So I was pontificating not so very long ago about such things as what the tide would bring in next. Didn’t that sound so very uplifting and just a little dramatic maybe? (After all, it was fodder drawn from the well of chick movie moments.) Clue Reality, baby, here’s what the next tide brought me: a broken elbow. It was, in the parlance of what the ex and I would use, a Double D move, meaning a double dumbass moment of the first water. But, and it’s a huge BUT…. here I sit…TYPING! With both hands! And after the last few days I consider that about as happily as Tom Hanks received those wings of a sail that the tide brought to him for his escape. As lately as this morning I was one-finger pecking at the keys of this beast, unhappily noting my pitiful progress and how damn near impossible it was for a decent typist to communicate via this slow, cumbersome and mistake laden method. Long minutes with not much content, with more time spent correcting than contributing. I was still encased in the temporary but necessary cast that I received in the Urgent Care facility, and nothing would work to have my nimble fingers negotiate the keys. I propped the whole L-shaped affair up on a box, raised the keyboard to match the altitude, but no go. It was a makeshift arrangement, and too silly looking anyway – maybe even dangerous if my box had fallen over. My protective cast lacked freedom for my fingers to find the right keys, and whole thing was precarious at best, so writing has been left to the winds.
And what did I do to deserve all this? And right before a major art show, just to add insult, and not a little fear, to the injury? Walking the dogs in the Back 40, running from the rain, and it was just a happy little shower – that had been preceded by the most incredible rainbow that went all across the horizon in front of me. Not even any lightning and thunder to make me make haste. The whole event was stupid, as most accidents are. I turned and ran with dog on leash, until my right foot caught on rocks and I propelled myself onto the ground, (running surely didn’t help the situation), and I slammed myself into the firmament, (in grinding slow motion, of course), having outstretched my left hand to break the fall. I broke it, all right, and my elbow in the doing of it. Didn’t lose that leash though.
Usually after I take a header I pick myself up and dust myself off and go on, not more than maybe a few scrapes to show for my DDA (double dumbass) moves, and no harm done. I’ve always amazed myself that I can take a fall so well. And so, well, my luck ran out this time. It took a while to catch my breath and gather myself to rise, and things weren’t feeling so swell. Lots of heat in my wrist, forearm, elbow and shoulder, plus the laceration on my palm from the rocks. The whacks on both knees didn’t turn blue for a couple of days, hardly noticed at the time.
I stood and waggled fingers and rotated my hand and wrist, bent my elbow, moved everything around. They all worked, but still, something wasn’t quite right. I lumbered back into the house, walking around, walking walking walking, holding my arm, moving my arm, feeling worse by the minute, and then my elbow starting clicking when I rotated my arm, and then after a while I saw myself in the mirror with my arm frozen in an unnatural position, with no more movement or rotation or straightening, accompanied with an adequate amount of pain, thank you very much. And so, off to emergency care, xrays, and what the hell is next. They couldn’t even take my blood pressure – alarms and bells went off. I might have been a just a mite overwrought. I have to add that my care was done beyond regular hours after the nice people opened their shuttered doors to receive the likes of me after their closing time, and I was so grateful to have any sort of care and relief in my immediate proximity without having to drive my wounded self all the way into dreaded town to an ER. And likely a thousand dollar bill.
You certainly deserve better entertainment than Guess What Happened To Me columns, so I will attempt to illuminate the whole mess with what has transpired with my Fall Down, Go Boom adventure. After notifying my friends, they have rallied with commiseration and concern. They have volunteered to help me load all the artstuff when I leave for the art show in two weeks. Yes, I will be able to do the show, with the limitation that I can lift NOTHING. Ye gads, I will be waited on, and can stand there and tell people to put this there, hang that there, move that over….. It will be very interesting. Perhaps I will even manage Pity Sales. Somehow it will all work out, and then I get to wait out the rest of the summer, with no kayaking, mind you, but I will be able to float and kick around in the water at least. But the big news, for which I am most grateful, is NO SURGERY, no cast, no screws, no horrible result, no humongous medical bills, a good prognosis of healing, (unless I have plans to take up tennis), and I have the gift of reveling in the good wishes and freely offered HELP and love from my friends, and that, as they say, is Priceless.
And so I am left to ponder, (while I ponder a bit more on exactly how I am to cut mats), on the situations that are delivered to us, or that we have brought on to ourselves by way of our own behavior. We are so very fragile after all, vulnerable to a moment’s whim, or poor decision. I seem to think that there are bigger issues to consider here, (the doctor thought I might want to consider a Catastrophic Type Insurance Policy – I’ll be giving that some thought), and how we are so interconnected, and that we need to be there for each other. I am blessing my friends, and so thankful and grateful to and for them that it is quite beyond words. I’m a little more wary about asking What Next……. I think I’ll just rest a bit, get those mats cut, and get the new stuff framed, and love my mother and my friends. I’m not sure when I’ll walk the dogs again, but they are quite impatient. They shouldn’t have to suffer their lack of exercise and wonders of the Back 40 because I had a Double D moment. I think I’ll be just a little more careful, and not run from a storm that wasn’t there anyway. And to think, all this, from a girl who likes to walk in the rain. How weird is that?
Queenie Says 