Unplanned Events

Gloominess, Broken Bones, and Making Adjustments

It’s been overcast and gloomy for the last four or five days in Kansas City and I am so over it. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I would not enjoy living in the pacific northwest; I am a sunshine person. To make things worse, we haven’t even gotten that much rain and we really need it. If it’s going to be gloomy, I’d at least like to get a couple inches of rain so that everything isn’t so dry. Anyway, enough about the weather, moving on to more important topics. I managed to go 42 years of my life without a serious bone fracture (maybe a toe once) but that streaked ended on September 30 when I fractured my right wrist and my pelvis. What adventurous thing was a doing to sustain such an injury? I was pulling a box inside my house that had been left on the front porch. There was a cardboard handle on the side and when that handle broke, I went flying backwards, landing on my right hand and pelvis. As you may recall from my previous post, I had a trip to New Hampshire planned to visit my sister, Kristin. My flight was scheduled for the morning of October 1, so, the next morning. After getting myself up off the ground and hobbling over to the couch, I felt around on my wrist and everything felt okay. There was some swelling but nothing hurt when I touched it, so I assumed it was a sprain. Of course, after all of this, the box was only halfway in the house and obviously I wasn’t going to make a second attempt. Luckily my wonderful neighbor came over and moved it inside for me.

Since I had determined I did not need to make a trip to the emergency room (part of this decision was definitely influenced by my flight the next morning) I checked my medicine cabinet and was happy to see that I had some pain medication left from my fall in July (I talked about that in the previous post, I promise I’m really not a fall risk) and took one of those. I talked with the person taking me to the airport the next morning and they agreed to come over early and pack my suitcase for me. I really couldn’t use my right hand at all so opening it and folding clothes was beyond my ability. I had everything gathered together by the time they arrived and we were off to the airport. Thank goodness for curbside checkin and wheelchairs. My Mom and I met in Chicago and were on the same flight to Boston. We eventually made it to Kristin’s house later that evening.

Despite my injuries, I still had a fun trip. Kristin is moving to Colorado for a new job so this was my last trip to see her in New Hampshire which is part of why I was so determined to go. Our agenda changed some but we got a wheelchair and Kristin was willing to push me anywhere I wanted to go. She really was the MVP of that trip. She pushed me down a steep hill (we went backwards on the way down) to enjoy a pretty stream running through the park in Milton Mills. She gave me a piggy back ride down the steps to the pond by her house so I could watch the sunset over the water.

We wheeled along a path by the bay in Portsmouth and through a spectacular public flower garden. The weather wasn’t great our first day but we enjoyed just having a relaxing day at her house, visiting, and going to see the Downton Abby movie. Those are the things that I chose to focus on when I think about the trip. Not the fact that I couldn’t get out of bed on my own.

It was also pretty clear that I was going to really struggle to manage on my own at home. So my flight was pushed back a day so that my Mom could fly home and then come up to Kansas City and stay with me a few days. I made it home on October 6, a Monday and talked with my doctor’s office Wednesday morning. They directed me to the KU orthopedic walk in clinic and x-rays showed that my wrist was fractured, not sprained. They couldn’t determine if my pelvis was fractured so I was referred for a CT scan that Friday which showed it was, indeed, fractured. My Mom was an excellent caretaker and set me up to be able to manage on my own. She drove me where I needed to go, we made some big grocery runs to stock up on premade things so that I wouldn’t need to cook, she then divided things up, labeled them, and put them in the freezer. Side note - I drove a motorized cart around both the grocery store and Costco for the first time. It took a little practice and I bumped into some merchandise at least once but I didn’t hit a person so I considered it a win. My Mom went back to Oklahoma on October 12 and I’ve been on my own since then. I’m doing significantly better now and my wrist brace gets to come off on November 11. There’s nothing to be done for a fractured pelvis (unless it’s bad enough to require surgery) other than take it easy and give it time. I’m at the point now where I can pretty easily do the things I need to do without pain (thank goodness for pain medication) and I continue to see small improvements. I’m also anxiously anticipating tomorrow because the forecast is mostly sunny!!! That will be a significant boost to my mood. It’s easy to feel a little gloomy after so many days of cloudy weather.

On Politics but Not Political

Regardless of how you feel about the government shutdown, I think we can all agree that people should have access to food. As I’m sure you’ve read, SNAP benefits will end on October 31 and so on November 1 the individuals receiving SNAP will not get their benefits for the month of November. Food banks are anticipating a significant increase in volume both because of this and because federal workers who aren’t getting paid may start to experience financial hardship. If you are looking for a way to support people in your community, please consider donating to your local food bank. Many accept both monetary donations and physical items. If you’re going to donate physical items, I recommend checking their website for a list of needed items prior to going to the store. If you live in the Kansas City metro, Harvesters is a good place to donate.

Finding Joy

It’s always important to look for moments of joy but especially when things are hard. These are some of mine from the last few weeks:

• The trip to New Hampshire and spending time with my Mom, sister, and aunt who made a quick trip out at the end of our trip.

• My Mom helped me put up my fall decorations and I’ve really been enjoying those.

• I have a friend who’s a federal employee and we’ve been getting coffee together each week during the shutdown.

• I’ve spent a lot of time sitting on the couch with Lola laying next to me. The vibrations from her purring are really soothing. I also have a nice view out my front window of the fall leaves in my neighborhood.

• A friend came over one evening to play scrabble but ended up forgetting her scrabbled board so we just talked all evening.

What has been bringing you joy recently? You’re welcome to click on the thought bubble below and leave a comment.