What I’ve Learned
Six weeks ago today, I broke my leg. Six weeks ago today, I was riding pell-mell down the mountain in an ambulance. Today I got the first of what will be several bills for my care. My insurance (Kaiser Permanente) is not going to pay any of the ER charges that occurred in Estes Park, even though I was taken there to be stabilized. This should be a fun argument. I had no choice about where I was taken for care after my injury, no choice about my transportation to get there.
I’ve learned a few things over the course of my convalescence. In six weeks of being mostly confined to home, being out of my normal routine, being away from my friends and work and activities I enjoy, I have learned a lot of things. Some good, I suppose, and some bad.
First, I learned that I could get a whole lot of work done at home, probably more work than I would have gotten done while actually sitting at work. There are no interruptions, I’m usually by myself, and do nothing but work the whole time I’m sitting there. So despite the fact that I decided to hurt myself at the busiest time of my work year, I have managed to keep up with the workload.
No amount of hopping around on a walker is going to build my shoulder and arm muscles up. I thought they would get stronger, but they haven’t.
I can do more than I think I can around the house, sometimes. Other times, not so much so. I also learned that having limits makes me grumpy. But I can make my own bed, I can bath and wash my hair adequately in the kitchen sink, I can fix meals as long as they aren’t too complex, and wash dishes. It’s not all bad.
The best tool ever for my situation is a silly souvenir. My extendable/retractable “bear claw,” back scratcher allows me to reach things that are just out of my reach (like that sock that rolled under the bed), turn on light switches that are just a bit too far away, and the cat likes it when I scratch her head with it. Silly cat. But this tool has been invaluable. It has allowed me to be independent when I thought I couldn’t.
Probably the most disconcerting thing I’ve learned is that I’m an awful lot more like my mother than I thought I was. I like things my way. I like things done when I say they should be done. I’d rather do it myself than leave it to someone else to be done poorly. I do not like to wait for someone else to get motivated to get going. And I get cranky when these things go wrong. Considering I’ve had six weeks of all of these things going wrong, you can imagine there have been a lot more cranky days than non-cranky days. I have spent way too many Saturday afternoons in the grocery store than I’d like, and I’ve worn an awful lot of wrinkled clothes because no one else understands that when the dryer buzzes, that means go get the clothes NOW.
With any luck, this Thursday I will be out of my cast and into the cam boot. This means I will be weight-bearing, and can climb stairs (yay, shower, yay, I can do laundry again!), and can reach light switches and the cords for the blinds, and I can go outside and water my trees (we are still in drought), and go to the grocery store at the crack of dawn.
Wish me luck!
I get cranky when things go wrong too and I like things my way. My kids shake their head and just go along with it. Point in fact, I have my own grocery bags. They came from Dierbergs and they are practically indestructable. Very heavy nylon and you can load them up with a lot of groceries. I have TWO such bags for cold stuff.
When I unload my cart I put all the cold stuff on the belt first and let the bagger know which bags the cold stuff goes in. I expect that to be hint to put the cold stuff in those bags. I get irritated when they ignore me and put everything together. It makes it so much easier to unload the groceries if everything that goes in the fridge is in one of two bags instead of having to go searching through all the bags for the cold stuff.
It may sound a bit OCD but I like it that way and I don’t like for it to be messed with.
Learning things is GOOD even if it’s learning that you may be a grump.
Wearing wrinkled clothing didn’t cause you any harm, either — especially since you were trapped at home. Learning to let go of some things and learning which things to FIGHT for is time well spent!
I’m happy you’ll be out of it, too. I’m telling you, S. Six MONTHS in a hard cast well, I try not to swear on others’ blogs. Just stop breaking things, k?
Curious what your hospital bill was – though you might not want to share, even a ballpark figure. Here in Canada we pay for ambulance but not for an ER visit so that’s why I am wondering if you’ll be in debt for years due to a slip and fall. Get well SOON!
Yes, I will be paying this for years if I can’t get the insurance company to pay for it. It is more than $3200, plus there’s a $500 deductible from my ER and surgery at the bigger hospital, which was covered. It is a managed plan, and they can set rules whatever way they want, however, I had no choice about where I was taken to the ER when they brought me down from the mountain. We’ll see what happens.