I’ve been working every other week lately (unintentionally), and I’m getting pretty sad that it’s coming to an end on Tuesday. The couple of weeks I’ve been at work in the past few weeks have just felt so much less stressful than what the baseline has become in the last two and a half years. There’s just so much more to life than work- fresh air whether in the woods or at the beach, checking out new towns and cities, doing little projects to make your home more comfortable, kicking your feet up and reading a book for an entire afternoon, playing tug with your dog, to name a few of the things I’ve been enjoying while not at work recently. Then, when I am at work, I’m not nealy as annoyed by non-stop client questions or requests to squeeze in just one more ear infection.
This past week off hasn’t been exactly what we had envisioned, but we still got to do a good amount and made the best of things. I’m still coughing a little bit following my bout with COVID three weeks ago, so I was initially a bit hesitant about doing things like getting food outside of the house. It’s easier to do as the cough continues to ease up. Food also has become a focus on this staycation after I was unexpectedly laid up a week ago.
We took the dogs to the park last Sunday morning, as we often do on weekends. When we returned, Justin let Magic out of the car. She was happily trotting up the driveway with him while I was trying to grab Rook’s leash and get it on him. He had other ideas and went flying over my shoulder to take off after Justin and Magic, which turned into the dogs running around the far side of the house wrestling. Justin went to open the door, and I called the dogs from the front yard. As they came flying around the house, Rook cut to my right and ran up the front steps. Magic has zero spatial awareness. I *think* she was planning to go by on my left, but instead, she crashed into my left leg just below my knee. I can’t tell you whether she hit me with her head, her shoulder or some other part of her body. All I can say is that it was the single most acutely painful thing I have ever experienced. Justin tells me that it looked and sounded like a football injury. I 100% do NOT recommend being hit in the lower leg by a 65 lb dog running flat out.
I dropped to the ground and was rolling in the grass clutching my leg repeatedly yelling, “Fuck!” My next door neighbor, who probably watched the whole event unfold on her cameras, came out to see if there was anything she could do. Eventually, I got hold of myself enough to sit up. Justin brought me water and told me to just stay put for a while. Nausea, however, is perhaps my least favorite thing in the world, so I just wanted to get inside. I made it onto the porch before the dizziness became too intense to get all the way to the door. I paused and rested my head on the railing for a second. Apparently, as I was going through the door, I passed out and came to with Justin asking if I was OK and saying that he was calling an ambulance. I said I was fine, at which point he told me that I had passed out and was currently on the floor in our foyer where he had caught me on my way to the ground. Despite the ringing in my ears and blurred, rainbow vision if I looked to the left, he did back off of the ambulance idea. Instead, he brought me ice and said not to leave the couch for several hours at least, that he would be doing all of our Sunday chores.
After a couple of hours, I did concede to going to urgent care and found a place that had an x-ray tech working. Unfortunately, the tech had a family emergency in the approximately half an hour it took us to get there. The doctor felt that I had improved since the injury happened- I could walk (with a limp), wasn’t painful to the touch anywhere on the leg and had good range of motion of my knee joint, but he was concerned that I was hit in the area of the fibular head. He did want me to come back the next day for x-rays, just to be sure. We had plans to go to the beach with Justin’s brother, mom and nieces on Monday, so at first we were going to just wait until Tuesday to get the x-rays, but while reading about fibular head fractures, I learned that sometimes they can require surgery and/or a cast or splint for 4-6 weeks, followed by time in a walking boot.
I don’t have time or patience for that kind of injury. I am a terrible patient and would never want to be my own doctor, but I did feel that I probably should get those x-rays sooner rather than later because I also know that treating something correctly (and quickly) the first time ultimately means better and faster healing. I had the x-rays done Monday morning and headed to the beach, where I just had to hobble to our spot and stay put for a few hours.
I didn’t hear back about the x-rays on Monday, so although we had originally planned on only one beach day, we decided to go back Tuesday as well. It seemed like I could handle that amount of walking, and the doctor had explicitly said on Sunday, “No hiking, biking or running.” I called to get my x-ray results before heading to the beach and learned, thankfully, that there was no fracture, just some fluid consistent with soft tissue injury. I asked that they email me a copy of the radiologist’s report and the x-rays, which they have yet to send. I at least felt better knowing that there was no break and that hopefully with time, rest, ice and NSAIDs, I’d be good to go.
We did have a list of things we wanted to do while off- canoeing on the Brandywine, the zoo, maybe Lancaster, maybe Gettysburg, maybe the art museum. Unfortunately, I’m still getting around a bit slower than usual. The first couple of days, I didn’t go out at all for walks, and Rook and Magic usually get 3-4 a day, of varying lengths. I went for a couple just to tag along while Justin walked both dogs before I started taking Rookie because he’s just not very strong. Justin’s still been walking Magic because of two things: 1. her deside to fight all of the UPS trucks and 2. her propensity to abruptly stop right in front of me and/or back up into my injured leg. Justin’s back to work tomorrow though, so I guess it’ll be individual walks for the fools in the heat wave. (I’m super excited for that because I absolutely hate the heat.) Needless to say, of our list of possible things to do, we attempted to go to Lancaster, but we didn’t plan well and got a later start than we had intended. We did, however, learn a couple of useful things, should we decide to try and visit again. We also made it to the Philly Zoo, but we didn’t get to any of those other things.
Last Thursday was my birthday, and since the leg was feeling pretty good, I wanted to go to the zoo and then to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. I hadn’t been to either place in a long time, and I didn’t want to sit at home all day. All birds were off exhibit/indoors because of the risk of avian flu, so there was a bit less to see than normal at the zoo. We did enjoy the animals that were out though and got to see a few of them making use of the tree-top walkways. Reading Terminal didn’t pan out for us. We parked the car in the garage at Justin’s work and hopped on the subway to go to Center City. We made it one stop before the announcement that someone had been shot at 15th St (aka our stop), so the train would be sitting until the police released us. After a few minutes, we decided it wasn’t worth it and walked the seven blocks back to the car and the suburbs.
After all of the walking Thursday, which I knew I really shouldn’t do, the leg was definitely worse again Friday. We knew we had to be home in the morning for the delivery of our new dining room table and chairs that we had ordered last Thanksgiving, so we took advantage of needing to be home and just had a relaxing day. Yesterday, we tried to go out to Home Depot for some supplies for a couple of projects Justin wants to get done at home. They had nothing we needed, which is a problem we seem to have any time we try and go to a physical store these days. It doesn’t matter what store or what we’re looking for. They just don’t have anything stocked. We did impulse buy a Smokebush though because it was 50% off, and we do really like the look of them. Now we just have to decide where to plant it in our postage stamp of a yard…
This past week has seemed simultaneously too short and a month long, and now we’re back to Sunday again. My leg is feeling a bit better, although not quite back to where it was before all of Thursday’s walking. Sunday chores are done. Justin’s reading a book, and dinner is prepped to go on the grill. Rook is chasing his tail because that boy has issues, and Magic is nudging my arm for pets. Tomorrow is back to normal life. I have a dentist appointment. I get to be disappointed all week that I work next Saturday. My next time off will be for continuing education in October. Let the countdown begin…
“My goal is to build a life I don’t need a vacation from.’ ~ Rob Hill Sr.
