Saturday, July 25, 2015

Not a good summer

So, it's Father's Day, and I go to town to look for some cat wormer. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is until I stumbled in a parking lot and went crashing down to the pavement.

My phone was dead, I was alone, people were in church and no one saw me fall. My left hand hit the ground. Hard. Then it went straight out in front of me as I fell, and my right knee hit the ground. Hard.

I heard something crack when I went down. I pulled myself up and had to support my left arm. It was broken, but not broken in two, I could tell that much. It was broken close to my shoulder. I finally pulled myself up and got in my Trailblazer and drove myself home. I'm in pain, but I've been in pain before.

I got home. Got myself out of the Trailblazer and into the house with the groceries I did get. Hollered for the husband since he was still asleep. Got the ice cream in the freezer with his help. Whimpered and told him I'd messed my arm up bad. I took an old scarf and made a makeshift sling. It helped. As long as I didn't move my arm, it didn't hurt

He took me to the After Hours clinic first. Should have just gone to the emergency room since that's where they sent us anyway after x-raying me. They did give me a proper sling at least, which helped.

Emergency room nurse was a sweetheart. She apologized when she had to scrub the palm of my left hand and my knee and the other assorted dings I got with povidine-iodine. I didn't feel it when she scrubbed my knee, but I sure did when she scrubbed my left palm. I think I tore the top layer of skin off of it. Had a huge strawberry on my right knee.

X-rays showed it was broken in a place where they couldn't put a cast. Near the ball in the big arm bone. So I was put in a shoulder immobilizer.

The sweet old nurse recommended sleeping in a recliner as she had experience from having shoulder surgery. I found out she was right. Couldn't lie in a bed in any position. Been sleeping in the recliner since. The husband, sweetheart that he is, has been sleeping on the sofa.

The arm is much better. I've switched back to the sling now, but I know it isn't healed yet. I can lift my arm more than I could right after it happened. I've been taking a bath about once a week to avoid stressing the injury. Husband had to help me a few times to put my shirt on. Forwent underclothes and wore elastic waist trousers, shorts or skirts. No bra.just a shirt and bottoms. Or a dress I could pull over my head.

I've been able to pull my own shirts on for the last couple of weeks, so that's a win. The arm aches a bit all day long and first thing on waking, but once I get sat up and moving around, that pain goes away. Only took the prescription pain pills at night since they made me sleepy (which helped me sleep at night). I take extra strength acetaminophen if the pain is too much.

I know the shoulder isn't the only thing messed up. My elbow hurts too, and my wrist. I know I messed them up too. Haven't been to the doctor since getting home from the emergency room. No insurance, very little money. But there's really nothing the doctor can do that hadn't already been done. He'd have prescribed PT, which I also can't afford. Will just have to live with any consequences. I've been really careful not to do anything to aggravate the injury. At least the bone has stopped shifting around. It did that for about three weeks while it healed up. Didn't hurt, just felt really funny.

Well, that's about it. Just whining in my own blog here, rather than whining for real about it. That won't make it heal any faster. I'll just keep muscle rub handy since that helps the soreness all up and down that arm. I think I messed my hand up too. My thumb and the outside of my hand under the pinky, most especially, are very sore and I had a black mark all up the outside of my thumb for awhile.

Ah well, maybe I'll whine some more later, I think I'm done for now.

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