Hey, everyone!!
I know you’ve been seeing nothing but book reviews from me lately, but all I’ve really been doing is reading and taking trips to the emergency room. I have been to the emergency room twice with injuries in maybe the last month to a month and a half for two different injuries.
The first injury was when my back went out. The funny thing was that I was doing nothing out of the ordinary. I sat down on my bed after a day of cleaning and I got up to get my clothes out of the dryer so that when my uncle’s clothes were done washing, the dryer would be free. Well, when I got to my bedroom door, my back made this cracking sound and the sensation felt like my spine fell in on itself and the pain was excruciating!!
All I could do was cling to the doorway for dear life, knowing that if I fell to the floor, there would be no getting up. So I clung to the doorway, crying out in pain until I felt brave enough to make my way carefully back to my bed to lie on my side. I eventually called up my uncle (who was in his bedroom) on the phone to let him know what had happened and to ask him if he could bring me a couple of bottles of water and a straw because I knew there would be no way I could sit up to drink from the bottle.
Let me tell you something of how bad my back was for that day and the next day before I finally took my stubborn behind to the emergency room. Going to the bathroom was torture. I’m glad there is a hole in the wall that I could get a grip onto the edges of because if there wasn’t, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten onto and off of that dang toilet during that time. I was literally in tears after each trip to the bathroom.
When I finally went to the emergency room, they found nothing in the x-ray, but they knew that I was in immense pain. They could see it as I tried to move around when I had to give a urine sample, for instance. They referred me to a spine specialist and gave me a shot of some kind of steroid in one arm and a shot of pain med in the other arm. It may not have gotten rid of ALL of the pain, but it helped so much by the next day that I could actually move around decently enough that I could get things done at a semi-normal pace. There was still a lot of lying down and muscle relaxers with Ibuprofen taken, but things weren’t so much of a torture for the next couple weeks.
Once the back started settling down, I started to get back to my normal routine. Thanksgiving went pretty well. My back hurt a lot, but I got through it. My oldest sister, who also has back and nerve problems, and I helped put away the last table and chairs after the festivities were done and there were only a few of us left at my aunt’s house.
It wasn’t until this past Monday night, November 28th I believe that things went wrong again. I took my dogs out to potty like I normally do. I have always taken them both out at the same time. I have a now 3-year old German Shepherd and Great Pyrenees/shepherd mix that is around the same age or maybe a bit older. She was a rescue. My German Shepherd I have had since she was 8 weeks old.
Anyway, I took them out to potty around 9:45ish Monday night and snowball, the mix, squatted and pottied and I noticed Sadie, my GSD, was starting to notice something around my vehicle. Sensing that a cat was around, I started to herd the girls toward the porch steps to get them inside before anything bad happened. Well, that’s when something bad happened. When I got them both near the steps, they both saw the cat at the same time and took off after it while I was still holding the leashes.
They ran fast after the cat and I tried to pull them back, but they overpowered me quickly and began dragging me across the yard, then down the driveway at a full run. It wasn’t until I got to the middle of the road that I lost my balance and pitched forward, losing hold of the leashes and falling hard more on my left side with my left arm extended straight out. I felt the pain shoot through my left shoulder and upper arm and felt the sting of the scrapes on my left knee and on both elbows. The worst was the pain IN my left shoulder and upper arm. I was screaming in pain, but as I was crying in pain, I called for my girls to come back to me.
Snowball came immediately, but Sadie was nowhere in sight and did not come right away. I tried to get up by using my left arm, but as soon as weight was put on my arm, sharp, excruciating pain went into my shoulder and I screamed. I was not going to be able to get up using my left arm at all. I’m not sure the technique I used to get up, but I managed to stand with Snowball’s leash in hand. With my left arm across my abdomen which was the most comfortable position I could stand it and Snowball’s leash in my right hand, I headed back to the house, calling Sadie’s name, hoping she’d come running. She didn’t.
After a few minutes, I limped back inside and showed and told my boyfriend what happened because I had him on video call before I went out there. He had been waiting for me to come back from taking the girls out. I told him what happened and after about 5 minutes or so, he decided to change his clothes and come help me find Sadie. I went out onto the porch and started calling for her continuously. After a little while, while I was still on the phone with my boyfriend and him on the road to me, I saw movement in the yard across the street. I stared for a second and what was just a black shape moving, then turned into a black and brown shape, so I called Sadie’s name a couple times and told her to come. She started running to the steps and onto the porch. I told her to get inside and I let her in.
I told my boyfriend that she was now inside. He asked me if I needed to go to the emergency room. I told him that I did and he confirmed that he was on his way to take me. Once he got to my house, he came inside and put away my pillows (which my dogs have a habit of tearing up), my laptop because I was watching a show on Hulu on it before all of this went down, and helped me do a couple other things before we left that I couldn’t do because of the pain.
He had to just drop me off and go home because he had to get up at 6:30 am for work and by the time we got to the hospital, it was already 11 pm. I was okay with just being dropped off. I understood completely. I was in and out within 3 hours as far as being seen. In triage I was put in a sling that wasn’t wrapped around the waist because the lady was trying to be as gentle as possible. She did do the strap over the shoulder but her just lifting my arm from it’s position just enough to slip the sling underneath was enough to make me want to scream again. X-rays were done and nothing is broken. They found I just strained my arm and I’m to be in a sling until it’s better.
I had to wait from 2 am when they discharged me until 8 am when my mom picked me up because my mom can’t drive in the dark because she can’t see. I spent the day at my mom/sister’s house where my mom helped me spongebathe and gave me a set of clean clothes. My boyfriend picked me up after he got off of work and brought me home. Once I got home, I looked in the refrigerator for food and everything I saw had to be cooked and, at the time, I thought I wouldn’t be able to cook one-handed and felt so helpless. I was just remembering the pain from trying to spongebathe and it just all made me feel helpless and useless and I cried. My boyfriend tried to comfort me and make me feel better. He did a bit. He even sent me $20 on cash app to get a pizza for the first couple days of this painful journey.
I learned the next night that doing things one-armed isn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. I cooked some baked chicken thighs for me and my uncle with some boiled broccoli. We also celebrated Sadie’s third birthday yesterday. Sadie got a natural pork femur as did Snowball to celebrate her Gotcha Day, which was today. I’d add some pictures from yesterday, but they’re not on this phone. 😢 Tonight I did even better with my arm. I cooked bbq seasoned chicken legs, instant mashed potatoes with some shredded cheese in it, and some more boiled broccoli seasoned with ranch seasoning. I then did the dishes and after all that, I changed the mop water. I did all of this without using my left arm for more than just to balance with that hand. It hurts a little less than yesterday. Oh! And I even took a shower early this afternoon. That was extremely painful, probably because I had not taken my 800mg Ibuprofen pill yet. Anyway, I guess, since it’s almost midnight, I’ll start a new book and read until my night meds kick in and then I’ll be going to sleep. Thanks for reading this terribly long account of events and remember: Keep smiling!
Alli's Healthier Journey Blog 
2 responses to “Down For The Count”
You are one tough soldier and not a complainer. I thought your boyfriend could have done more though. Perhaps the dogs need to go out separately so you can handle them better and avoid a re-injury. I think you are a smooth writer for this type of post. Clear and well compartmented.
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I have started taking my dogs out one at a time after this happened. I agreed to let my boyfriend just drop me off because he did have to work the next day and he’s not one to call in and I completely understand that. Thank you for the compliment on my writing. I was told for a long time that my writing is good in both my book reviews and the novels I start writing.
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