Thunder of Wade

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.

I’ve been making the drive to my folk’s house for decades and even with my propensity to get lost in a parking lot, I really don’t need a GPS to get me there.  Same route, every time.

But, it’s nice to have to keep track of when I’ll arrive and to have a back up in case there’s an accident or traffic. (Either of which would lead to a bout of intense and somewhat therapeutic swearing. In Klingon.)  And the calm and reassuring voice is nice too.  But, mostly, it’s the purple line.

I like physical maps and I’ve always been good at reading them. And that purple line is like how I would see the route I need on a paper map. Instead of “glowing” in my head, the line on the GPS stands out and lets me know I’m on the right path. It’s a little thing, but having been born with no innate sense of direction, it’s nice to have a little technological help.

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The thanksgiving visit with my folks was good and my nieces were fun. We did a lot of coloring, played games, and ate too much dessert. I did a lot of reading and while I can’t say I actually watched a lot of football, I was in a room where a lot of football was watched. My youngest niece managed to give me a cold and I fought a headache on the drive back on Sunday and for pretty much the rest of the day. It turned into a sore throat last night that got worse this morning.

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While I was at work today, this happened. I’m going slow things down for this narrative, but it pretty much happened all at once.

I sneezed. A powerful and intense sneeze. And since I have a sore throat, the sneeze itself was painful. In the middle of the sneeze, I grimaced in pain. Which caused me to clench my teeth. My tongue got in the way and I finished off the sneeze by biting my tongue hard enough to taste blood. Oh, and I sneezed all over my desk.

So, I’m bleeding, wondering how I’m going to get that stopped and should I try – improbably – to put a band-aid on my tongue. And this was as I cleaned off my desk, cleared my head, and tried not to cry. I also spent a few minutes doubting my ability to look after myself if this kind of thing was going to happen.

Then I chalked it up to “Monday” and got back to work.

I was in a mall over the weekend. And I had a bit of a headache to start. Which didn’t get better. The chatter of people, the deliberately terrible acoustics, the generally terrible Christmas music – it was too much. I could feel my brain starting to retreat into a dark corner of my skull… and yes, my skull has dark corners – I’m having a CRISIS here!

I took a break, had a snack and a soda in the food court, made some origami for a little kid, and felt a little better.

When I got home, I sat in the quiet of my living room with a book. No music, no traffic noise, even the furnace and fridge were quiet. The loudest thing in my whole house was my cat.

And I settled back down and slowly came back out of my shell.

It took a while and reaffirmed – once again – that I’m terrible in crowds. I didn’t use to be this way. For a while, I even enjoyed the subtle mix of cunning and guile needed to slip through a crowd unimpeded. And while I’ve never been one to cranky my music, noise didn’t really bother me either.

Next thing you know I’ll be on my porch yelling at kids to get off my lawn.

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Since the mall was so chaotic, I decided I needed a bit of order. So, I re-arranged my kitchen cabinets.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

I don’t really know what possessed me… wait, that’s it! I was possessed!

(sign of relief)

Anyway, I moved some things around, threw out some expired cans, and wondered why I have so many cans of green beans. I mean, I like green beans but it never occurs to me to have them for dinner. And, strangely, I only ever think about having them for dinner when I’m buying groceries.

It’s a sickness, apparently.

When I was done I considered moving on to other areas of the house and organizing them, but after a judgmental look from my cat – which is, frankly, the only kind he gives me – I sensibly went and played some video games.

——————–

Working on a project at work this week and while I did everything right and used the software and tools exactly as prescribed – something went wrong.

And it was for some VIP’s.

I usually like to fly waaaaay below that radar, but I was the only one who had the right mix of expertise to pull this off. And, dammit, it should have worked. Instead, too many of the wrong people didn’t get an email.

And we can’t figure out why.

I’ve got a possible – and deeply counter-intuitive – solution that I’m going to try this morning. Essentially, we need to make the email look more like spam.

Yeah.

It’s also super tedious.

Had me kinda bummed out yesterday evening. I don’t like it when the tech fails me like that – we’re supposed to be bros, you know?

Well, can’t win them all.

I managed to hurt myself yesterday.

In the pool.

I was swimming, as one usually does in the pool, and I got distracted by… something. It was all in my head because there was nothing else in the lane, but it was enough to throw me off. I got started again and misjudged the wall on approach. I hit it with my left hand and jammed my pinky and ring fingers. It hurt, but I shrugged it off and kept going.

I didn’t really pay much attention to it the rest of the day but it really started hurting me last night – enough to wake me from a sound sleep. I was better this morning and it hasn’t slowed down my typing or folding – so I guess I’m okay. Really odd though, especially on the heels of the dog bite on my right hand last weekend.

Clearly, I need to be more careful.  Or at least pay better attention to my surroundings.

——————–

In an odd little recursive way, I’m in a video game.

I’ve got a game on my phone called Tiny Tower Vegas. The object is to build a tower floor by floor and populate it with random characters to live and work in the tower. The “bitizens” are assigned random names and skills – and an Anthony Wade showed up one day with a dream job to work at the Crusty Crab.  Yes, the Crusty Crab.

On occasion, he also posts on their version of Facebook – called “bitbook”. Here’s his latest post, I’m assuming the RNG refers to Random Number Generator.

And now, I’m posting this to my blog – which in turn is posted to the real world Facebook.

Well, if you can call Facebook the “real world”.

This seems pretty odd – even for me.  And I’m kind of known for odd.

Anyway, he’s safe from being fired from the Crusty Crab.  If your virtual clone can’t trust you, who can?