Went back to work last week...

The doctors would have signed off on three more weeks of disability, but I asked them to release me for limited duty and that was fine with my team at work. I would have been a bit better off financially staying at home on disability actually, but it would have worked my last nerve. I had to get back on my feet; I was sick and tired of sitting at home, it's not like a vacation, see, it's just boring.

So, I am working four days a week for now. My arm is in a sling for two more weeks until the bone heals a bit more, then I start physical therapy. It will be several months more before I can raise my left arm over my head, at least that's what they tell me. In the meantime, I am working one handed, which my team accepts since there are a lot of other things that I am uniquely qualified to do... I am also doing some data base work for the regional office over the next couple of weeks and I'll be in Austin for a few days for that as well. By Thanksgiving, when we really start to roll, I'll be functional enough so that no one will notice.

I'm buying a car soon, but in the meantime I'm taking taxis to and from work, when I can't get a ride, (which is most of the time due to my schedule), and that's a bit expensive, but that's O.K. My health insurance covers all but maybe 200 bucks of the twentyfive thousand or so dollars that it will cost over the next few months. Short term disability covered almost all of my down time. Stock options will pay for the car.

I have really fantastic benefits.

I've been sleeping in a big old recliner chair for the last two weeks. I have this really great new Sleep Comfort Bed, it's fabulous, but there's no way I can get my left arm in the right position for healing while I am lying down. It's a little wierd, but it's only for a little while longer. I am taking massive calcium supplements. Soon the bone will heal enough. I am now getting by well enough on Aleve for pain, which is good; three and a half weeks on narcotics is about as much as I want to risk, more than that and it can be hard to stop. Every day, it gets a little bit better.

Saying goodby to the scooter is a sad; I totally loved riding it, but honestly I do not have the balls to get on it again. The scooter kharma is gone.

Dum-de-dum-dum...

...life goes on.

durlx

Well, it's been a while...

...since I posted last. I got back from upstate New York and went right to work and worked... and then on my way home one evening, a stoopid lil dog ran in front of my scooter and I crashed. Ugly mess it was; went to the hospital in an ambulance, my shoulder was dislocated and I had multiple bruises and scrapes. I spent hours at the ER, and believe me, it's not at all like the TV show. X-rays showed that I also had a broken bone in my shoulder, my first broken bone ever btw. They put me under for a while and "reduced" my shoulder; that's what it's called when four big strong guys spend 30 minutes twisting your arm until it all pops in again. Thankfully, I was blissfully out of it during the process... I can't imagine how anyone would have been able to stand it otherwise.

So, they sent me home for a few days. I was so lucky to have Robert on hand at 3:30 AM when I was released from the ER to pick me up, it's times like this when you learn who your friends are...

I went to the orthopedic clinic, a very good one here in New Orleans on the following Tuesday and saw the surgeon who would operate on me the next Friday. Did that and went back this Monday for a final x-ray. OMG! They put these huge dry wall screws in my shoulder!

And so, I'm thinkin "Hey, this doesn't hurt so bad, I'll be back at work in no time!" My shoulder was weak and felt like it couldn't do much, but it didn't hurt all that much. My elbow on that same side had some nasty road rash and bruising and I also, just for good measure had severly bruised the rib just where the elbow would meet the side of my body. That hurt more than the shoulder, in fact it hurt a lot. My left hand was fine. My right hand, well, sprained thumb, pointy finger had a real bad almost to the bone scrape, and the ring finger has what's called a "swan neck" injury, (six weeks in a splint and maybe it will be all right, I don't want to think about it). But all in all, I was thinkin that it didn't hurt as much as I thought it should.

Doh! Of course, after two weeks, I had to stop the pain meds and that's when reality set in. Obviously a lot of the worst stuff had passed, but just stopping the narcotics is kind of icky, I mean you really depend on them, hehe. But also it's when every little thing that hurts comes a knocking. Like both of my knees; they hurt! They just weren't that high on the list of pains when I was on the heavier meds, so I just never thought they would be an issue. It's amazing, when you have this kind of multiple smashing up, how your body decides what's more important, what you should be paying most attention to right away and what you can wait to later to deal with.

So. I go in next Tuesday so they can take out the stitches and look at it all and decide to start me on the three month physical rehab and hopefully release me for light duty at work. I am almost ready, at least for a few hours a day... I had lunch with my two ATL's today and then spent about an hour at the store. It was totally invigorating, I really want to back in the thick of it, although it will be months before I have even maybe 80 % of my left shoulder strength back. It's fortunate that my value to my team is not measured by how much physical weight I can lift, hehe.

BTW, I can type pretty fast with two fingers on my left hand and three fingers on my right... don't know why I can, just glad that I can.

On a happier note...

Here are some pics from my very nice trip to upstate NY.






I had a good time with my family and my Dad had a really good time, by his standards. There was this one time when my sister, my dad and I were in a Best Buy and I walked over to the keyboard section and my dad started playing the piano... he doesn't remember anything that happened fifteen minutes ago, but there he was picking out something that he learned decades ago. And he was so happy!

Anyway, the pics above are from our visit to the 1905 Dentzel Carrousel at Ontario Beach. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a little crazy about carrousels and this one in particular, my first ride was in with my grandpa in prolly 1954. There was an older band organ there then, but this visit the newer and very good Stinson Band Organ was in working order and it was wonderful! I actually had tears streaming... I love this stuff so much. We did two turns with the kids and then we had to go, they can only handle so much. I would have stayed for hours; it's the most lovely carrousel, not only some amazingly beautiful horses, but a full compliment of rabbits, pigs, cats girrafes, etc! It's rated as one of the top ten in the US and it's the number one rated Dentzel, I think.

The trip was all about family and it was good. My neice is amazing as she always is, and my lil nephew is this running fearless child, strong, (wow is he strong!) and yet remarkably good natured.

And his loves him some carrousel, just like his Uncle Bunny.

Sweet.


durlx