mizarchivist

Hi! I just woke up from a nice nap and thought I might as well share the story of my trip to the emergency department, for posterity. Yes, I'm fine.

Yesterday, I FINALLY (only a few months late) got my bike out from the basement and decided to go 'round the local bike path while Jaime and the Kiddo were at church. All was well! ...until I hit a natural speedbump made by a tree branch pushing up a bit of pavement. There was a tiny bit of spray paint around the edges, but in dappled light and going a bit downhill I hit it straight on and was deeply unprepared. The bike jounced me hard and I almost kept it together, but it was not to be. I landed in a pile with my bike on top next to the trail The bike seat slammed into my ribs and my knee hit the pavement, but I could walk, talk (swear), and some passersby helped get my bike back in shape enough so I could ride again. OF course I was as far from my house as I could be on this ride and it seemed that since the bike worked and I was not obviously broken, I might as well ride home while the adrenaline was on my side.

On the way home, I decided maybe pinging my dear friend and practicing nurse, (Mama J) a call to do some over the phone triage. Ice, meds, no shooting pains... so probably just knocked about. She said she'd stop by on her way home to double-check though. Yes, thanks! So, I got home, cleaned up, got meds. Mama J came by and agreed nothing was broken. Since it seemed like the right moment, I took my last Oxy from the surgery I had about 3 years ago, and enjoyed being Not At All Sober for a few hours.

If that was all there was to the story, I'd not be writing to you about my trip to the hospital. I got sleep, got up, did all the Monday morning things. Dropped the kidlet at school- stopped to talk to their teacher and while talking to her and in the course of conversation, bent my back a bit in a stretch.... and then everything hurt. I could barely breathe and I'd either tweaked my back something fierce, or .... not. Jaime's still between gigs, so I called her and had her meet me at the end of the street so we could re evaluate what's up. I listened to my gut and we prepped to go to Newton Wellesley hospital (a truly great hospital!)

Did all the things- got checked, got X-Rayed, and yup, would you look at that. My 11th rib has a stationary crack in it. (aka: the one second from the bottom is broken, but not out of place)

Care for that is pretty much wait for it to heal and keep taking ibu. and tylenol in concert to handle the pain and don't exacerbate in carrying or moving. NOT a problem, considering coughing makes me cry and scream. I'll be taking it easy for sure and canceling most of my plans for this week. Doc says that the next week will be hardest, and within 3 weeks I should be about OK again.

So. All's well that ends well. Sigh. <3