We all fall down.
/I knew it would happen at some point.
You can't take a two-year-old out on a Puky bike for the first time and not expect her to fall. And fall she did, four or five times. But each time she high-fived everyone around, brushed off her hands, we kissed her hands (and then she kissed her own hands), and then when we asked "what do you do next?" she said "I get up." Each time.
But there's more to the story. As we were headed outside to try the bike, I had to navigate a few steps. We made it down the first one, and then on the second I took a tumble. Nothing too bad, but I landed on the ground. I knew this was going to happen at some point. It turns out, we all fall down. Of course, this is why we practiced all those floor transfers in PT. In fact, I'd fallen the weekend before as well -- I was alone in the bathroom at the hotel before working an ER shift when I missed my transfer from the toilet to the wheelchair and landed on the ground. Luckily, I'd left my hotel room unlocked and unlatched, just in case something happened (a welcome gift for all you would-be thieves following my hotel travels); I called one of my former nurses who is now a good friend and she came over to help me off the ground. I'll admit, I was pretty shaken. I was pretty sure I wasn't injured, though my pride and confidence certainly took a hit. It was the first time -- sitting there on the floor of a bathroom by myself -- that I had one of those "this really really sucks" moments. After I got off the ground in the bathroom, one of my friends who is an occupational therapist came over -- and we practiced the transfer I had just missed. Over and over and over again. And then the next night we did the same thing. Because when you screw something up, you need to do a root cause analysis and try again. So, when I fell going down the stairs my confidence wasn't hurt. My niece didn't see it, but she saw me right after, sitting on the ground. Between my dad and Heidi, we got me back up. I high-fived everyone, brushed my hands off, gave my niece a kiss, and told her that when you fall down, you just get back up. And then off we went to try the Puky bike for the first time where she was able to put theory into practice. The lesson stuck. With her and with me. It's going to happen again. Get up.
