Q: My apartment complex paved our parking lot and didn't provide a way to get out of the parking lot on a safe surface. Every section except ours was done in sections, allowing for people to walk on a safe surface. When leaving very early in the AM for work, we had to get to the HS parking lot they told us to park in.

Leaving our apt, I tried to walk on the grass, but it was too wet and I was afraid I would fall (ironically). I walked on the cement gutter area until it ended, then I had to walk on the new blacktop. After 4 or 5 steps, I hit a bad area and fell very hard. Luckily my husband was in front of me and he was carrying the baby instead of me.

I couldn't get up and I tried three times. My husband had to help me up, and I had that black stuff all over my shoes, heels, pants, and jacket. I went back in to change, and had a hard time walking up the steps. I had the camera in my jacket pocket, and took a few pictures on my way back out to the car (parked on the road immediately outside the big gate, a foot away from where I fell). It hurt to turn the stearing wheel a lot on the way to work...so I began to worry. I thought perhaps it would improve throughout the day.

I have bad back pain and some intermittent pain in my leg, and very very bad headaches. I never had headaches before...maybe once a year. I can't even reach for something without pain. I went to the ER that night, at the recommendation of my doctor's office. Nothing is broken or fractured, and I'm not sure what all the Xrays show. I'll see my Doctor on Thursday.

I couldn't go to work the day after and I'm afraid I'm always going to have problems now. I have a pretty high threshold for pain, so I try to force myself to care for my son as I usually do and I just bear down on my teeth. I have to care for my son, because what other option do I have? My husband can't quit his job to help me, because we need his paycheck to get by. We barely get by now. Help.
--Maggie, Oceanside, CA