Yesterday, I went to the doctor and had the ring finger on my left hand x-rayed*. It still isn't right after the hand mixer incident. My wedding ring won't fit over the bottom knuckle, which is hasn't gone back to its non-swollen size. I get little lightening bolts of pain and owie aches on a daily basis. It's not excruciating. It's not acute. But, in that I am very very close to 40 and should be a grown up by now, I decided that a month was long enough.
While going through the pre-x-ray conversation about what I did and how long its been -- a laugh riot, apparently -- the PA pointed out that the bruise on my left hand was huge and surrounded my index finger, not the ring finger I was complaining about.
"Oh," I said. "That's from a few hours ago."
The PA gave me one of those calculating looks, where she tries to figure out if my real issue is that I'm a loon.
"I went for a walk in Wilber Park while my oldest kid had tennis and swimming lessons. Because I'm very very close to 40 and would like to be able to move by the time I'm 50. Because I'm proactive.
"I was going down a really steep hill, which I've gone down a dozen times before with zero problems. The other side is nearly vertical and really gets your heart rate up. But today the wet pine needles combined with my new shoes, which I bought because my feet hurt in my old, no longer springy shoes, was a non-ideal combo.
"In short, I fell directly on my ass, tipping over backwards as my feet went out from under me, like a giant trust fall into the slope. I flung one hand out and bashed it into a rock, hence the bruise. My tailbone took the bulk of the impact of my bulk - but I don't think it's broken. Everything around it is just all out of whack, tho. I'll live."
Quiet descends.
"I have to ask the next question on the form," she says. "Have you fallen recently?"
Quiet, again.
"I'll just put down 'yes.'"
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* I don't have the results of the x-ray yet. The PA wanted the hand guy to look at it. I honestly don't think anything is broken - but wanted to know for sure. As the PA explained, fingers take a long time to heal because the blood flow isn't great. Besides, she pointed out, injuries take longer to resolve when you're older.