Fracture and Hanging in There

 

Last week was a very bad week in the "Constant Crafter" house.  Since I'm home most of the time, I do most of the snow blowing.  Last Thursday, we had received about 4 to 5 inches of snow overnight.  Rocketman usually would have snowblowed for me before he went to work but he would have needed to get up earlier to have done that.  I really don't mind snowblowing.

 

I had just finished the driveway and had put the snowblower away when Rocketman came out to leave for work.  There is a well known three inch thick patch of ice and I had been careful to walk around it until that moment.  I was talking to Rocketman and next thing I knew I was flat on my back with my elbow throbbing.  I had landed on my elbow and wrist.  My fingers were numb and tinkling.  I lay on my back crying at the shock and pain of it all.

 

Rocketman dropped everything and came to help me up.  He told me that we needed to go to the Emergency Room while I was busy crying and telling him "no."  When we got inside and I couldn't get my coat off easily, I agreed to go to the Emergency Room.  We arrived at the hospital at 9 am and it was pretty empty at that point.  Forms were filled out and we didn't have to wait too long before we were in a room and seeing a "provider." 

 

That's right, we were told a "provider" would be taking my case which meant it could be a doctor, a physician's assistant or a nurse.  I thought provider in a hospital situation meant insurance but things have changes.  They took x-rays and we waited for the results and the "provider." 

 

The "provider" turned out to be a physician after all.  He said it didn't look like I had a break or fracture at that time but that it still could be fractured. He said if it still was painful after 3 days to see my regular doctor.  We were out of there around 11:30 am which is a record for us with my arm in a sling.  The staff had told us that I was the 9th elbow of the day.  As we walked out of the ER, we noticed the waiting room was packed with people.

 

The weekend brought more pain and though the hospital gave me Oxycontin, it did nothing for the pain and gave me one heck of an upset stomach.  So Monday morning I saw my regular doctor who also took x-rays. It came back that it was definitely fractured and he even called Rockeman to the room to show him the x-rays.  He gave me a different medication and sent me home with the sling and the promise to rest it for a few weeks. 

 

Today, it has been a week and a day and I'm still in a lot of pain.  It was also my right elbow which keeps me from doing most things.  If I put any pressure on that side even holding a glass of water, I get a tremendous amount of pain so I've been taking it easy.  Poor Rocketman has been doing everything from laundry to picking up.  He's going to tackle the house this weekend.  It's so hard when you can't use your dominate hand.

 

This one handed Grandma wasn't going to let this deter her from a babysitting commitment I had with Ezra.  He came over Tuesday for the day and we had a blast.  He loves Louie's cat toy.

This is the look I got every time I put a bite of food in his mouth.  He's a cutie.

We have a trip to South Korea coming up and I'm going to make sure I'm 100% ready for it.