This little piggy

So after that LONG post about injuries.... I did it again. Last weekend...

I broke my baby toe. I was walking through a doorway - in the middle of the night. So stumbling would be a more accurate word. And SMASH - right into the door frame went my foot. It hurt so bad that I only gasped in pain. I didn't scream out or yell "ouch" or anything. It took my breath away. I got back in the bed, after my excursion, hoping that it wasn't that bad and that the pain would subside soon, so that I could go back to sleep.

I don't know if I just fell asleep or passed out a little from the pain. But I woke up the next morning and put my feet down on the floor and IMMEDIATELY remembered about my toe. It was hurting so bad and then I looked down. It was completely black & blue and swollen up like a little sausage. Ouch. I couldn't move it and it hurt to touch. I saw two distinct bruises - a kind of bruise that I had seen before. Yep, broken toe.

This is not the first time that I have broken a toe. This is not the first time that I have broken THIS toe. So I knew what to do. Ice. Advil. Buddy tape the toe to the next toe over. Open-toed shoes. And a lot of limping.

Now that it has been a week, my toe is feeling a little better. I can walk almost normally - most of the time. And it only hurts really bad if I do something "wrong" - like hit it on something or see a bug & my toes curl (that was the worst pain the other day!!)

I'm still taking it easy though - tape still in place - and trying not to move it or use it. It's amazing how much you really do use a pinky toe. Having it taped to the toes next to it really does hinder some movements and actions!

It's really hard to take a picture of your toe, I have discovered. But I did get a picture of the door frame that I hit. The red streak on the paint is from my toenail polish. That's how HARD I hit!



Maybe next week I'll have ZERO injuries!

Insult to Injuries

There have been many bumps and bruises over the past few weeks. And one bout with the flu.

It all started with a fall - well, more of a trip and land. Several weeks ago, I went to the park near our house to ride my bike - in "public" for the first time. I rode for about 45 minutes and didn't fall or crash or anything. I didn't even injure myself getting the bike in and out of the back of the Jeep (no car rack, just in the back with the seats down - and it took some finagling). So that afternoon, I was doing some housework, which included vacuuming. I was going to move something out of the way, so that I could vacuum in the closet and the cord caught between my toe - who knows how - and I fell forward. I was caught and was shot forward into the door frame of the closet and hit my right forearm HARD. So hard that I broke the skin, on the rounded smooth door framing. (I hit the left arm too, but it wasn't so bad). It hurt so bad that at first I thought it might be broken. But it just turned into a very purple and black bruise just above my wrist.

So the next weekend, as that bruise was fading to a nice yellow, I just had to get another one. We were headed out the next day to play frisbee golf with some friends at a course (that's more a hiking trail in the woods than an open field for frisbee. So we got some new frisbee, since we just had the one black one that is very warped anyway. And if I'm going to be throwing it in the woods, it needs to be a bright color so that it can be found. I'm not what you would call "good" at throwing the frisbee. So the ones that we got were smaller and made of a denser plastic that the classic frisbee (actually made for frisbee golf) and bright colors. So we get back from the store and we decide to see how they toss. Well, I tried to catch it - the way I "catch" regular frisbees - hit it with my leg a little if it's out of reach - I'm not a diver. So I hit this harder, denser, flying-much-farther frisbee down with my leg. And it HURT. Immediately, I had a huge red lump on my upper calf and a line where the FRISBEE broke the skin. And this bruise turned a very deep black/blue color (even bigger and darker than the one on my arm). I couldn't wear pants because anything touching it hurt like crazy. Good thing it was still the summer! It's been 2 1/2 weeks and it's still there, mostly yellow now. And I still have the line of where the frisbee hit. I can't imagine if I had tried to catch it with my finger. I don't know if it would still be there!
What did we learn about frisbee golf frisbees? DON'T TRY TO CATCH THEM!

The next weekend (Labor Day Weekend), I started feeling sick - sneezing and running nose... the the fatigue and aches started. So starting on Sunday through the entire holiday weekend, I was curled up in the bed or on the couch. And the way I like to curl, hurt my bruised leg. By Tuesday, I wasn't any better. If anything, I was worse. So I called the doctor. They said not to come in, that I had the flu and they were calling in medicine for me. I was sick until Thursday. Even Friday, I was pretty worn down and very fatigued. I had already been sick for a few days before I got the meds in me. Don't get sick over a holiday weekend! It's no fun (no fun or "projects" or anything gets done!) and you don't get the meds until Tuesday.

So now that my bruises are healing nicely and my flu is gone and I'm feeling like a human again, of course, what time is it... time for another injury. I was just walking today - walking by a printer. It has a feeder that sticks out just a little bit, that has a nice big corner on it. And I hit it - with the back of my hand, right above that space between your thumb and index finger. HARD. When I hit something, I HIT something. I've walked by that printer for EIGHT years, never have hit it before. But today, BAM. I got it. I thought it was just one of those, "Ouch" and shake it off. Well, I shook. And shook. And it swelled up and got a little knot and (of course) it broke the skin. Then my fingers started to ache and tingle and the pain was shooting up my arm. So I had to stop working for about 20 minutes, borrowed an ice pack from a friend and took some Advil. I felt like a dork. "Ooh, what did you do?" Oh, I was walking. Thankfully, after about 4 hours of pain (pain just sitting there and pain typing - constant pain), my fingers stopped hurting so much and I could type. I just can't lift anything or touch it. Luckily it's my left hand.

I did "need" a new injury.