Being a further account of my summer misadventures

I predicted, earlier this summer, that I might need medical assistance again at some later point. And guess what?

For the past two weeks, my wrist had been paining me somewhat--nothing serious, just a twinge when I moved it, like what you might feel for a few days after you hit it. Except I didn't hit it. And it didn't go away after a few days.

Wednesday, it started hurting to the point that I thought I might have sprained it. I applied ointment and wrapped it in bandages and hoped that would help.

Last night, the pain intensified. I emptied an entire ice tray and hoped it would do something.

This morning, it was so acute that I had trouble keeping composure on the bus and bypassed the lab to go straight to the SSB (fucking SSB, might I add). The info desk rushed me over to "Urgent" Care where a nurse took my temperature and blood pressure and I was told a doctor would be with me in a few minutes.

Five minutes passed.

Must be a busy day...

Ten minutes passed.

I gritted my teeth and tried to pretend I was sitting on a boat somewhere near the Great Barrier Reef, waiting for Minke Whales to appear.

Fifteen minutes passed.

The pain was barely bearable.

Thirty minutes passed.

Tears streamed down my face as I clutched my arm and wished for a horde of elephants to trample me to death.

Forty five minutes passed.

I got up, opened the door to the hallway, and screamed: "Somebody get in here and give me something to stop the pain before I gouge my eyes out with a tongue depressor!"

Five minutes later, a doctor walked in, looking slightly flustered.
"Sorry for the wait!"

I was unable to reply, focused entirely on the pinpoint of pain that had become the whole of my universe.

"Does this hurt if I press here?" Ouch. "What about here?" Ouch. "Here?" Ouch. "What if I move th..." Ouch. "Hm, that's not good. Let's get you some X-rays. And some pain medicine."

Twenty minutes later.

"From what I can tell, this is a severe tendonitis. Are you left-handed?" Nope. "Do you do any intensive sports?" Nope. "Was there any trauma to cause this?" Nope. "I am honestly puzzled as to what happened. Anyway, we're going to put a cast on it."

For some reason, I am slightly distrustful of a nurse who has to look at diagrams while wrapping up my arm.

Eventually, looking like a fraction of an Egyptian mummy, I checked myself out of the office and walked over to the pharmacy to buy the horse tranquilizers pain medicine prescribed to me.

I don't think the aim of such medications is to remove the sensation of pain, but rather to make you so loopy that you don't notice it. That's what happened for me, anyway.

Long story aside, I am now a one-armed cripple. But, to play the Glad Game (as one always should in cases such as this), I made lists of pros and cons.

Cons:
-Pain
-No swimming allowed
-Only one opposable thumb. (You never realize how useful those are until you have to manage without. Ironically, I spent ten minutes trying to open the [childproof] container of medication. And typing is really hard.)

Pros:
-Extra sympathy (The Doctor was so heartbroken at my pathetic attempts to pipet anything this afternoon that he offered me a whole box of dry ice from a chemical shipment. Girl From Nicaragua and I had lots of fun making spoons scream and water boil and fogged up half of the apartment at one point.)
-Non-heat sensitive surface with which to carry hot or cold things
-Portable hook (the thumb sticks out [like a sore thumb, haha.])
-Portable notice board (I will start tacking notes on it)
-Handy weapon to clobber potential assailants with
-Cast is perfect length for head rest

The pros outweigh the cons! I will attempt to make the most of those temporary superpowers and use them for good while I can.

And now, I must away to sleep off the loopyness.