My phone is dead. I’m perturbed.
No, I’m pissed off. And I have to get ahold of people without email…
Insert expletive here.
Food or $20 buck Nokia?
Archive for the 'Pain' Category
There may be stupider things then chasing a dog down the street barefoot when it’s -7 with a -30 windchill. With your fly open. If there are, I haven’t done them.
The dog was finally corralled an hour or so later. Thanks to Tim for dog taxi service, the UPS driver for being a dick and Renae for not killing me. Special thanks to Carrie the mystery woman for snagging the dog and calling Renae while I was looking for it in the park.
So here’s the long version with all the left out details. Earlier this week it snowed. Fine, it’s winter in the midwest, it does that. Tuesday evening I’m heading to the cafe after a service call, along a stretch of newer highly angled sidewalk that wasn’t properly cleared. Boom, I go down on my knee. I didn’t have the 55 lb. pack with me or I’d probably still be laying there. The messenger bag did swing around front, making regaining footing awkward. Oddly, a woman stopped her car and tried to help me. I told her I was fine, she was wearing heals and might have weighed as much as my left leg. Didn’t want her to fall and break something. Mild pain and stiffness. Got lodging that night and checked the knee. It was red, no bruise.
Jump cut to Wednesday. Freezing rain and sleet in the evening, followed by light dusting of snow and dropping temps. I went down twice that night, all on same knee. Didn’t rip my pants in any of these falls. By the time I got on the El platform I was limping and could feel blood running down my leg. Meanwhile the paramedics are carting off a guy who was mugged on the platform. I tried caging a gauze pad off of one of the paramedics, got the single dirtiest look I’ve ever gotten from anyone I wasn’t asking out on a date. Limped back to where I was staying, patched knee and went to sleep.
Thursday I woke up with pain and bled through bandages. Cleaned everything up. That’s when I realized I had injured the knee that I’d accidentally tattooed with track cinders to pass the NY State Board of Regents Physical Education test freshman year in high school. Same damn spot I had landed on 3 times during the test. Prevailed upon my host to let me stay an additional day, I didn’t want to over night in zero weather. Pain, stiffness, swelling and a diet high in non-steroidal anti-inflammatories.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t grouse about something so minor. But joint injuries hurt more, especially when your morbidly obese, the wound is constantly reopened and re-injured. And the second and third time I went down I was terrified, high traffic areas, middle of the street, cars approaching. Ok, that and it preys on the fear of not being able to move I got from the back injury. One more reason to lose weight, if ever I needed another.
Did I mention how I pride myself on not falling in the winter and what a crashing blow it is to dump 3 times in one week? Or how I couldn’t sleep last night for dwelling on what would have happened had I been wearing the 55 lb. pack, especially when I was crossing Wentworth?
Meanwhile this morning I made it to camp without falling, bleeding has stopped and the pain and stiffness is down. But I’m beginning to think I should either dig out my cane, or get a mountaineer/hikers walking stick.
“It was twenty years ago today…”
On Leap Day 1988 I spent a small fortune for the time on an “outpatient procedure” which left me able to walk and relatively pain free. Anyone who has suffered with backpain and underwent surgery knows what i went through. Despite the increase in pain post op, the ability to feel my legs and move was amazing. Even with the stiffness and added pain from surgery. I’m told that the laparoscopic procedure I underwent isn’t even performed anymore. I don’t care. I can walk, and the level of pain I live with now is almost nothing compared to the pain preceding the surgery. I was heading for a serious psychotic episode, I was homicidally angry every waking moment. Pain makes you do stupid things. So happy anniversary…
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I’m still laid low by the flu and intestinal upset that hit me last week. Actually I’m doing much better. But there’s a noise abatement problem, and some performance art that most people would find offensive. So I’m laying low. And I want to leave you with this thought. No matter how bad your day is, it’s no where near as bad as the day and night of a homeless guy with the Tijuana Trots. Think about it.
For those of you who were wondering about the temperature in the bus stop last night, hell froze over. IT was too cold for me to ride my bike today, and too cold to walk. I/m waiting for the earth moving equipment to get here and take me to coffee. Interestingly the north-south busses were on schedule, but the east-west started a half hour–two runs late (Chicago residents know that it’s the north-south bus lines that always are off schedule: the city is longer then is wide, so there’s more to go wrong with a n-s run).
Remember that old song, “They call the wind Chill Factor…”
Yes Virginia, it’s all wind chill factor. But if your a human, animal, car or house, you feel it. And it will kill you just as dead as real subzero temps. so be careful. Because I never feel the cold, and mother of pearl, I am freezing right now.
Fundraiser!
An Ice Cream Less Social and Benefit for Kim Assalay
Kim was hit and dragged by an ice cream truck, which tore her heel off. She needs your help to keep a roof over her head and food and on her plate while she convalesces. So come on out for an all star benefit–you know you’d want one if you got hit by a truck…
Sunday December 2nd at the Skylark (SE corner of Halsted at Cermak, Pilsen, Chicago, Il)
Door Prizes!
Silent Auction!
Bands!
DJ!
(and Secret Stars!)
Starts early, 7pm SHARP!
Come on by bring your donations and help give Kim a Leg to stand on!
More info at: Fundraiser For Kim
Feel free to repost this bulletin!!!
Kim Assaley, noted Lampreyite and Pilsen luminary was hit by a truck while riding her bicycle last Tuesday. Her heel and the pavement got way too intimate. She’s been in the hospital since, and for those of you in the know about modern medicine where back surgery is performed as an out patient procedure, this is not good at all. Not ot mention when she checks out on Monday, she’ll be unable to walk or work. So I’m laying the groundwork here for a fundraiser. Kim’s gonna need rent and food, and there will be a fundraiser, your donations will be needed, both cash and silent auction. Here’s your chance to do something good for someone else. We’ll have more information as it’s available.
That my back is really killing me? So is my knee and leg and shoulder, and my lumps are throbbing. And I haven’t even kicked anyone I know to death. Yet. I forgot how many days this is. Might be better if I had some sleep. I just dug out the OTC med pack and discoverd I was out of generic Aleve. One more day of this and I break out the prescription pain killers.
i am hurting something fierce. My back and knee and shoulder. Plus the over all ache of dehydration. I think I seriously overdid it with the bike this week. But I finally got some sleep lsat night, so things could have been a lot worse.
