Typing Through My Tears

The title of the post is not literal, but it is true that typing this post is not coming as easily as it usually does.  I'm also using the keyboard here in lieu of being able to write diary entries, because holding a pen requires much effort and much patience for the time being.

Remember the fall on the ice that I casually mentioned in my last post?  I slipped and fell on a patch of ice, and put out my right hand to break my fall.  (I thought I was stepping into snow, unaware of the ice beneath it.  I suppose you could say I slipped on white ice.)  I underestimated the severity of the fall.  I kept thinking that it was just a bruise, and that it would improve.  I continued to think so--until earlier this week.  The pain in the wrist, whether I was moving it or not, kept getting worse, and was radiating into my fingers, particularly the index finger and the pinkie.  So, on Monday, I made an appointment with my general practitioner, and was fortunate enough to be able to get in to see her that afternoon.

She seemed quite concerned as she manipulated my hand, squeezed to see where pain was, etc.  She then wrote up an order for a wrist X ray, and emphasized to me not to put it off.  So, I went over to Doan Hall at the OSU Wexner Medical Center promptly the next morning.  (With a doctor's order, I was able to bypass the emergency room and go straight to Radiology.  Even on a Tuesday morning, I am sure the emergency room would be mobbed.)  The technician took four views of my right wrist, and told me she would send the images to my doctor at once.  I left and went to work.

Shortly before noon, my phone at work rang, and it was my doctor.  She had read the X rays, and she told me that she had been on the phone to the Hand and Upper Extremity Center, and she hoped I could get in immediately.  The hand clinic called me shortly thereafter, and in an hour or so I was on the bus en route to the clinic.

The doctor showed me the X rays of my wrist, and said that I had one, and possibly two, fractures in my wrist.  I wasn't sure what I was seeing.  I could see bones, but I wasn't sure what was the injury and what was the shadow in the pictures.  Dr. Ryan Klinefelter, the doctor, said the best course of action would be to immobilize the wrist.  He would splint the wrist, and I am coming back on the 25th for another X ray, and hopefully the splint will be gone.

Being a two-finger typist has never come in handy more than now.  I am a bit slower at the keyboard, and have difficulty manipulating a mouse (especially the one at work, which is external and on a cord), but I have not had to take any time off from work.  I do have to stop and take prescription painkillers (Naproxen and Tramadol) periodically during the day.  The splint (molded plastic; I wear a stockinette underneath it to prevent chafing) does leave my fingers free, although my thumb is extended at an angle.  I wear the splint 23½/7, taking it off only when I'm in the shower.

What I have not been able to do is write with a pen.  (I usually don't use pencils.  I'm fully in agreement with Pontius Pilate: "What I have written, stands." (John 19:22))  My diary entries usually average at least two pages, but the most I have been able to write at one time has been a fax cover sheet.  I have always taken pride in my penmanship.  It's almost classic D'Nealian script, but since I started wearing this splint, it looks more like diary entries I wrote when I was drunk (none of them since 1997, of course!), or like it came from a seismograph needle.  At one point this weekend, I jotted a phone number in my notebook, and just writing those seven digits took forever, and looking over the page, I can barely read what I wrote.

I thought about venturing to Studio 35 to catch Fritz the Nite Owl's 11:30 showing of The Goonies, but I was (am) not up to the walk back home, since the movie would end long after COTA had stopped running for the night.  Frankly, I hear the movie is a lot of fun, but it didn't sufficiently whet my interest to justify the walk back home with the temperature in the upper 30s.

Susie will be arriving here Saturday afternoon.  She's already making plans to see (and host at least one sleepover) with friends.  The only events we have scheduled have been a trip to see the Sherlock Holmes exhibit at COSI (the Center of Science and Industry) on Sunday, and a tour of Ohio State on Monday afternoon.  (Susie is also looking at New College of Florida in Sarasota; I very unselfishly hope that she chooses OSU.)