2024 Life Logs, Day 26: What at Day
Date: Friday, January 26, 2024
Weather: More Rain; High Temp 42, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Things got off to a bad start late last evening when I pulled something in my right forearm. While my friend Detta was in the bathroom, I spilled Shadow’s water on the kitchen floor trying to use the new long-handled contraption that holds his water and food dishes. It is long handle so I don’t have to bend. I went into the half-bath off the living room to get a rag towel, but it was under a stack of smaller rags in a plastic box. Since I can’t bend, I squatted down and tried to pull the towel out. As I did, I heard something pop in my forearm and a sharp pain flashed from my thumb to the bend in my arm. I did retrieve the towel, a fairly normal thing to do, but not when you are recovering from back surgery, and you are not supposed to bend or pull. It was stupid. But I cleaned up the water mess in the kitchen by throwing the towel on the floor and scooting it around with my foot. Detta returned from the bathroom and took over the cleaning job. Then we turned our attention to my arm. When I moved my arm in certain directions, the pain would reoccur. Detta and I fashioned a cold pack for it by wrapping a pack around my arm and taping it with duct tape and the cold helped with the pain. I went to bed thinking how many more things can go wrong with my body and hoping the arm would be better this morning.
When I woke up this morning, I still had the very warm cold pack on my arm. I took it off and went to put a shirt on. Once again there was shrieking pain. So, I got Detta to help me put on my shirt and put a fresh cold pack on my arm, and then sent a text to Heather to see if they had any sports wrap that I could borrow to wrap around my arm. Then I thought of the carpel tunnel wrist braces Mark and I had back in the late 1990’s. I dug those out, found the one for my right arm, and bingo, things were better. As long as my wrist was immobile, it seemed fine. Jed came over a little later with the sports wrap and he suggested I call my primary care to see if he recommended anything else. I did that and the nurse I reached suggested I go to the walk-in clinic in Mashpee. While I was messing around with all of this, Detta was playing Cinderella
by sweeping my whole house and mopping the kitchen and bathroom. She is having health issues of her own and should not have been doing the work, but there was no way to stop her until I said we needed to go to the walk-in clinic. I was tremendously lucky that the doctor on call was a young woman who trained as an orthopedic specialist. She asked lots of questions and then put my arms through a series of movement tests. The result was that there is nothing disconnected. I just have FCR tendon sheath inflammation or flexor carpi radialis tendinitis. In other words, tendinitis. She suggested I take Ibuprofen, but I told her that due to the back surgery, NSAIDs are not on the menu right now as they can cause bleeding at the site of the surgery. Instead, she gave me a prescription for what she called Ibuprofen cream which is the same as Voltaran which I already had for my back and knee. But it sure is a lot cheaper as a prescription. The doctor said to put the Voltaran on four times a day and wear the brace for the next three to four weeks and I should be good to go. She was amazed that the brace was still in such good condition and that it the same brace they still use twenty-five years later!
But the craziness was not over yet. We got home and as Detta was getting ready to go, I noticed Shadow was eating something on the living room rug. It was the chocolate orange my wine group had sent as a get-well gift. I had eaten a few wedges, but Shadow finished it off. Chocolate is toxic to dogs, and it seemed to me he ate a lot of chocolate. I insisted that Detta get on the road home to Greenland, New Hampshire, and then I called Shadow’s vet. They don’t deal with chocolate poisoning but said to call Poison Control. Thirty minutes and $95 later, Poison Control deemed that even if he ate the whole chocolate orange, he would still be on the Stay at Home and Watch list. So, we are staying at home and watching. They did give me detailed information about what to watch for and I can call back as often as needed at no additional charge. But at that point, I would have paid anything for peace of mind. I got off the phone and slept away the rest of the afternoon.
At 5 o’clock a knock on the door woke me up. It was my book club friend, Lori Cecil, with dinner for me. She had time for a cup of tea and we had a good visit. When she left it was way past time to take Shadow out and then come in an eat dinner. Thankfully, the rest of the evening was drama free! Detta’s visit ended up to be full of craziness, but it is always wonderful to spend time with dear friends.
