Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A Memorable Weekend






Over the weekend we did some more clean up and I used the tractor to backfill along the South side. Later, John & Ron built the framework for our deck. Monday I was to install the last vacuum outlet in the bonus room above the garage, then add the bathroom blocking and we would be ready to start the sheetrock.


Instead, early Monday morning, I fell in our backyard and broke my left arm. We then discovered the weak spot in our Kaiser insurance. Kaiser was closed for the holiday & although we live only 1 block from Santiam Valley Hospital, we were denied permission to get my treatment down the street. We were instructed to go to Salem Hospital to some clinic Kaiser has a holiday contract with. There was a 5 hour wait and the receptionist volunteered that they only had two Med Techs who weren't allowed to do X-Rays. We could have gone to the hospital ER for fast treatment but would have had to pay out of pocket. We chose to come back Tuesday morning & found there is no Urgent care available in Salem! Nurse Cratchet told us we should have driven the 45 minutes to Portland Urgent Care.(Translation: Just go away!).
The X-ray girl was going to shoot my wrist until I objected. She went to check with her boss and somehow we managed to shame them into X-rays of my shoulder & a quickie Dr. consult. He showed me a nice picture of my fractured Humerus ball joint, part of which had broken off. Bad news is they can't put a cast on up that high which means pain & immobilization while it heals plus some PT exercises(More Pain!) to keep the joint from stiffening up from immobilization.

Good news is it should heal without needing surgery & I "probably" won't lose to much from my range of motion. Also they gave me some killer pain pills to get through the next 10 days or so.

Today the Siders finished the West Porch and the North end of the garage. We both like the look of the shingled gable end.

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