Ok, well, I’m typing this with one hand, cuz my left arm is in a splint and pretty much useless. I was painting a wall at Bucketworks, when the ladder slipped and I got to ride it down to the concrete floor. I think I minimized the impact, but I hit the floor pretty hard. I think I stood up, or someone helped me up, and I noticed my arm was all going the wrong way at the elbow. Also, I couldn’t move it, and it hurt. I also asked James to take my shoe and sock off, cuz my big toe hurt like hell. It was all pointed up the wrong way.
James took me to urgent care, and the doctor there snapped my toe back in place after numbing it up, but they couldn’t fix my arm there. Oh yeah, also got a bunch of x-rays done before all of that, so they could see what the damage was… luckily nothing was broken.
Dana and the kids joined me at urgent care, and took me to the hospital where they could fix my elbow. But wait… yes wait. While “sitting in the waiting room” is great lyric from a Fugazi song, doing it for hours sucks. My mom and brother showed up as well, since Dana had to get Maddy to a party. Now, I didn’t want to be the jerk who keeps asking the front desk when it’s my turn, but after like 3+ hours of waiting, we asked, and they seemed surprised we had not been taken, and I went in right away.
Marty the nurse stuck a lot of needles in my right arm, which sucks cuz all my good veins are in my left arm. After the “conscious sedation” had effect, Marty and the doctor wiggled and snapped my elbow back in place. We hoped. It was off to x-ray to make sure… and yeah, it was all good. I do remember grunting and swearing a lot while they reset the elbow…
One of the funnier things that happened was when Marty the nursed asked if I could get my shirt off, or if it needed to be cut off. I was totally against that idea, cuz I was wearing my BarCampMilwaukee shirt, and even though it had paint, and floor glue, and sweat, and dirt on it, I just couldn’t see it being destroyed by a pair of scissors.
So… now I need to figure out how to “take it easy” but also move an entire office, configure a server and other systems, tell someone how to silk screen shirts, prep for BarCampMilwaukee3, and a few other things I probably shouldn’t do… all with one working arm. Whew….
5 replies on “Dislocation”
Sorry to hear about your arm! How long of a recovery are you looking at?
That’s awful. I hope you feel better soon. If you need to heal for a long time, I’ve heard good things about chording keyboards in such straits. And screenprinting shirts: maybe there’s a print shop who’d like to be a sponsor? Good luck.
Not sure on recovery time, I am guessing 4-6 weeks with the splint, and a bit longer for full range of motion to return. And yup, that puts it really close to BarCampMilwaukee3. :(
It sucks, but it could have been so much worse… I’m glad your brain is intact and you’re gonna heal up. Hopefully the hospital bills aren’t as crippling as the injury.
We’ll come out of the woodwork to help with prep for BCM3. Maybe we can all pitch in and get you a chorded keyboard … and then you can teach me how to use it :)
Ughh. Here I thought you’d dislocated your finger. That’s terrible Pete! Please lean on your Web414 crew to help with Web414 and BCMKE3 stuff. I do hope you heal quickly.