On Saturday

I took a pretty bad tumble at Kohl's coming out of the store and crossing the curb. It was one of those gradual ones for the carts and was marked, but I kind of stepped on the slanted part and just went down to the ground. A couple of guys came by and made sure I'd gotten hurt and check if I needed steadying as I got up. Fortunately, I didn't fall into traffic or break my glasses (which would have meant that I couldn't have driven home). Also, I was wearing jeans, so while I came down on my right knee hard, and it is red, it's not bleeding much. My right elbow is scraped up pretty badly. Both palms of my hands are scraped and my left wrist (which is already a jumble of bones, as at some unknown point in my childhood it was broken, according to x-rays from a couple of years ago,) is really hurting.  All the fingers are sore, especially if I make the 'ok' sign. My shoulders are both sore, not from direct hits, but the impact shock. It happened about 12:20 pm and finally about 6:30 I went to the urgent treatment centre for x-rays and to make sure nothing was broken.  I just have a mild sprain in my knee and a bad sprain in my wrist and hand, so I've been taking ibuprofen, icing it, and wearing a brace (the night splint I already had at night, a smaller one during the day).  

As YKWIA says, I am a danger to myself (but not others). I hate being a klutz.

I've been having some quiet time

checking the news, Facebook, and e-mail, as I didn't really do that over the weekend, which was spent with friends, as usual. L'Shanah Tovah to my readers who are Jewish. May this coming year bring blessings. I was a little late with the well wishes, but the holiday is still technically going on.

Today wasn't quite as hectic as I thought it might be, considering it was a Monday with many people coming in for clinic. There weren't a lot of reschedules or phone calls, so I could keep up while figuring out how to do things after not doing them for eight months. The very first reschedule I made an error, and I don't know who it was (it was a phone call, not a voicemail, so I didn't write anything down), but my boss thinks she can run a report that will catch the problem in time. Everything after that went pretty smoothly, though.

I'd gone in early to do some work in the library before going over to scheduling, worked there from 9 am to 12:15 pm, and then had lunch with the group of co-workers I usually eat with. Then I went back to my desk and furiously put in outpatient charges, trying to get caught up before leaving for an appointment at 2:30 pm. I got a lot accomplished, and I didn't have any surgery charge reconciliation to do and had worked on the referrals earlier, so I'm happy with what I accomplished, but there's still more to do. After work there was the appointment, and then I spent time with YKWIA and watched an episode of 'Danny Phantom' and one of 'Lost Girl' with him. Tomorrow is my normal early day, so the idea is to get all caught up if at all possible. Then I'm going after work to a stationary shop with a friend who wants to write thank you letters to some folks. (He's the traditional sort of person, no computers, no note cards, real letters).

I should work on the game notes tonight, and I did transfer the recording over to the computer, but I'm kind of liking the quiet. I'd brought the fan out to the dining room, after cleaning off the table and putting things away, and so the only sounds in the room are the fan and the gently falling of water in the aquarium. It's so peaceful. Originally when I sat down, I'd considered listening to some music. But this is more restful.

I think I need to get away from the computer for awhile, though. My hands and wrists are hurting. The bracing at night and during the workday is helping overall, though. But I think I will take some ibuprofen tonight before bed. Maybe if we can find the stationary fairly quickly, I can come home tomorrow and work on them then. Good night.

Today I had the ergonomic assessment

One of the worst things about my desk/cubicle, is that it is set up to have a keyboard tray and mouse pad holder that utterly fails to work correctly when my body is interacting with it. It's too low, my chair could only go so low, I'd have to sit far back so as not to have my hands actually mousing and typing under the actual desk, and I had no arm support and was putting lots of effort into keeping my arms up, even though there were armrests on the chair, because they wouldn't work with the tray. I have short little arms, which meant almost everything was out of reach unless I put the tray in, which was difficult, as it tends to stick. So...

We moved the keyboard and mouse up on to the top of the desk and raised my chair, and the armrests. The chair itself, although pretty darn old (I'd say it's at least 15 years old--I've had it since before 2003 and it was our administrator's secretary's chair, who hasn't worked there in years, prior to being mine (it has her name on the bottom of it)), but it is still better than the newer ones we have in the library. Anyway, the occupational therapist went and got me some braces for my hands that work better than the gloves I was using, and then sewed extra length to the straps for me. We adjusted the monitor. I managed to bring my document holder to the correct height using a PDR, boxed book set, and an in/out box but still have it close enough to read and reach without strain. She is recommending an ergonomic keyboard such as the one I use at home, which will keep my hands and wrists supported and in a natural position, with my elbows firmly on the armrests. Right now I'm using a footrest I already had. My desk has been rearranged slightly so everything is in reach without straining. I'm closer to the screen, so I can read better. I have an old mousepad that's cover was frayed and rolling up back from the rest, which was exposed and and rubbed against my wrists, so I went by Office Depot today and got a mouse pad and support there (yes, I could have had them replace the other, but I don't mind, and this way I could choose something to brighten up the office. I'll just take it with me when I leave. It has a tree surrounded by lavender, and the beaded rest that I got is grey, but I put it in my laptop bag, replacing the purple one that is the same colour as the lavender on the mousepad that I'll move to the office.) She also gave me some exercises to help with my neck and shoulders, and encouraged me to continue the night splinting, but use the wrist braces during the part of the day (typically the afternoons, when I'm doing data entry) when I'm typing and clicking the most, so I don't over-brace and weaken the wrists and hands.

On that note, my wrists are really hurting. I think I'll break down and take some ibuprofen. Time to brace them and turn in for the night, now that my hiccups have finally stopped. :) Good night.

I fell asleep (imagine!)

at about 8 pm, and woke up feeling like it must be 2 am or later, when it was only 10:30 pm. My mouth was terribly dry so I got up for something to drink and I'm eating the last of the cereal and milk; I love cereal at night for some reason. I think it's because my grandfather always ate it then. Of course, he also put cornbread in buttermilk, and I despise buttermilk, so hey, go figure. We pick and choose our endearing moments, I guess.

The air conditioner is apparently completely fixed. They changed out the compressor motor, which was bad. So now it's set on 76 and it's 75 degrees in here and I'm comfortable. Amazing what a difference a couple of degrees makes, but more importantly, it's not humid or stuffy like it was. Since September has already been hotter on average than August was, this is a good thing. Still, cool weather must be on its way soon. I wore a dress today because 1) I didn't want to take the time to switch purses and it matches and 2) pretty soon I won't be wearing dresses at all. It is a pretty light dress with lots of purple, blue, and green splashes over a lavender shell, with a irregular hem that comes up in a slit on the front right. I get a lot of compliments on it. I probably spent $10-$12 on it at Gabriel Brothers last year. :) The only problem with wearing a dress, as opposed to a skirt, when you have diabetes is figuring out how best to give yourself a shot so you don't expose yourself. I hate going into the bathroom to do that--it doesn't seem very sterile. With a skirt or pants I can do it quite discreetly; today I just had to pick times when no one was looking, turn around, and use that slit to the dress well. Hey, it worked. The other thing I hate about wearing dresses, or skirts, for that matter, is that every time I get up from a seat, I'm afraid I'll get my dress hung up on my butt, or in the case of the bathroom, in my underwear. I did that once. I went out of Blimpie's restroom at Euclid and Rose, and walked all the way up the street past the fine arts building and up to the president of the University of Kentucky's house, when a nice lady pulled over her car and quietly informed me that my skirt was hiked up in my underwear. I was so embarrassed, yet so glad she stopped and told me. Really, after you've aired yourself down a major thoroughfare (and this was before they blocked off one end of the street, so it was even busier), you lose a certain amount of shame.

I'm glad we're over the hump towards a long weekend. Tomorrow I should have that ergonomic assessment and get a better idea of things I can do to help my hands, neck, and back. I downloaded some articles and put one through interlibrary loan (hey, I'm a patron, too, or more correctly, a patroness) on wrist bracing in carpal tunnel and arthritis. It apparently helps either. They're not sure exactly what's wrong with my hands--the EMG does read mild carpal tunnel, but whether it has returned after release surgery or if that's residual, it's hard to say. I did not get immediate relief from the cortisone injections, which should have helped if it was carpal tunnel. What is helping is the bracing. I didn't use the brace for the two and a half hours I 'napped' just now, and I can tell a difference. The night bracing, especially, is helping. I'm not so sure about the day bracing, when I'm using my hands. I'll ask the occupational therapist tomorrow if she thinks they're useful. It may be just having something like an ergonomic keyboard, such as the one I'm using now, would help at work. But during the day, my wrists really hurt. The compression of the Smart Glove does help a bit, and they hurt more when it's off, but on the other hand, I don't want to weaken my hands by bracing too much. I have a back brace, too, but wear it only when I'm doing something that requires a lot of back use, rather than all the time, because it can weaken the muscles. The same thing can happen to the hands. But I did find a set of exercises that help, too. (7 Hand Exercises to Ease Arthritis Pain)

I think I'll check on the news and see if there's anything good (is there ever? rarely). Then I'll head back to bed. Good night. But I leave you with this, a silly song that brings a smile to my face every time I hear it:

Waiting to eat dinner

I take a medicine that requires me to wait fifteen to forty-five minutes before eating breakfast and dinner. The nice thing is that I was able to get groceries today and some essentials like deodorant and shampoo, which were running out. There wasn't much left in the pantry, except some popcorn and a big can of pasta sauce. :) I got some fruit and salad makings, too, so that should be good. I ate a very intensive vegetable-laden meal today after almost two weeks of peanut butter and bread, and my system totally balked. But hopefully it will do alright from now on. I was able to get some yeast and vital wheat gluten (the latter is for making whole wheat bread fluffier), salt, sugar, honey, oats--all the things I've been making bread from. I'm going to continue that as a way to save money. While I did eat at the work cafeteria today, I'm going to start doing that less and bring my lunches. I don't have much leeway with my bills, and I will still be behind, but I decided food and gas could not be skipped, and just tried to save wherever possible. I did get 50 cents off a gallon of gas at Kroger, so even though I was on my gas light again, it took $31 to fill the car. Yay!

Oops, I did mean to stop by the pharmacy and see if they had any left-handed braces I could wear at night. I have a right-handed one, and I used it last night, and it felt much better than the left upon waking. I woke up in the middle of the night with my left hand clenched in a fist; that can't be helping. I may go out again later, or try tomorrow. At least that's something I can get with my flexible spending card, I think.

Today was a catch-up day at work, since I was off yesterday, but I got all of Tuesday's and Wednesday's charges in and really worked my referral queue. Tomorrow I'll work on catching up on some other things. I also need to place a book order for the library before the end of the month and also one for our early literacy project. So perhaps that can be done tomorrow.

It's very pleasant outside today, sunny and cooler. After I eat I need to pay some bills and do some things around here, including taking the trash out that I just made from cleaning out the refrigerator to put new stuff in. I had to look up whether to put an uncut watermelon into the fridge or not (they keep better outside, so long as it's fairly cool). I found one that wasn't huge for a reasonable price. I must say my excursion to the Chinoe Kroger was very nice. They've been remodeling, and I think they're mostly finished--the carts were inside and they had real doors again. :) I love it because it's smaller than the one I live near, and go out of my way to stop by when I need anything.

Okay, I'm going to eat now and look at the news, something I've avoided doing all day.

Found out a couple of things this morning

at the appointment I had with the hand surgeon. We're still going to go ahead with another electromyograph (EMG) to see if my carpal tunnel syndrome really has returned, like one doctor who did the test said a few years ago (we couldn't get a copy of the test because her office is now closed, and it's been four years or so anyway). But apparently at some point in my life I broke my left wrist and didn't know it. Also, my ulnae (the smaller long bones of the arm) are congenitally shorter than usual, which could be causing some of the wrist pain. The slight tremor I've occasionally had in my thumb did present itself when we took x-rays. It happens when my hand is placed perpendicularly to a horizontal surface, like I was using it as a knife. I do also have arthritis in my thumbs, particularly the left one. So, there you go--my upper extremities are somewhat verkakte. Fortunately the EMG is already scheduled for a week from now, and I'll see the doctor a couple of days later.

That was early this morning. Then I went to work, and it was an okay kind of day. After work I went by the bank and got my rent and then took it over to the leasing office. That leaves me very little for the next week-and-a-half, but at least that's paid, and I have enough for my car insurance. I called T-Mobile to see if I could make a payment arrangement for when I get paid next, and they were very nice about it; I've never missed a payment with them and am usually like clockwork with them.

So now I've eaten some scrambled eggs and cheese, had a little orange juice and banana, and I'm seriously thinking of taking a nap. It's getting very cloudy outside, like it's going to rain. I hope so; I hope it waters the window boxes. If not, I have to water those plus the inside plants. The poor spider plant jumped off the computer desk shelf because it was dry (the little baby plants that hang down are all one side, so it's heavier on that side). But first, that nap.