. You feel a sense of local pride in the art here. I wish I was an island artist. I can imagine it must be great to retire here.

At sunset a number of yachts and sail boats came up from Auckland to the island. The after work crew. Maybe living here wouldn’t be that bad.

~ March 2021

I marvel at the change of pace in my life even after a short 4 weeks.

Our new house has beautiful views of the aqua water in the bay far below. The views are incredible. But reaching our house means navigating up a very steep driveway. Or trudging up 5 sets of stairs. Every step is worth it, of course.

M had a great fall

The reality of the hillside house came crashing down this week. I have fallen twice!

The first time I was pulling a wagon filled to the brim with groceries up the steep driveway. Our car isn’t four wheel drive, so I can’t just drive up with our weekly shopping.

I was a couple of steps from the top when my shoes slid and the weight of the wagon and the shopping pulled me all the way back to the roadside. I was quite shaken with scraped knees, popped buttons and glass jars all over the roadside.

Luckily a good samaritan arrived in my moment of need and helped me back up the driveway.

Crash boom bang

My second fall happened a few days later. I was hurrying down the exterior stairs after a rainy night in flip flops. I slipped and fell down seven steps. My right leg was badly banged up, and is still really sensitive after a week.

Right after the fall I had a huge bump on my leg, and had a decent cry from the pain and fright. I also had an adrenaline rush which really freaked me out - it felt just like the start of a VT.

Luckily I didn’t break anything. I did visit the urgent care to have a check up. They gave me anti-inflammatory medication and sent me on my way.

Both of the falls really made me think about what I would do in an emergency if I needed an ambulance. I even Googled the local ambulance service and yes: they do have four wheel drive vehicles on the island. I haven’t needed an ambulance in a while, but I can’t help this kind of thinking.

Time for VT

I have been really careful on the stairs ever since. On the weekend we sold a washing machine on the online marketplace. My husband and I carried it down the five sets of stairs to the roadside to load it into a car.

Right as we reached the final step I felt the VT hit: I felt dizzy, a racing heart and my ICD paced me twice. The pacing felt mild - like when my device check runs at midnight. I did double over onto the washing machine. Luckily we were already at the bottom and no-one got squashed.

After my heart calmed down we carried on moving the washing machine. Perhaps that was stupid. Or perhaps mature? No idea.

The move has been really stressful and I kind of expected some sort of reaction in my heart. I hate it when I am right.