That really wasn’t part of the plan…
An email arrived in my inbox from a company that gets people to attend tv show tapings, you know, be part of the studio audience. I’ve been on this list for a few years now, but rarely get the chance to go. The newest email was to view a taping of MAD TV.
At the time of its arrival I happened to be engaged in a conversation with Greg, a guy I like. I asked if he’d be interested in going and gave the date/time options. It was up near him, a good day for both our schedules, and it should be fun so we made plans to go. I hoped by then I would be over my cold/flu thing.
Its only 36 miles to his place from mine, in good traffic it will take about 40 minutes. However, it’s 36 miles north, which means LA and I hoped to arrive at his door by 7pm so that meant facing afternoon traffic, the worst kind.
I left, hoping some of the northbound traffic was done, or nearly done, but still ample time to get up there. I even checked the live traffic map before leaving to make sure my planned route was relatively clear. It was as clear as possible for the time period.
The traffic just sucked! Between multi car accidents and something with the 110 freeway I didn’t arrive until 8pm and we needed to be at the studio by 8:30 so dinner would be delayed.
I arrived at Greg’s place, picked him up and off we went. Fortunately our destination was fairly close by. We arrived at the studio, parked nearby, got out, and locked the car. I noticed a prostitute and a couple of questionable characters nearby. We were talking and perhaps not more than 30 feet from the car. Greg was asking about my week. I have to admit, I get kind of nervous around him and those who know me might find that really unusual. So I’m going to concede that it’s very likely I wasn’t paying enough attention to the area I was walking. Well, given the next event, I obviously wasn’t.
As I tried to recall my week’s activities I stumbled and caught my foot on some broken pavement. I fell down, hard. Apparently I stuck out my left arm to break my fall. I suspect I locked my elbow. I remember seeing my lower arm pushing up past my upper arm and thinking that it wasn’t supposed to look like that. It reminded me of jello. It was gross.
Poor Greg, he had no real idea what happened. All he knew was that I was walking next to him then suddenly I was on the ground and unable to talk. I couldn’t speak! The pain in both my left arm and then the realization of pain in my right knee kept me from even opening my eyes. He was talking to me, asking what happened and where the pain was. I was at once both in agonizing pain and mortified.
Eventually I was able to express pain in my arm and the fear I may have broken it. He attempted to help me up, but at that moment the best I could do was sit up. While I was sitting there doing a mental inventory of the pain Greg was kneeling next to me. I could hear something behind us and he informed me some guy was puking in a trashcan. I thought to myself, “I’m injured and lying on some disgusting sidewalk in Hollywood, with a guy I totally dig, while there’s an old woman prostitute in front of us hiding in the shadows watching us and some guy puking in the trashcan nearby. How fucking romantic!”
Greg helped me up to walk me back to my car. He was a total sweetheart , got me into the passenger side, made sure I had my seat belt buckled and drove me to an ER where he filled out all my paperwork.
While we were waiting we discovered some folks had been there for 3 or more hours and had still not been seen yet. One woman sitting near me asked if I hurt my arm and if I was pregnant.
I was immediately reminded of when my Grammy Victoria, my great aunt on my mother’s side, asked me the same thing years ago at a family party. “Oh Yvonne, are we in the family way?” Through her thick Filipino accent there was a sound of hope in her voice.
“No grammy, I’m just fat.”
But this was a woman with 8 children with a million grand children, and I had gained some weight since she’d last seen me, plus it was shortly after my mom died, so it was a reasonable assumption on her part… I guess.
However, in the ER, this woman was looking for someone to bond with over her situation, something I wasn’t interested in doing. She was there with a 2 day long headache and pregnant. Initially I began to troubleshoot for her asking things like if she’d had water, taken anything for the pain, but then I realized I needed to think about my current situation instead of her, so I stopped.
I decided to try my luck back in OC so I asked them to shred my paperwork and left. My arm seemed to be getting better so I figured we could ice it and I’d be good. Greg got us some dinner and we went back to his place. He helped situate me on his couch, got me a pillow, some Advil, and ice for my arm and we ate dinner.
The hope was that his friend could follow us down so Greg could drive me home and he could ride home with his friend, but his friend had work early the next day, so I opted to keep ice on it and drive myself home. I was more concerned about my right leg not bending well enough to drive than my arm.
Greg wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea, but I needed to get home. As a compromise he decided to drive his car and lead me to the freeway entrance. If we discovered I couldn’t drive then we’d figure something else out, but it was now 2am and I really wanted to be home.
He helped me get situated in the car, buckled me in and off we went. 25 minutes later, after feeding the cats and getting ready for bed I called him to let him know I was home safe. He was a bit surprised to hear from me so soon, but relieved to know I was home safe.
The next morning I called my health insurance to change my physician. I had been assigned a Dr that I didn’t want so I changed to a Dr. I wanted and who works with the hospital I wanted. The insurance was kind enough to retro activate the Dr to Nov 1st, otherwise I’d have to wait till Dec 1st.
My friend Yvette was available to take me in. At this point I was working under the hopes my arm and leg were just badly sprained. Since my newly assigned Dr. was not in yesterday I was seen by another doctor. She poked and prodded my knee, which hurt. The she poked and rotated my arm. I screamed! Thus far it was the only time I cried from the pain. X-rays revealed a large gap at the elbow where there shouldn’t be. I was then referred to an orthopedic surgeon.
We left there and went to see the surgeon for a final diagnosis. At this point it was officially broken and I assumed I’d get a cast and go home. The surgeon walked in, asked what happened and then informed me I needed to have surgery. To which I replied, “Are you kidding me?!” He didn’t seem to be joking and wondered why I was the second person that day to ask him that question. He explained he wouldn’t mention it if it weren’t necessary. I understood his point.
Apparently the impact of my fall caused the smaller of the two bones in my lower arm to compact the end of the bone that connects to the elbow. Instead of being somewhat round it’s flat.
He’s hoping to get me into surgery as soon as possible, so I’ll be in on Monday or Tuesday depending on how long it takes to get approval.
The plan is for him to open my arm, assess the situation and decide if I need pins or screws and plates. There was mention of a bone graft taken either from me or a “mostly dead” person. *shrug* Yvette was teasing that I’ll have some dead guys bone grafted onto mine and it’ll posses my arm and do evil things.
Oooooh, evil zombie bone graft!!!!! LOL!
I’ll be in a cast for 3-5 weeks and then have physical therapy after. Fun times!
Though this isn’t the first time I’ve broken a bone, it’s the first time I’ve had a cast or major surgery. I have to admit, I’m nervous about it.
That reminds me; Greg was doing his best to distract me from the pain, so we talked about war wounds. We shared scar stories. LOL!
I really have to thank both Greg and Yvette. They both took super good care of me. Yvette also took me to Costco to get my prescription filled and shop AND she cleaned the litter box and filled the water dispenser for the cats. She even offered to cook, but I told her she’d done enough for me already.
Since it was clear I wasn’t in any condition to go I gave her and her husband, who is one of my childhood friends, my two tickets to see Voltaire and Frankenstein at The Dark Park Festival. I knew they’d enjoy it.
Unfortunately I also won’t be going to see Turisas or to Bats Day at Disneyland this weekend. :(
All in all, despite the unpleasant situation, I’m doing ok and in good spirits.
The Plan
An email arrived in my inbox from a company that gets people to attend tv show tapings, you know, be part of the studio audience. I’ve been on this list for a few years now, but rarely get the chance to go. The newest email was to view a taping of MAD TV.
At the time of its arrival I happened to be engaged in a conversation with Greg, a guy I like. I asked if he’d be interested in going and gave the date/time options. It was up near him, a good day for both our schedules, and it should be fun so we made plans to go. I hoped by then I would be over my cold/flu thing.
The Reality
Its only 36 miles to his place from mine, in good traffic it will take about 40 minutes. However, it’s 36 miles north, which means LA and I hoped to arrive at his door by 7pm so that meant facing afternoon traffic, the worst kind.
I left, hoping some of the northbound traffic was done, or nearly done, but still ample time to get up there. I even checked the live traffic map before leaving to make sure my planned route was relatively clear. It was as clear as possible for the time period.
The traffic just sucked! Between multi car accidents and something with the 110 freeway I didn’t arrive until 8pm and we needed to be at the studio by 8:30 so dinner would be delayed.
I arrived at Greg’s place, picked him up and off we went. Fortunately our destination was fairly close by. We arrived at the studio, parked nearby, got out, and locked the car. I noticed a prostitute and a couple of questionable characters nearby. We were talking and perhaps not more than 30 feet from the car. Greg was asking about my week. I have to admit, I get kind of nervous around him and those who know me might find that really unusual. So I’m going to concede that it’s very likely I wasn’t paying enough attention to the area I was walking. Well, given the next event, I obviously wasn’t.
As I tried to recall my week’s activities I stumbled and caught my foot on some broken pavement. I fell down, hard. Apparently I stuck out my left arm to break my fall. I suspect I locked my elbow. I remember seeing my lower arm pushing up past my upper arm and thinking that it wasn’t supposed to look like that. It reminded me of jello. It was gross.
Poor Greg, he had no real idea what happened. All he knew was that I was walking next to him then suddenly I was on the ground and unable to talk. I couldn’t speak! The pain in both my left arm and then the realization of pain in my right knee kept me from even opening my eyes. He was talking to me, asking what happened and where the pain was. I was at once both in agonizing pain and mortified.
Eventually I was able to express pain in my arm and the fear I may have broken it. He attempted to help me up, but at that moment the best I could do was sit up. While I was sitting there doing a mental inventory of the pain Greg was kneeling next to me. I could hear something behind us and he informed me some guy was puking in a trashcan. I thought to myself, “I’m injured and lying on some disgusting sidewalk in Hollywood, with a guy I totally dig, while there’s an old woman prostitute in front of us hiding in the shadows watching us and some guy puking in the trashcan nearby. How fucking romantic!”
Greg helped me up to walk me back to my car. He was a total sweetheart , got me into the passenger side, made sure I had my seat belt buckled and drove me to an ER where he filled out all my paperwork.
While we were waiting we discovered some folks had been there for 3 or more hours and had still not been seen yet. One woman sitting near me asked if I hurt my arm and if I was pregnant.
I was immediately reminded of when my Grammy Victoria, my great aunt on my mother’s side, asked me the same thing years ago at a family party. “Oh Yvonne, are we in the family way?” Through her thick Filipino accent there was a sound of hope in her voice.
“No grammy, I’m just fat.”
But this was a woman with 8 children with a million grand children, and I had gained some weight since she’d last seen me, plus it was shortly after my mom died, so it was a reasonable assumption on her part… I guess.
However, in the ER, this woman was looking for someone to bond with over her situation, something I wasn’t interested in doing. She was there with a 2 day long headache and pregnant. Initially I began to troubleshoot for her asking things like if she’d had water, taken anything for the pain, but then I realized I needed to think about my current situation instead of her, so I stopped.
I decided to try my luck back in OC so I asked them to shred my paperwork and left. My arm seemed to be getting better so I figured we could ice it and I’d be good. Greg got us some dinner and we went back to his place. He helped situate me on his couch, got me a pillow, some Advil, and ice for my arm and we ate dinner.
The hope was that his friend could follow us down so Greg could drive me home and he could ride home with his friend, but his friend had work early the next day, so I opted to keep ice on it and drive myself home. I was more concerned about my right leg not bending well enough to drive than my arm.
Greg wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea, but I needed to get home. As a compromise he decided to drive his car and lead me to the freeway entrance. If we discovered I couldn’t drive then we’d figure something else out, but it was now 2am and I really wanted to be home.
He helped me get situated in the car, buckled me in and off we went. 25 minutes later, after feeding the cats and getting ready for bed I called him to let him know I was home safe. He was a bit surprised to hear from me so soon, but relieved to know I was home safe.
The Diagnosis
The next morning I called my health insurance to change my physician. I had been assigned a Dr that I didn’t want so I changed to a Dr. I wanted and who works with the hospital I wanted. The insurance was kind enough to retro activate the Dr to Nov 1st, otherwise I’d have to wait till Dec 1st.
My friend Yvette was available to take me in. At this point I was working under the hopes my arm and leg were just badly sprained. Since my newly assigned Dr. was not in yesterday I was seen by another doctor. She poked and prodded my knee, which hurt. The she poked and rotated my arm. I screamed! Thus far it was the only time I cried from the pain. X-rays revealed a large gap at the elbow where there shouldn’t be. I was then referred to an orthopedic surgeon.
We left there and went to see the surgeon for a final diagnosis. At this point it was officially broken and I assumed I’d get a cast and go home. The surgeon walked in, asked what happened and then informed me I needed to have surgery. To which I replied, “Are you kidding me?!” He didn’t seem to be joking and wondered why I was the second person that day to ask him that question. He explained he wouldn’t mention it if it weren’t necessary. I understood his point.
Apparently the impact of my fall caused the smaller of the two bones in my lower arm to compact the end of the bone that connects to the elbow. Instead of being somewhat round it’s flat.
He’s hoping to get me into surgery as soon as possible, so I’ll be in on Monday or Tuesday depending on how long it takes to get approval.
The plan is for him to open my arm, assess the situation and decide if I need pins or screws and plates. There was mention of a bone graft taken either from me or a “mostly dead” person. *shrug* Yvette was teasing that I’ll have some dead guys bone grafted onto mine and it’ll posses my arm and do evil things.
Oooooh, evil zombie bone graft!!!!! LOL!
I’ll be in a cast for 3-5 weeks and then have physical therapy after. Fun times!
Though this isn’t the first time I’ve broken a bone, it’s the first time I’ve had a cast or major surgery. I have to admit, I’m nervous about it.
That reminds me; Greg was doing his best to distract me from the pain, so we talked about war wounds. We shared scar stories. LOL!
I really have to thank both Greg and Yvette. They both took super good care of me. Yvette also took me to Costco to get my prescription filled and shop AND she cleaned the litter box and filled the water dispenser for the cats. She even offered to cook, but I told her she’d done enough for me already.
Since it was clear I wasn’t in any condition to go I gave her and her husband, who is one of my childhood friends, my two tickets to see Voltaire and Frankenstein at The Dark Park Festival. I knew they’d enjoy it.
Unfortunately I also won’t be going to see Turisas or to Bats Day at Disneyland this weekend. :(
All in all, despite the unpleasant situation, I’m doing ok and in good spirits.
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