Skip to main content

A wee touch of the plague





It's been an interesting couple weeks. I've had a terrible cold. No, that seems a bit of an understatement. I've been hacking up a lung, struggling to breathe out of my one working nostril, barely able at times to keep my eyes open. I'm too tired and generally feeling like I've got a wee bit of the plague. And to add to my dragging ass lethargy and hacking, my wrist and arm hurt because of the broken elbow. And I really don't want to be stuck at home. I want to be driving my new red MINI. 
Like I said, it's been an interesting couple weeks. Even for me. So, as Marie would sing, "Let's start at da bery beginning."


Two weeks ago, I woke excited because I was going to test drive a couple potential new MINIs after my morning WW Workshop. I had been shopping online through  CarGurus and had narrowed my search to two gently used, new-to-me MINI Coopers in Grand Rapids.

So maybe in the excitement, I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have when I went outside to get Wally whose leash was tangled on the deck stairs. As I bent down I lost my balance and extended my arm to help break my fall. I landed hard, really hard, on my right arm/elbow. I knew almost immediately that it wasn't just bruised, because the pain was intense. But, I couldn't let a little pain and a little thing like a broken arm, stand in the way of my day so I kept mum as John and I prepared to leave the house. I swallowed four ibuprofen, drove to Benton Harbor for the Workshop, ran the Workshop and had four new members, got back in the car and drove the 90 minutes to Grand Rapids, test drove the cars, found the one I wanted, made the deposit and drove home, popped four more ibuprofen, napped, made dinner, led a conference call all the while trying to move in my wheelchair with the left arm.


For the record, I am the least ambidextrous person on Planet Earth. My right hand is so dominant, my left is afraid to do anything.



I knew I needed to get it xrayed and planned to do it the next day after I led the Workshop at Hope College but before my evening Workshop. I have my priorities. I popped four more ibuprofen and went about my day. When I finally got to urgent care, the xray revealed a broken elbow and was given a sling, told to restrict use of my right arm and to call the orthopedist for an appointment. The sling, I soon discovered, was not going to work because I need both arms to 'walk' - to roll my wheelchair, to get it in and out of my car. The discharge instructions said to restrict use 'as much as possible' which is what I vowed to do.

My immune system must have been so busy protecting my arm that it didn't even see the plague coming. Because two days later, it arrived and took up residence in my head and lungs. I slept on the couch night (I didn't want to keep John awake with my coughs) and day. No appetite. No energy. No leaning on my right arm. No opening pill bottles because my right wrist would scream. No Fun.


And I have a fairly high pain tolerance, and with my MS am numb on my right arm. Which has had me wondering, and a couple health professionals query, how bad is the pain, really????

I'm happy to report that I'm on the mend, the ortho doc said it will be completely healed in another two weeks and to use common sense (no comments from the peanut gallery), limited weight on and lifted with the right arm. Still coughing, but less frequently. And I'm back sleeping normal hours in my bed.

And best of all, I have a new-to-me red MINI

Comments

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Parenting

I just read a post on Facebook regarding the dearth of parenting. The poster was describing a scene where two young girls were pelting rocks at some ducks in our little town and how he observed no parents around telling these girls that it was wrong to torture little innocent animals. Within hours, there were 15 responses - all alluding to a lack of parenting that is evident nearly everywhere today. Stick with me here - because that conversation reminded me of one I'd had recently that might not seem related to parenting at all. It was with my oldest son about his concern about the selfishness of our culture - most recently evident in the Wall Street meltdown. He believes that we are too focused on "Me" and not enough on "We" and if we had a little more focus on the total and just not our part, we would be in a much better place. Still there? Okay, here's the cement that will hold this together - those girls pelting little ducks with rocks weren't likely...

When a small town is huge

  In the movie "it's a Wonderful Life", the protagonist George Bailey has longed nearly his whole life to 'shake off the dust of this crummy little town off my feet," to see the world. But Bedford Falls, that crummy little town, felt differently about George. And with the help of a quirky guardian angel, George eventually sees that his life and his town were pretty wonderful. Good lord, but I love that movie and it's characters and it's moral and that small town. I watch it every year at least twice and still cry every time. And I wonder too about the man that pushes the devious Mr. Potter's wheelchair and stands by his side- you know the man, he looks a little like Lurch from "The Addams Family". I wonder, what was he thinking as he listened and watched his boss ruin the lives of everyone he could. What kind of an Non-disclosure agreement did he sign, to keep him silent as he stood by and watched Potter pocket the money Uncle Billy was depo...

Tough time to be a Pollyanna

Remember when 9/11 was just a date or a number you called in an emergency? Our lives changed dramatically post 9/11. For weeks after that September day, we seemed to walk around in a fog, like the haze that loomed over the now-fallen twin towers. I remember trying to minimize my obsession with the news, trying to keep the three little Piggins away from the enormity of the disaster. Remember when corona was simply a beer best served with a lime wedge? It now and forever will be instead associated with this virus that has upended our world in ways we could never have imagined. This tiny little, microscopic virus has brought the mighty to their knees. It has us quarantined and distancing socially (though I believe we've been doing this emotionally for years) and working from home. As anxiety peaks, our economy tanks. As toilet paper and hand sanitizer flies off the shelves, we are looking for new ways to stock our pantries. A good friend observed, "I never thought I'd...