Author: anthony Page 38 of 72

On Friday, I took a slightly longer lunch (I stayed late to make up for it) and hit the pool. Despite the constant Irish folk music over the loudspeakers, I still managed to push through and do a mile. This is the first time I’ve done this since I broke my arm and while it took me a while, I was really pleased that I could still go that far. I’m not fast enough to do that every day in my lunch hour, but I’ll get there.  Oh, and apparently the Head Guard gets to pick the music and he wasn’t quite done with St. Patrick’s day.

Yesterday was an evening of games with friends. We played Zombie Fluxx and Love Letter – both simple games to learn, but deep with nuance. I like a game that requires a little brain power. We had pizza, played with the kids, and laughed the whole evening. I count myself lucky to have such good friends who “get me” – which is a rare and wonderful thing. 🙂

This afternoon, I headed over to Best Buy to donate blood. Another double red donation – and it went like clockwork. Very easy and a very quick recovery. I had some cookies and juice and I was on my way. I’m glad I’m healthy enough to donate and that I can do some good. And I’ve got O-, which makes my donation even more useful.

Tomorrow, I get fitted for my rental brace. It’s supposed to help straighten out my arm and also flex it further – in two separate, 1/2 hour sessions per day. Not looking forward to it – or the time it will take. It’s basically just a specifically shaped crank – and this is as high tech as it gets. Sigh. Sometimes science is disappointing.

Finally, a book recommendation… I just re-read Stephen King’s Insomnia. Really excellent book and the ending is some of the finest writing I’ve ever read.

Time for another round of stretching out my arm – not sure if I’ll need to keep this up when I get the brace – and then off to bed. Long day tomorrow, I think. Hoping for some sunshine…

[Event photos here]

This was my third year participating in the Portage Lakes Polar Bear jump and I was getting more and more excited as we go closer to the destination and the jump time.

We saw people we knew right as we arrived at the lake around 12:30 and it made the event feel even more like a community. A community of people of varying degrees of crazy, but still.

Met up with my fellow jumper – George, in his kilt – and headed through the snow to the beach. The crew was working to keep the hole in the ice from freezing over with shovels and heaters and we watched as snow mobiles raced across the lake. The day was warmer than we’d had recently, but the snow was coming down heavy and we soon lost site of the other side of the lake.

We enjoyed the music and chatted for a bit and at 1:45, I decided it was “time to get stupid” – and I stripped down to my speedos. Blue, square-cut – very tasteful.

Most folks were still bundled up, but I figured that if I was going to do this, I needed to do it up right. I walked around a bit and found some other people I knew – and then a woman walked up and said she was from the Beacon Journal and wanted to interview me.

I talked to her for a bit, then went back and found my friends at the edge of the lake in time for the Star Spangled Banner – and the launch of a quad-coptor.

The Very Important Bears (VIBs) jumped in and it was time for me to get ready. I left my friends with cameras ready, and headed for the jumping area.

Then, the moment of truth. I took a deep breath… and jumped. I was in the air for a fraction of a second and then I hit the water.

Cold.

Just… cold. Beyond any other cold of the entire winter. Outer space cold.

Let’s do this!

I surfaced and immediately began to power my way to the ladder – swimming with remarkably good form. I struggled a little with the ladder since my left arm is still weak, but got out of the water. Someone asked me how it was and I replied, “Brisk”

I was almost back at the tent area when someone with a video camera tried to interview me. They asked how the water was and I gave a more truthful – “Cold!”. They tried to ask me something else and I shook my head and said, “Sorry, gotta go!” and headed out.

Dressed and back at the edge of the lake, we waited until it was time for George to jump. He had a pretty loud cheering section and nearly forgot to hold down the front of his kilt as he jumped.

After he was dressed in a fresh kilt and warmed up a bit, we said our good byes and headed out. I got a hot chocolate on the way and then spent some quality time at home with my feet in the tub.

I raised over $240 myself and the event cleared over $100,000 raised with over 700 people participating.

Special thanks to Dennis, Scott, George, and Jim for joining me on the cold winter day and getting great photos. And especially to Jim for keeping track of my gear and looking out for me.

Next year? Hmmmm…

My physical therapy at home involves heating up my arm, then doing some stretches. The other evening, I decided the warming up part could be done in a hot bath. I don’t take many baths – preferring showers because I would rather save some water and time – and as a result, ThunderCat was very puzzled by my behavior. He stretched up on his back legs to peer into the tub as it filled, looking at me questioningly. Or so I would assume.

When the tub was finally filled, I climbed in and looked forward to relaxing. Instead, I was confronted with tension that would rival any Hitchcock thriller.

Thunder hopped up onto the sink and carefully reached down onto the edge of the tub to investigate. He pulled himself back up – amazingly – and then carefully reached down again and crawled onto the curved edge.

I lay very still as he balance-beamed his way along the edge over to me. There are some cats that actually like water – or so I’ve heard – but Thunder is not one of them. If he slipped and fell into the water… well, he’s still got all his claws and I was naked.

With my left arm heating up in the water, I carefully moved my right hand to cover my “junk” – and waited for him to either fall into the water and ruin both of our days or get bored and wander off.

After stopping to lick my head and reaching down to “bat” at the water, Thunder retreated to the hall to keep an eye on me from a safe distance.

And I let out a sigh of relief. Crisis averted.

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I got back in the pool on Friday – first time since the accident that broke my arm. I kicked off from the wall and hit the first stoke.

And it hurt – like a sharp pain.

As did every single other stroke. I got used to it – sort of – except for once when I over-extended my arm and got a stabbing pain. And then I curled up in a ball underwater until it stopped and/or I needed to breathe.

Twelve laps later, I got out of the pool and into the hot tub for a few minutes. When I was down, I stretched my arm out. It wouldn’t go out all the way – but far more than my current “usual”. So, it’s working and worth the pain.

This week is more swimming and more a trip to the physical therapy again.

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Coming up on Saturday, the 12th Annual (3rd time for me) Portage Lakes Polar Bear Jump. Looking forward to it – but I seriously need to figure out how to relax in water again.

I had my 6 week follow up with my surgeon today. I got good news, bad news, and good news.

The Good News Part 1:

I’m healing up very well. The hardware hasn’t shifted, the bones are healing, and there’s no sign of infection. So, I’m making a good internal recovery from being opened up, having a Home Depot dumped in my arm, and then stitched up like Frankenstein’s monster.

The Bad News:

I should have been doing physical therapy this entire time. The doctor asked how the PT was going and I had a puzzled look on my face when I told him I hadn’t done any. He asked if I had gotten a prescription (from him) and I said I got a prescription for the pain meds and was directed to not lift anything any heavier than a coffee cup.  And that was it.

There was a moment of awkward silence as we reflected on how badly the ball had been dropped and then he said, “Well, you’re about 5 weeks behind and you’re going to have to hit the physical therapy pretty hard to get caught up. Do you have time today for a session” and I said I did. He wrote me a prescription for the PT and told me he wanted to see me in a month.

I’m cranky about that, but there’s not much to be done about it.

The Good News Part 2:

I headed down the hall to the on-site PT, got checked in, and filled out some paperwork on what I can do at that point and what hurts.

The Physical Therapist was great. She measured how much I could move, then heated up my arm and massaged it a bit, then measured it again. Just heating it up improved my range of motion by about 15 degrees – which is huge. I’ll lose some of that, but get it back with exercises. It hurts, but I’m determined.

For now, I’m headed off to a hot bath to warm up my arm – then exercises, cold, and then an early bed.

So 5 weeks behind – but I’ll catch up.

My arm is doing much better and I’m able to type for a longer span of time without it hurting – so, time for a blog update.

The initial injury was on campus so I had initiated the paperwork for a worker’s comp claim at the emergency room. Despite doing everything right as far as paperwork and reporting went, my claim was denied a few days before my birthday. Apparently, I wasn’t technically at work – I was instead going to work when this happened. If I had already been at the office and then gone back out and fallen, it might have been a different story – though it’s not like I was in my own driveway or something.

Also, I wasn’t technically on the university property – I was on city property. Even though I had parked in a university deck and was walking directly towards a university building, the sidewalk where I fell was city property.  Though I understand that the university did maintain at least part of that area.

I had a chance to appeal it and I suppose I could have fought it by being as nit-picky as their lawyers were, but it almost doesn’t seem worth the effort. I have good insurance and paying the co-pays is worth saving on the hassle. Well, I say that now – I don’t know what the surgery bill is going to be.

I’m disappointed that there didn’t seem to be an investigation and that the claim was denied on what were essentially technicalities – I’m also well aware of the adage about not defecating where one consumes food.

So, for Christmas I got a broken arm and for my birthday? Medical bills. Kind of a crappy winter so far, actually.

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In terrible, but funnier, news… Thundercat had a rough night recently. We were chasing each other around the house – as we sometimes do – and I decided to stop the game and take a shower. Thunder was near the bathroom door “hiding” and decided to take off when I turned on the water. He went from 0 to 60 – and right back to 0 when he missed the turn and slammed into the door frame head first.

He threw his head back and let out a silent howl of pain – looking much like the logo of his namesake – and went into my bedroom. I followed him and tried to console him, but he wasn’t having it.

I guess he blamed me – though it was his own dang fault for not looking where he was going. But, because he’s a cat, he forgot about it by the time I was done with my shower and we’re bros again.

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This past weekend, I had some friends over to help me celebrate my birthday. It was slightly impromptu and grew into a bigger event than I expected. Ended up with 8 adults and 4 kids.

Since I don’t have kids, I’m mindful that my house isn’t really all that kid friendly. So, I make it a point to have some kind of kid activity lined up. I had paper and markers for coloring, kid level card games, floam, and – the hit of the party – shrinky-dinks. Super, super fun. I was in charge of the scissors and the oven, but all the kids got to make something and were pretty much amazed with the whole process. And they were way more fun than the adults. 🙂

We had pizza and played some games – and it was a fun night. Though I was pretty tired from cleaning that day and being the “one-armed host with the most”, I’m glad it all came together.

I don’t like taking medicine. At all. I’ll do it grudgingly if I have to in order to get better, but I really rather just tough it out. And pain meds scare me.

But, when you’ve got a broken arm and can’t sleep, a pill may be the most effective measure.

So, I’ve been on pain meds since the 19th of December and suffering from a side effect that they didn’t tell me about.

I wasn’t pooping.

For days and days on end.

But I was still eating. Less than normal, yes, but still taking in far more than was going out – which was zero. I kept trying to go when the urge hit, but nothing worked.

Finally, I headed to bathroom in the basement with a book and grim determination.

I was literally full of it and settled in for a battle with my bowels.

Both legs fell asleep over time, but I was finally able to go.

And it was mighty.

So much so that I stopped up the toilet – beyond what I could resolve with a plunger.

I had to call a plummer to come over and get it cleared. It was, by far, the most expensive poop I have ever had, but it was worth it.

I’m cutting back on the meds and while I’m still hurting, I’m having an easier and more frequent time in the bathroom. This is perhaps more information than should be shared, but if you read past the title, I think you should consider yourself warned.

12/24/2014

The nerve block wore off the day after the surgery and I had a melt-down. I was hurting worse than when I first fell. The meds finally kicked in and I got a little sleep.

12/25/2014

On Christmas, we visited Jim’s family for a bit and while it was fun, it kinda wore me out. I showed pictures of the x-rays and everyone was suitability impressed.

12/27/2014

That weekend, my parents came up for the day and we did a little shopping – mostly to get me out of the house. I was getting on a more regular schedule, but the decreased appetite and disrupted sleep were wearing on me. It was good that my folks visited, I think they had a nice time and I did too. While they were there, I helped update their laptop and Garmin – and they helped me put in a new shower head.

12/31/2014

New Year’s Eve I got the splint removed and the doctor said I was healing well. Of course, I had another series of painful x-rays before he came up with that, but it was good news. They put a sleeve over it and told me to come back in a week to get the stitches removed. I visited some friends that evening to drop off some pre-made origami for a project, then called it an early night.

1/6/2014

Got the stitches removed and it was dang weird. Never had stitches before and the removal was unpleasant. Not really painful – though I had healed enough they were tricky to remove – but it felt strange. And really? String? We aren’t more high-tech than that? Sigh.

I’ve got another appointment in 6 weeks for a follow up, but for now I’m just trying to get some range of motion back while I wait for the green light to return to work.

It’s been an odd and painful adventure and I kinda learned a bit about myself. Mostly that I’m tougher than I thought in the short term, but not so tough over time.

12/20/2014

Saturday was the day that my family was going to celebrate Christmas and Jim graciously drove me to my parent’s house that morning. We had a nice time, though I wasn’t as engaged as I would have liked. On Sunday, he drove me back and I rested much of the day in anticipation to returning to work on Monday. I wasn’t getting much sleep at this point – the pain meds weren’t working as expected – but Jim was looking after me so that was okay.

12/22/2014

Back to work for a 1/2 day, then drove to my doctor appointment in the afternoon. He recommended surgery – the next day – and there was a small mountain of paperwork to do. I was as prepared as I could have been for that, but I did have to sign a lot of forms. Had dinner with friends that evening and arranged for a ride to the surgery center the next day. Little things, like trying to use a pepper grinder, were too much for me to handle – and it was starting to get to me.

12/23/2014

Another 1/2 day of work as I tried to wrap up projects. I headed home, got changed, and got taken to the surgery center.

There was more paperwork, dozens of questions, and a complicated process of trying to get into the hospital gown. The anesthesiologist stopped by and asked if I wanted a general or a block plus a ‘twilight’ sleep. I asked if I would sparkle with the twilight and he said yes – so I went that route. He lied.

The block was dang weird. The used an ultrasound to guide a needle into my shoulder/neck and in a little while my arm and hand had no sensation. It was like some one else’s hand.

The surgeon was delayed and I rocked some minor mood swings – then dozed a bit until it was time to actually get started. They got me to operating room, transferred me to the bed in the most cumbersome way possible, and added something to the IV.

I woke up later – mostly out of it, but apparently chatty and kinda funny. My friend who works at the surgery center drove me home and then went and got my prescription while Jim helped me get settled.

This post will take me a while – I can’t type for very long at a time yet and will need to take a lot of breaks. So, here we go:

12/19/2014 – Heading into work and parking in the deck because it’s snowing. I’m loaded down with Christmas presents for my co-workers and both hands are full. I step onto the sidewalk and hit a patch of ice.

In the span of a heartbeat, both feet came off the ground and I went horizontal in mid-air. Then, impact.

The first and worst was my left elbow – then my head took the rest of the force. I lay on the ground for a minute – stunned – then forced myself to my feet and assessed the damage. My elbow was hurting pretty bad, but I had the foresight to take a picture of the area – just in case – then gathered my belongings and walked through the grass down the street to my building. My left arm was worthless at this point, but I got in the office and got my coat off. I didn’t know how bad it was, so I delivered the Christmas presents and checked my email. It wasn’t getting any better, but it’s tough to see your own elbow so I asked another co-worker to take a look.

The reaction when she saw it was enough to send me on my way. I canceled my appointments for the day by email, checked in with another co-worker, and carefully made my way back to my car and from there – to the emergency room.

It took a while to navigate the valet-ish parking, then I got checked in. And I waited 15 minutes while my arm continued to swell alarmingly.

A staff member came out and took a group of us back and assigned us to rooms – like a cattle call. Where I waited again for another 15 minutes. As long as I held very still, I was okay. Any movement and I was hurting.

A nurse came in and started to work with me. When I said that it might be workers comp – she left to get a form. Another nurse – perhaps an angel? – came in and took charge. She carefully helped me get my dress shirt off, got me an ice pack and a pillow and generally fussed over me until the doctor came in. I was still hurting bad, but mentally feeling better that someone was looking after me.

The doctor said I needed an x-ray and I was trundled down the hall to get that done. The techs had me position my arm into some terrible shapes, then sent me back to the room with a tissue to wipe my eyes. Yeah, I cried. Doesn’t make me less of a bad-ass.

The doctor came back after a while and said – “It’s broken”. He and a colleague put me in a splint, gave me a prescription, and sent me on my way with a referral.

I called my boss from the parking lot and explained what was going on – then went home. I made an appointed to see another doctor on the 22nd in the afternoon.

Later that evening I got my prescription filled and spent a lot of time with my arm in a sling trying to find a position that didn’t hurt.

It didn’t really work.

The Sunday before last, it started with a headache. Monday, it was a sore throat. And then things went downhill from there. By the weekend I was sick as a dog.

I took this past Monday off and spent most of the day in bed – getting up just long enough to email work and then later to try and eat. I’d also been making a steady diet of Mucinex and it wasn’t helping – fortunately, I had a Dr. visit scheduled for Tuesday. In short order he had a diagnosis for me – bronchitis.

He put me on antibiotics and a cough suppressant and send me on my way. I spent the rest of Tuesday in bed, getting only to take meds. I did log in that evening to at least try and do some work, but it was a feeble effort.

The long days in and out of sleep produced some peculiar side effects.

1. I was disappointed in science. We’ve got 1/2 dozen “reputable” treatments for erectile dysfunction, but no one seems to be working on the common cold. The answer is that it’s a virus and you just have to wait it out. And do you know how the flu vaccine is created? The process involves chicken eggs.

Yes, the pinnacle of science and we’re relying on chickens. We should, as a species, be disappointed. Where are the damn lasers? Nano-technology? Freaking healing potions?

Instead, I’m quaffing snake oil that either doesn’t taste like grape or doesn’t taste like orange. Or, to mix it up, doesn’t taste like cherry. And you know what else it doesn’t do? Work.

I’m kinda miserable and surly – in case you can’t tell. So, I wait – and apparently, I am in a very suggestable state.

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2. Since I’ve been home a lot in the day, I’ve been listening to the radio. And you know how they play the same damn songs over and over? Well, the culprit this time is Taylor Swift’s Blank Space. It’s actually playing now as I type this. I’ve heard it so many times in the past few days that, in what I have to assume is some kind of fever, I invented a board game to go along with the song.

Yes.

I have the rules mapped out – including suitor cards and a mechanic where if you land on the right space, you get to write your name in the provided Blank Space (with bonus points awarded if you are the last to have your name in that area). The game board would be dry erase, but I didn’t get to the character piece design before I snapped out of it.

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3. I’ve also spent some of my waking time… wait, time for more meds. BRB…

…

Sorry, I’m on a set schedule for that. Anyway, I decided to finally watch season 1 of the walking dead on DVD. I figured that if this does take me out and I became a zombie, it would be prudent to do some prep work.

I like the show and the writing, effects, and acting are all good. If there are any faults, it’s that in an almost predictable manner – the worst thing always happens. I know that drives the drama, but I haven’t really been surprised yet. Still, I’ll pick up season two one of these days and continue with it.

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I went back to work today for part of the day – mostly just to avoid the paperwork I would need from a doctor for a longer absence. I was pretty productive when I wasn’t trying to talk on the phone, but by 2:00 I was wiped out. I left work and went home to sit on the couch and read.

Thundercat kept me company by curling up on my feet. I know he’s just looking for a warm spot, but it was still nice.

And I’m tired. Just worn down. The bronchitis, the meds, the coughing and not sleeping.

I’ll be back in the office tomorrow – or at least that’s the plan – and I’m trying to conserve the energy I have to kept going through the day.

Time to turn out the lights and kick out the guests at this pity party. And time to wrap up this entry, shower, spray some not-grape flavored snake oil down my throat, and hope for the best.