A week ago Thursday night, several of us were at Kewaunee Bowl, getting ready for another night of fun bowling. We were joking around and acting foolish as usual. I was walking and not paying attention to anything on the floor and tripped over my own bowling bag that was still holding my ball. I took a header over the bag. Carol Sinkula tried to catch me and kind of broke my fall, but my right knee apparently hit the floor and took the brunt of the fall.

When I got back up, with help from Carol and Darlene Witcpalek, I took a few steps and decided that my knee probably wasn’t broken. Because in the past, I’ve fallen and broken each of my kneecaps and I definitely remember that pain. This was different.

I went ahead and bowled three games, but it was starting to hurt more with each game. The gals suggested I sit out the last game, but I have a stubborn streak and went ahead and finished it.

I went home after bowling and put ice on my knee before going to bed. Friday morning it really hurt like the devil. It wasn’t the same pain as the broken kneecap, but I thought I probably should see a doctor and called a Kewaunee office. They had an opening that afternoon, and I took it. They took an X-ray of it, and I met with a nurse practitioner. It wasn’t broken, but it was severely bruised and I probably slightly pulled the surrounding tendons and ligaments. She recommended a topical salve and pain reliever.

It was a fairly miserable weekend. I never realized how much we rely on our knees to move around and get in and out of chairs. I struggled all weekend long with the simplest of tasks.

By Monday it was much better. I was scheduled to bowl Tuesday morning but thought if I could find a sub, I’d take Tuesday off. Unfortunately no one was available, so I bowled. It worked out OK. Now it’s definitely on the mend.

I happen to like cats and found this little story on the internet.

“One night while cat-sitting my daughter’s indoor feline, it escaped outside. When it failed to return the following morning, I found the beast clinging to a branch about 30 feet up in a spindly tree. Unable to lure it down, I called the fire department. ‘We don’t do that anymore,’ the woman dispatcher said. When I persisted, she was polite but firm. ‘The cat will come down when it gets hungry enough.’ ‘How do you know that?’ I asked. ‘Have you ever seen a cat skeleton in a tree?’ she said. Two hours later the cat was back, looking for breakfast.”

Have a great week everyone!

Barb Ludlow is a former Kewaunee County reporter. Email her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: Ludlow: Watch where you're walking