Team Gimp

It seems that neither Jonny nor I can get a mobility limiting injury without the other following suit. Last night Jonny had a freak accident that I won’t go into right now and his left arm is injured to the point where he can’t use it at all for the next couple of days. Luckily we had friends over at the time and they were able to drive him to the ER. Luckily we live just a few miles from Boulder Community Hospital. Unluckily Boulder Community Hospital is a horrible place to go if you need medical attention. They nearly sent me home with an undiagnosed fractured pelvis and I don’t know a single person who’s ever been there who doesn’t have some kind of horror story or bad experience. Anyway Jonny is home with me fighting for the couch and the computer for the next 2 days. Ice is a hotly contested `commodity in our house. We have to do things tag team, ie I do things that require 2 hands and he does things that require carrying. Of course today was my post op. doctor’s appointment and Jonny had agreed to drive me. A friend offered to come get me and take me but she lives so far away. Jonny was o.k. driving in the end albeit with one hand. I almost had to help him with the steering wheel on some of the turns though. Thankfully we didn’t have to go far.

I have to ask this though, why are boys such drama queens when they get sick or injured? Seriously, he’s done more moaning in one day than I’ve done in nearly 2 weeks of being couch bound. It’s always the same too, I hear swearing then ‘ow ow ooowwwww’ coming from the other room. I ask ‘Are you o.k.? Do you need help?’ The reply is always, ‘No no, I’m o.k.’ in a martyred tone of voice. I’m seriously thinking of slipping him some leftover Vicodin.

Meanwhile Cody is in serious need of some Valium. He’s turning into a nervous wreck with me at home all the time and something obviously wrong with me. He follows me into every room, lies tight up next to me on the couch, won’t let me out of his sight, throws a fit whenever anybody comes to the door or walks past the window. He refuses to go with the mid-day dog walker. I have to fool him by pretending I’m going along then closing the door behind him at the last minute.

The good news for the day though is that the post op appointment went really well. The doc took my stitches out and the x-rays look good, everything lined up just right. I’ve got 3 pins in my foot and it looks pretty impressive on the x-rays. I guess it’s no more MRI’s for me. Not that I want any more but it is a handy diagnostic tool if you need it. I can start very slowly weaning myself off the crutches over a period of 3 weeks. I’m also excited that I’ll most likely be able to do the 2 USDAA trials in May. There’s a DOCNA trial in May too that I’d like to do but I think that might be pushing it. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high though until I start seeing the physical therapist. They always seem to have a much better idea about recovery and rehab than the doctors do but at least there’s some hope that I won’t be on the couch forever. I called work today to see if there were any projects I could get started on and my boss said he’d see what he could put together for me, probably nothing until Monday but at least that will be something to keep me from developing the voices in my head. I’m going to work from home for a week or two or maybe more depending on how things go. Best thing though is that I get to take a shower on Saturday. I’ve been able to wash my hair and a good part of my body from the waist up with the nozzle/hose thingy I use to wash the dogs but it’s just not the same as a real shower. Overall it sounds like my rehab might not be as bad as the doctor initially led me to believe. He likes to give people the worst case scenario to start with but my case seems to be going well so far so he’s not putting as many restrictions on me as he said there would be. It’s still 6 months to total recovery but at least I can start doing some of the fun stuff sooner than I thought.