"breaking" news - pandemic activity

Late in the afternoon on 27 Mar 2020, I broke my arm. We were at the end of the second week of self-isolation in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.


I was outside wrangling the cat when I misstepped on the wet grass, lost my balance, and fell against the outside railing of our deck and heard a loud kee-rack!

Our kitty, Scout, is deaf and walks on a lead with a harness so we let him roam a bit in the yard on a lead. He has one bush he loves to sit under, even when it has no leaves in the winter to early Spring. That's him there under his bush.

I was detangling his lead from bushes near the deck when I took my misstep. Kee-rack! and I fell to my butt in the wet grass. I have bad arthritis in my knees so getting up from the ground would be a task, but I felt a lot of pain in my right arm and knew, in that moment, I had no strength in it. I knew I wouldn't be able to get up at all so my sweetie called 911. I was surprisingly super clear-minded.

An ambulance came. One of the pair of EMTs determined something was definitely wrong with either my arm or shoulder. They used a towel around my back, under my arms to lift me to my feet (I'm not exactly light) and held my arm with a light sling. They gave us the option of them taking me to ER or my sweetie. We opted for my sweetie so, with a wink and a smile, they said they were never there (there would have been an ambulance charge but my extended care insurance would have covered most or all of it).

At the hospital, when I declared no COVID-19 symptoms, I was directed away from the "sick" triage to the "normal" emergencies. My sweetie was not allowed to accompany me. I was still dressed as I was when I fell in my worst lounge pants with dead elastic in the waistband held up with safety pins, a slightly ratty at the bottom tee-shirt with metal disc decorations on the neckline, and slippers, the perfect attire when you likely need x-rays. And x-rays I did need. The shirt had to go so I got a gown instead. Thankfully the poses for the x-rays weren't too painful, but it was easily evident something in my shoulder area was very not right.

The doctor came to see me after looking at the pretty pictures. "Bad news, it's broken. Good news, no surgery needed to fix it." The break is on the right arm, just below the shoulder and is not compound. My arm got immobilized with a sling.

A week later when I had my immobilizer sling off in the bright light of the bathroom, my sweetie was astounded by the bruises that had bloomed. That band of bruise, that's the deck rail. Above that is the location of the break.

For the first several days, my wrist hurt so much I feared it had to be broken, too, but the pain faded as the pain in the rest of the arm subsided and is now, a bit over a week later, without any pain. My right knee, too, was high pain with my hamstring tight and screaming. My right knee is still a bit higher than my "normal" arthritic pain, my left as well, but so much less than the first couple days when I silently worried I damaged the right knee, too, in the fall.

The immobilizer sling holds my right arm and hand against my body but I can move my hand and fingers. Sort of like a t-rex, though, I can't reach anything. Of course, I'm right-handed.

I am able to do some left-handed, like typing one-handed, but I am quickly learning how many easy common things require two hands. I am so very grateful for my sweetie and the toilet seat bidet we have. I'm sleeping on the couch for now since I can support my arm easier and don't have to deal with stairs while my knees are still 'settling' after the fall. I haven't tried any crafting yet (also upstairs) but probably will in a day or two. I am still working from home in self-isolation thankful my day job is flexible enough to deal with both pandemic and arm breaking insanity.

Scout is fine. But he is confused why I can't just feed him when my sweetie is busy (requires two hands and leaning over to reach the ground which is still painful on my arm yet) or pet him with both hands. He still wants to sit on my chest and thinks my sleeping on the couch is an invitation to sleep on my chest for part of the night (which he splits with sleeping upstairs on the bed with my sweetie).

I'm wondering which will come first, an end to self-isolation or my arm healed.