Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Thursday, June 25, 2020

It has almost been a month since I posted

I'm not sure why I dropped the ball on that.  I've been busy--I went back to work full-time on June 1st.  Then three weekends in a row we took down a honeysuckle hedge and then our friend Brenda came over and we chipper-shredded the resulting wood so Brenda could take it to her garden and spread it on the paths.  We've filled up the lawn waste receptacle two times with branches that were sawn because they were too big for the chipper-shredder.  There's about one more load.  But we got enough done so the mowers could mow.

So my weekends have been busy, too.  In fact, the only reason I'm writing now is that I'm home for a few days because at 12:37 am on Tuesday (Monday night), I tried to pick up something that had dropped off the bed (if you must know, it was a teddy bear).  I had my CPAP masque and a pair of headphones on and was teetering on the edge and trying not to lose the headphones or masque at the same time while trying to grab the stuffed animal.  And then I fell, with a very loud boom, onto the hardware floor.

Once I picked myself up, I was hurting all over and it was hard to tell what I'd done to myself, although my toes looked bruised pretty quickly and my foot and ankle hurt more than everything else.  I went to an urgent treatment centre for x-rays the next morning, first thing, and found out that I had broken my ankle (yes, again, but this time the left instead of the right, thankfully), a medial malleolar fracture (which is what I had on the right when I was hit by a car in 2012).  They gave me a lace-up brace and made me make an appointment with the doctor who did my ankle surgery back then.   They sent me home and didn't say anything about being non-weight-bearing, so while I've stayed off of it mostly and iced it for two days, I have put some weight on it. I had an appointment with my doctor today. I do have a fracture, but it's more like a chip on the bone, and he didn't think it warranted surgery.  I could go back to work Monday in a boot and since it's the left ankle, I can still drive and then take the shuttle with the boot on, which is much easier than if I'd had to have a walker or something.  I'm the only driver in the house, so it was important that I be able to drive.  However, he did want to get an MRI to make sure the deltoid ligament was okay, although he said it was a large ligament that was not likely to have torn.  He just wanted to rule that out.  So I should have an MRI sometime next week.  I'm off till Monday but I can go back, to the relief of my backup person at work, I'm sure.  My boss was relieved as well, I think.  Considering the last time I broke my ankle I was off for three months, this is really good news.  And yesterday I'd gone to my storage unit and got out my walker, my shower bench, and my old boot from the last time.  I couldn't find my cane, but I took the walker with me today in case they made me non-weight-bearing.  But I'm okay.  I just need a boot, and the boot I have is universal, not right or left, so I can use it, although I forgot how long it took me to get into it and how heavy it is.  But it's better than surgery.  And he said I shouldn't take a shower standing up but could use a shower bench, so it's good I pulled that out.  I've taken sink baths and washed my hair in the bathroom sink the last couple of days. I am definitely showering tomorrow!

Anyway, that's what's going on in my world.  Hope you're doing well.

No comments: