cardaddy
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- Nov 20, 2012
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Dave and I… Bad Backs & Broken Bones… Just My Luck 2.0 (with photos)
So some of y’all remember last week’s “Just my luck” thread from DaveT. In case you didn’t catch it, here it is. http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/off-topic/94624-just-my-luck.html
Now I’ve discussed this with Dave (and my brother from another mother, Tim)
but thought I’d share with you guys.
No big secret that Dave and I are (and have been) chronic pain patients for many years now. We share a lot of similarities in that respect. But the wives with broken bones is one we never even IMAGINED would be something that we would have in common.
Last week right after his wife broke her arm…. Mine broke hers as well!
Last Monday I started pressure washing my driveway, which is no small feat. Spent several hours Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday doing the (large) lower part. But by Wednesday my back was in such bad shape that I literally couldn’t walk, (without a walker in the house) and you could forget about outside.
So anyhow… the upper part of the driveway needed finishing. The truth is that CarMomma didn’t like that I’d carved letters in it that said “FREE TRUCK DETAILING” (but you can’t read them from the street because they are on the downhill side). That message was to a friend of my son’s that IMO owes me money for doing his F350, but that’s another story, another time.
So Saturday, she couldn’t stand that the driveway wasn’t finished, and decided that she’d get out there and finish it. Being as I’d been in bed for three days, why not at least TRY and help her a bit. :dunno:
Fast forward... I helped her drag out the pressure washer to the upper end of the driveway. Got to checking the oil, and needed to put some in the engine (don’t want that expensive 13hp Honda engine giving up the ghost). Then looked at the pump oil and it was low. (Plus had water in it.) YIKES!!!! That CAT pump is $550 by itself! So she goes downstairs to the shop and had to climb over some bags of mud and grout (for flooring tile) to get to the area where I had a bottle of pump oil.
In the process…. she got caught up in it and ended up falling, BACKWARDS on her arse and wrist!
But being the trooper she is..... she brought the pump oil out to me, only to find out after I opened up the pump that it wasn’t enough oil, and the amount of water in the oil was totally unacceptable, which meant I had to drain, flush, and refill it.
But that was the least of it because I think at that time she’s fractured her wrist!!!!!! No doctors were open, and I’m not about to go to the ER for a fractured wrist. Mind ya’, not totally snapped, but something was definitely wrong! She kept saying it was just bruised and didn't want to go to the ER. Never mind having to sell a kidney to pay that darned bill!
And YES, we absolutely WOULD go to the ER if she’d been acting, (or hurting) like a totally broken bone does to you. I’m not crazy after all! (And do have an extra kidney) :laughing:
I had a couple of elastic wrist braces here so she put both of them on it, in opposite directions and did lots of ice. Didn’t look good though, but she could move it.
RIGHT AFTERWARDS
Meanwhile... any forward progress with my back resting for 3 days went out the window. I had to go to Northern to get some more pump oil, and I literally didn’t think I was going to make it back to the truck.
Move to Sunday and we put her wrist in a stiff brace from CVS, but her hand was swollen, as well as half way to her elbow. The only saving grace is it’s her left arm. But looking inside her wrist (between the vein to the outside edge) it was black and blue and the outside didn’t look good either.
She kept saying it was just a sprain, but I knew it looked more like a fracture, even though she didn’t have any real pain with it. (And refused to take any pain meds.)
NEXT DAY
So early Monday morning she called out local family doctor, after all, they have a full lab and do x-rays. She told them she’d fell, was bruised badly, and might be fractured. They put her off till Tuesday. OK then… we wait. But it gets worse!
She goes in, gets the x-rays, and sure enough, TWO fractures…. inside and out. This is where it gets weird (well to an old guy like me) because they DID NOTHING. No cast, no improved brace, NADA, ZIP, ZERO. Geeesh…. I come from an era where you go to your family doctor with a minor fracture and they put a cast on it. Not these guys! I mean why not TELL US that they would not do anything and we'd have gone to Resurgeons in the first place.
IN BETWEEN - DAY BY DAY
We had to go to Resurgeons Orthopaedics to see an orthopedist, (of course). That didn’t happen till yesterday! Took the x-rays from the family doc and he didn’t even bother with taking new (and MUCH BETTER) ones with their hi-tech equipment.
The official diagnosis;
“Closed die-punch intra-articular fracture of the distal end of the left radius.” Left wrist is broken in two places, end of both bones. The radius just happens to be the worst of the two, and the one he might very well do surgery on.
The tricky part is due to the positioning, had it been her dominant arm he’d be doing surgery TODAY. As it is, it’s her left arm so he put it in an Exo-Cast and has her coming back next Wednesday. With the warning…. If it has moved AT ALL by then, he said unequivocally that he WILL be doing surgery Friday.
AT THE ORTHO OFFICE
BACK IN THE CAR.... HEADING HOME
And on top of that….
Want to hear the kicker?
I tweaked the LIVING SNOT out of my right shoulder getting out of the car at the ortho office! (Already been to one of their surgeons earlier this year with it.) Got a cortisone shot then, need ANOTHER one now!
He said then that we’d ‘try’ and avoid surgery on the rotator cuff, but I’d likely end up getting it sooner than later.
Yesterday afternoon, last night, and of course today I can’t move the friggin’ thing.
We’ll put that surgery on the list with my MUCH needed back surgeries.
Boy TODAY feels like SOONER!
So I wonder if Dave has a bad shoulder too? :laughing:
So some of y’all remember last week’s “Just my luck” thread from DaveT. In case you didn’t catch it, here it is. http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/off-topic/94624-just-my-luck.html
Now I’ve discussed this with Dave (and my brother from another mother, Tim)
but thought I’d share with you guys.No big secret that Dave and I are (and have been) chronic pain patients for many years now. We share a lot of similarities in that respect. But the wives with broken bones is one we never even IMAGINED would be something that we would have in common.
Last week right after his wife broke her arm…. Mine broke hers as well!
Last Monday I started pressure washing my driveway, which is no small feat. Spent several hours Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday doing the (large) lower part. But by Wednesday my back was in such bad shape that I literally couldn’t walk, (without a walker in the house) and you could forget about outside.
So anyhow… the upper part of the driveway needed finishing. The truth is that CarMomma didn’t like that I’d carved letters in it that said “FREE TRUCK DETAILING” (but you can’t read them from the street because they are on the downhill side). That message was to a friend of my son’s that IMO owes me money for doing his F350, but that’s another story, another time.
So Saturday, she couldn’t stand that the driveway wasn’t finished, and decided that she’d get out there and finish it. Being as I’d been in bed for three days, why not at least TRY and help her a bit. :dunno:
Fast forward... I helped her drag out the pressure washer to the upper end of the driveway. Got to checking the oil, and needed to put some in the engine (don’t want that expensive 13hp Honda engine giving up the ghost). Then looked at the pump oil and it was low. (Plus had water in it.) YIKES!!!! That CAT pump is $550 by itself! So she goes downstairs to the shop and had to climb over some bags of mud and grout (for flooring tile) to get to the area where I had a bottle of pump oil.
In the process…. she got caught up in it and ended up falling, BACKWARDS on her arse and wrist!
But being the trooper she is..... she brought the pump oil out to me, only to find out after I opened up the pump that it wasn’t enough oil, and the amount of water in the oil was totally unacceptable, which meant I had to drain, flush, and refill it.
But that was the least of it because I think at that time she’s fractured her wrist!!!!!! No doctors were open, and I’m not about to go to the ER for a fractured wrist. Mind ya’, not totally snapped, but something was definitely wrong! She kept saying it was just bruised and didn't want to go to the ER. Never mind having to sell a kidney to pay that darned bill!
And YES, we absolutely WOULD go to the ER if she’d been acting, (or hurting) like a totally broken bone does to you. I’m not crazy after all! (And do have an extra kidney) :laughing:
I had a couple of elastic wrist braces here so she put both of them on it, in opposite directions and did lots of ice. Didn’t look good though, but she could move it.
RIGHT AFTERWARDS
Meanwhile... any forward progress with my back resting for 3 days went out the window. I had to go to Northern to get some more pump oil, and I literally didn’t think I was going to make it back to the truck.
Move to Sunday and we put her wrist in a stiff brace from CVS, but her hand was swollen, as well as half way to her elbow. The only saving grace is it’s her left arm. But looking inside her wrist (between the vein to the outside edge) it was black and blue and the outside didn’t look good either.
She kept saying it was just a sprain, but I knew it looked more like a fracture, even though she didn’t have any real pain with it. (And refused to take any pain meds.)
NEXT DAY
So early Monday morning she called out local family doctor, after all, they have a full lab and do x-rays. She told them she’d fell, was bruised badly, and might be fractured. They put her off till Tuesday. OK then… we wait. But it gets worse!
She goes in, gets the x-rays, and sure enough, TWO fractures…. inside and out. This is where it gets weird (well to an old guy like me) because they DID NOTHING. No cast, no improved brace, NADA, ZIP, ZERO. Geeesh…. I come from an era where you go to your family doctor with a minor fracture and they put a cast on it. Not these guys! I mean why not TELL US that they would not do anything and we'd have gone to Resurgeons in the first place.IN BETWEEN - DAY BY DAY
We had to go to Resurgeons Orthopaedics to see an orthopedist, (of course).
That didn’t happen till yesterday! Took the x-rays from the family doc and he didn’t even bother with taking new (and MUCH BETTER) ones with their hi-tech equipment.The official diagnosis;
“Closed die-punch intra-articular fracture of the distal end of the left radius.” Left wrist is broken in two places, end of both bones. The radius just happens to be the worst of the two, and the one he might very well do surgery on.
The tricky part is due to the positioning, had it been her dominant arm he’d be doing surgery TODAY. As it is, it’s her left arm so he put it in an Exo-Cast and has her coming back next Wednesday. With the warning…. If it has moved AT ALL by then, he said unequivocally that he WILL be doing surgery Friday.
AT THE ORTHO OFFICE
BACK IN THE CAR.... HEADING HOME
And on top of that….
Want to hear the kicker?
I tweaked the LIVING SNOT out of my right shoulder getting out of the car at the ortho office! (Already been to one of their surgeons earlier this year with it.) Got a cortisone shot then, need ANOTHER one now!
He said then that we’d ‘try’ and avoid surgery on the rotator cuff, but I’d likely end up getting it sooner than later.
Yesterday afternoon, last night, and of course today I can’t move the friggin’ thing.
We’ll put that surgery on the list with my MUCH needed back surgeries.
Boy TODAY feels like SOONER!
So I wonder if Dave has a bad shoulder too? :laughing:
rops: Mama is good about putting up peas, corn and 'maters in the summer to hold us through the winter. 
