Monday, May 11, 2020

Miser Family update: broken bones, hair cuts, and final exams

Well, life in this family continues to be rich and full.  I was going to do an update on Saturday about grading my exams and N-son's haircut and new phone, but then my husband broke his arm.

Let me back up a bit.  (When L-daughter heard that the bike crash was at low speed, and caused by sticks getting caught in his spokes, she was disappointed that the story wasn't more dramatic, so this is my effort to make the story a bit more impressive).   

Thirteen years ago, on May 9, 2007, my husband was racing his bike down a steep hill at 50+ mph when he touched wheels with another rider and crashed, breaking his neck in three places, plus a few ribs, his collar bone, and a couple of other bones.   That was his worst accident ever; we're incredibly grateful to modern medicine because with surgery and a summer of walking around in a neck brace (his "Star Wars commemorative underwear"), he recovered enough to re-enlist in the Army, serve in Iraq, run a marathon and IronMan, and dance to his favorite song "Footloose".

This year, to mark the 13th anniversary of that historic crash, he broke his arm.  He had driven his bike about 80 miles away to Philly, where he could ride on a bike path closed to cars.  He'd just started out -- only about 3 miles into his bike ride -- when those evil sticks jumped out at him.  He was going about 5-10 mph, he thinks. The road was rutted from roots under the surface, and so when he landed, the road caught him bad.   He dislocated his arm and smashed the elbow and the humerus (x-rays revealed that there are something like 20 different fragments of bone where one or two should be).   Because the road was closed to traffic, it took about 45 minutes for the ambulance to reach him, so he got a little cold lying on the pavement.  Even after he got to the hospital, the generally smashed state of the bones made it hard to get a good x-ray, and also hard to pop the joints of his arm back into their sockets.    
Prewash sitting by a tree that came down near our former neighbor's home.
The sticks that brought my husband down were much smaller than these.

Even if hospitals were accepting visitors these days (which they're not -- Philly is a very red zone), I couldn't have gotten there because someone drove our only car to Philly.   So when the hospital finally released him in the evening, he went to a hotel for the night.  The next morning, K-daughter and family broke their quarantine to drive me to my guy's hotel.  We walked the 6 blocks to the car, where his bike was already waiting for him, safe and sound.  And then we drove home.

He'll need surgery to put the jigsaw puzzle pieces back together, but he's doing remarkably well.  We don't have to enforce the "no cell phones until you're off of morphine" rule, because the strongest meds he's taking so far are Tylenol.  He is learning to do lots of things with his non-dominant hand (brush teeth, make coffee, eat cereal), and I have to carry the laundry basket upstairs for him, but in general, he seems pretty much like his normal self but with one arm behind his back (or rather, in a sling on his chest).

So, that's what's up with my husband.

N-son got a hair cut -- sorry I don't have photos!  And he also got a new phone, with a new phone number.  

I-daughter finished an awesome green shawl that looks like it'll match her summer sweater really nicely.  And I got to see K-daughter again and hear a bit about how well their work is going.  It's hard being so isolated -- especially for 5-year-old A-child.  So things aren't all roses and sunshine.  But they do get to go into their largely deserted office and keep making the HVAC thingies that construction people seem to want to keep buying.  I'm glad to know that they're not facing economic fears on top of everything else.  

And I gave my exams and successfully graded them.  I have fallen in love with Gradescope -- so much so, that I might actually pay to use it next semester.  (I got to use it free this semester, because the company made it available to all when the pandemic hit).   At any rate, now I'm officially done with the semester, and can start turning my attention to summer projects, like sewing shirts that can go over casts, or making padding for the part of a sling that rubs on your neck, etc.  

So, that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours stay safe.  



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