Last Wednesday evening I was taking out the trash to the curb, when I slipped on some glare ice in the driveway and landed like a ton of bricks on my left knee. I hobbled back inside the house and spent the next day and a half watching the joint swell to elephantine proportions.
Having been down this road before, I applied the R.I.C.E. technique of Rest - this was easy, since I could put very little weight on the leg. Ice packs helped reduce the pain and swelling. Compression (Thank you, Ace Bandage!), and last but not least Elevation above the heart level to keep the throbbing down as much as possible.
So the crutches have been put away, and I now look like a proper curmugeon limping along with a cane. I remember ice and snow being a lot more fun when I was younger! Perhaps it was because the ground wasn't so far away! Ha, ha, ouch! ha!
So how did I pass the tedious days and hours of recovery? Well...like any good wargamer would; painting figures and reading. When I'd get tired of one I would switch to the other, and before I knew it, I was a lot more mobile. My latest addition to the Wargame Library is "Wargaming In History,Vol. 1, The Seven Years War", by Charles Grant and Phil Olley. What a read it was! Each chapter and page held me spellbound. I haven't been so enchanted by the printed word since I first stumbled across "The Wargame" for the first time. I highly recommend it!
Actually, Messrs. Grant, Olley, Asquith, and Hyde have much to answer for making my annual wargame budget resemble a piece of Swiss cheese. Their constant barrage of publications keep blowing large holes right through it.
Well...that's enough of sitting at the computer for now. Where did I put that ice pack?!
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6 comments:
Doctor gave me a scrip for tramadol, but I'm afraid I react to it negatively ...
anyway, smashed knees are (ouch) a badge of character ...
right?
Sorry about your injury. Just chock it up to global warming...
I sympathize with you. Right now I've got a very sore knee . . . and I've been hobbled for a couple of weeks now.
I'm afraid that I don't have nearly as good a story, I just twisted it somehow . . . *sigh*.
I hope that your knee continues to improve and that you are soon completely mobile again.
But how about some photos of what you've painted?
-- Jeff
Hi Guys! Nothing was broken or torn, thank God, but it sure was painful. On the second day, my better half, bless her heart, stayed home from work to be my "stepandfetchit".
She called our Doctor's office and I had the following conversation with the desk nurse:
Me: Hello. I fell down yesterday and sprained my left knee, could you phone in a pain med prescription so my wife can pick it up for me at the pharmacy?
Nurse Rachett: We haven't seen you in a while. You'll have to come into the office to be examined, or call an ambulance and go to a Hospital Emergency Room.
Me: I can hardly hobble the eight steps from the bed to the bathroom here in the master bedroom with crutches. Any kind of steps are out of the question, and the ride to the office would be pure agony, but it doesn't hurt bad enough to justify an ambulance.
Nurse Rachett: I'm sorry Sir, but those are your only choices.
I was tempted to say that I had to hang up now and go help the Bombadier, but I doubt if she'd recognized the reference to Catch-22. I suppose it's a good thing that our Government is protecting us from all that Canadian "Socialized" medical care!
Like Dad used to say, "Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug!"
Hi Guys! Nothing was broken or torn, thank God, but it sure was painful. On the second day, my better half, bless her heart, stayed home from work to be my "stepandfetchit".
She called our Doctor's office and I had the following conversation with the desk nurse:
Me: Hello. I fell down yesterday and sprained my left knee, could you phone in a pain med prescription so my wife can pick it up for me at the pharmacy?
Nurse Rachett: We haven't seen you in a while. You'll have to come into the office to be examined, or call an ambulance and go to a Hospital Emergency Room.
Me: I can hardly hobble the eight steps from the bed to the bathroom here in the master bedroom with crutches. Any kind of steps are out of the question, and the ride to the office would be pure agony, but it doesn't hurt bad enough to justify an ambulance.
Nurse Rachett: I'm sorry Sir, but those are your only choices.
I was tempted to say that I had to hang up now and go help the Bombadier, but I doubt if she'd recognized the reference to Catch-22. I suppose it's a good thing that our Government is protecting us from all that Canadian "Socialized" medical care!
Like Dad used to say, "Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug!"
Ouch! My sympathies, and I hope you recover soon. At least you got to read what seems to be a modern classic wargaming book in the making. I'll have to buy it one day but my budget is also rather cheesy.
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