Hello! Happy Monday. Happy Presidents' Day if you're into that or have the day off. Got all your Presidential decor out? lol It's a sunny but chilly morning here in Wisconsin, 20 now and heading to 40 for a high. There is a coating of frost on everything, making it look sparkly outside as the sun comes up.
Soooo, yeah. Guess who broke her arm Friday afternoon?
Yep, that would me. I was walking out to get the mail, marveling at how pretty the snow from the day before looked, and -WHOOSH- hit some ice that was under that fluffy snow and feet flew out from under me so fast I couldn't even react. Landed on my elbow. Immediately thought 'OMG, MY ARM IS BROKEN!' and then lay there for a moment, stunned. Managed to get up and take stock of everything. I had not hit my head. I didn't really feel pain anywhere. My arm wasn't dangling in some unnatural way. -PHEW- Slowly continued to the mailbox, and made it back to the house.
My elbow didn't feel right, but it wasn't exactly pain. Once I was back in the house I sent a message to Hubby about it, then sat down to try and calm down, and watch some TV. I had my arm laying on a pillow next to me. I couldn't see any marks or obvious injuries so I thought ok, maybe it was just the shock of banging it when I landed. When I got up a little later to do something, I could really tell something was just not right with it. I messaged Hubby again, said I thought I should probably go to Urgent Care and at least get it checked out. He was almost done with work by then and I wasn't in real pain or crisis, so he finished his shift. I took three ibuprofen and sat down with an ice pack while I waited. By the time he got home my arm was really stiffening up, could hardly move it, but just in general there was still no pain.
The Urgent Care and Emergency Room at our hospital is the same place. They just bill and prioritize you according to what they think the situation calls for. We spent a total of three hours there, and most of that time was just waiting.
The doctor who saw me asked a lot of questions, did some poking and prodding all along my arm, asking if there was "Any pain here? Here? Here?" The only slightly painful spot was right around my elbow. She said she thought it was just a muscular injury from the impact. She said they could do x-rays if I wanted, to rule out any breaks. My mind instantly went to cost because we've been slammed with some large expenses lately, and our insurance is a high deductible plan. I asked if she felt confident that it was muscular. She said she did, but reminded me she can't be 100% sure. I asked what treatment that would involve, then was considering when she changed her mind and said, "Ya know what, let's just do the x-ray to be sure."
So I sat forever again, waiting. They came and got me, did the x-rays, took me back to the room to wait another eternity while the radiologist looked at the x-rays. When the doctor finally came back, she stepped into the room and said, "Well, my dear, you have a fracture."
Oy!
"And you have fluid in the (elbow) joint, but that's probably from the impact. That's the body's way of protecting, by rushing fluid to the area."
She showed me the x-rays and on only one of the four images could I clearly see the mark. I asked her where exactly on my arm that is, because I couldn't tell which way the image was compared to my actual arm. She explained there are two main bones in the forearm, and my fracture is right at the base of the inner bone where it meets the elbow joint. It's like a crack running down into the center, like splitting a log, and not an actual break across the bone. Owie! But I suppose that's . . . good?
First she said treatment would either be a splint or just a sling. She was waiting for the ortho doctor to call her back. After that call came, she came back to say that because I wasn't in pain we could just do a sling if I wanted. Otherwise it would be a shoulder to wrist cast with my arm in a straight position. No! Noooo way! I opted for the sling.
They sent me home with instructions to take Tylenol or Advil, ice it, elevate it, rest it, and call Monday morning to make a followup visit with an ortho doctor. They told me some exercises to do, mainly a sort of 'empty the glass' rotating action because I might have diminished mobility in my elbow after this. But other than that, no wrap or anything, just a sling. The limits in my range of motion right now are more from the fluid and swelling along the back/underside of my elbow, where it got bashed when I landed. The fracture is on top.
So that was Friday. Saturday it was feeling somewhat better. It felt great in the morning after a night of sleep where my arm probably also relaxed. Hubby drove me to get the grocery shopping done, then he went to his dad's, as usual. When he got home we tried to play our wizard game but were both so tired and feeling really blah. I thought, 'Great, did we catch something from the ER last night?' There were a lot of sick little kids in there. We each ended up laying down for a nap. I got up an hour later, took my insulin and had a bite to eat but was feeling even worse and went back to bed for a while longer. Hubby was up the next time I got up but we both still felt blah. I stayed awake a for a bit, took my next insulin and ate a bit again, and went to bed for the night. I slept pretty solid all night.
Sunday (yesterday) I got up feeling great. My arm felt great, relaxed. There was still swelling but the bruising was finally starting to appear. I carefully did some things that needed to be done, like laundry. Hubby helped when he had to. We were having the boys over for Boychild2's birthday, and were finally going to have the tacos we'd not been able to have on Christmas. lol The swelling reduced and bruising increased as the day went on. I was getting more and more use back into it but still had limits. I 'put it to bed' in it's sling whenever I could, but would take it out for a while to stretch it and do small things.
Boychild2 was late for his own party. Typical for him but still rude. lol It wasn't really a party anyway. Just the four us plus a friend of Boychild1. Ate our tacos and small pieces of a tiny slab of store bought cake, he opened his gifts, and we chatted while watching Last of Us, then the boys were all anxious to get back to their homes cuz they're all currently playing that new Harry Potter game. Still, it was a fun little gathering. Hubby and I played our own wizard game after they left, had leftover tacos for supper.
This morning the swelling has really gone down in my arm. The bruising is dark and huge but looks like that is also diminishing already. It's getting a lot easier to do the simple little things I couldn't do even two days ago, but I'm still leery of doing too much, knowing that bone is cracked. It's hard to do motions that really bend at the elbow, like if I were to raise a drink to my mouth, or anything with a movement like rotating and bending and lifting to my face. But extending is getting easier, there is some strength back in my grip already, that 'empty the glass' exercise is a bit easier. And there is a bit of pain finally in the actual area of the fracture. Maybe all the swelling was hiding that?
Oh, and it was thankfully my left arm! LOL
So yeah, I already talked to my mom and said I wouldn't be coming to her place this week because I don't think I have the grip strength or movement to drive. We've cancelled her doctor appointment that was later this week. There is another snowstorm coming that day anyway. My sister-in-law will help Mom get groceries this week. And I am going to freakin' relax and enjoy a week at home! Might do a puzzle again, even though I thought puzzle season was done. Might just nap on the couch, watch the TV shows and movies I'm wanting to post about, get some extra free game time in. Although, it hurts my arm after a while of using the keyboard, like now after banging out this long post.
But yay for frikken winter weather and demon ice hiding under sparkly beautiful fresh fallen snow.
Hope you all had a much safer weekend than I did!
