Hasta La Ideas

Ten days ago I was in an accident. I fell. Hard.

Since the accident, I’ve been in a wheel chair when I’m out of the house, on crutches around the house, and taking some mighty powerful pain medications. This morning, thankfully, I got permission from my doctor to use a cane and hold my son while standing. No more wheel chair! No more crutches! No more medicines that make focusing difficult!

I’ve learned a great deal these past 10 days about how important it is to be organized. Not having clutter on the floor meant I could easily move around my house with limited mobility. Having a few days of banked content in our system meant that there were articles that could appear on the site when I couldn’t focus long enough to write. Having a meal plan and chore chart helped my husband and me keep our family fed and our house from spiraling out of control. And, having our medical records filed and in an orderly manner meant that we had important information at our fingertips exactly when we needed it.

Now that I’m on the mend, I’ve spent some time reflecting on additional organizing lessons I’ve learned from this experience:

• Ask for samples when leaving the hospital. By the time I was released from the ER it was after our local pharmacy was closed. The next day when the pharmacy was open, they didn’t have all of the items I needed and we had to wait another day for some of the prescriptions to arrive. We should have asked for samples (especially for the fake skin).
• Create specialized kits for your First Aid cabinet. I’ve reorganized our medicine chest so that there are zip-top bags with all of the items necessary for types of injuries. There is now a zip-top bag for skin avulsions and burns, another for cuts, one for bruises and bumps, and another for pain relief. When you’re injured, it is much easier to grab one bag with everything in it instead of hunting and pecking through a medicine chest for all of the individual items you might need.
• As quickly as you can, let people know you will not be meeting deadlines. I thought I was going to be able to work from bed … and then I took a pain pill. Six hours later when I woke up from my first of four naps, I realized I was literally on drugs and work would have to wait. I called and e-mailed everyone I had deadlines with and explained I wasn’t going to meet these expectations. Thankfully, everyone was able to adjust their schedules to accommodate my new time line.

Have you ever been in a serious accident? How did being organized help you to get through the experience? What lessons did you learn and what permanent changes did you make to your life? Share your stories in the comments.