I was very excited for this weekend. I had plenty of projects to start or finish for the mid-winter dinner, some phone calls I hoped to make, and some rest time with friends over the two brunches we would be blessed with.
Instead...
Bandaids 1 & 2: I burned myself on the popcorn machine on Thursday. I did not get a blister, nor did the burn go very deep, but I still covered it with burn cream and a pair of bandaids to be safe.
Bandaid 3: In the morning, I had a blood draw for part 2 of the NASA Vitamin D study I am a part of. Besides being first thing in the morning, it went well, and NASA now has two more viles of my blood.
Bandaid 4 & 5: I was off work at 5:30pm on Friday and headed for my room. I started finishing my season 7 of Gilmore Girls and around 6pm decided to lay down on my heating pad since my neck was a bit stiff. As soon as I got to the floor, my neck decided to spasm. It was quite painful, actually, and I found myself stuck flat on my back on the floor with a heating pad on the highest setting (it warms up faster if you start it on "high"), unable to move.
Meanwhile the heating pad got warmer, the Gilmore Girls episode ended, the credits finished, and the same 30 seconds of intro music played over and over and over again while I laid on the floor. Fifteen minutes later, I finally, carefully, rolled over on my side, and somehow managed to get upright; although my head seemed to want to roll off my shoulders. I found our physical therapist in the galley and she took me over to medical and got me all hooked up for some stem therapy. After an hour, I left feeling a touch better with a neck collar, two injections; one on each hip (bandaids 4& 5), a pocketful of three other prescriptions, and a decent blood pressure reading.
Needless to say, my weekend was not so productive as it was a sleepy conglomeration of white pills, blue pills, and yellow pills, DVD's, sleep, pills, more sleep, a meal, sleep, etc. I have felt pretty good except Saturday morning when I couldn't walk half way across my room without nearly passing out. Thankfully, a friend made and delivered my favorite waffle with strawberry juice and whipped cream from brunch; and even served it with a french press of fresh coffee (this friend also picked up the camera and took this photo--I have since found that I have a hooded fleece to cover up the collar).It's Sunday evening and I still have quite a bit of pain, but V1codin takes the edge off and in a couple days I hope to be back at it. There is a bright side: It's good this happened while I am in Antarctica because all the medical treatment was free; no forms to fill out, no extra run to the pharmacy for prescriptions. I was in, treated and out in less than an hour!
Hopefully, my next two day weekend will be a bit less painful and much more productive!
3 comments:
Sometimes you just don't know do you. You plan to have some good R & R and then this happens. You just answered a question I was going to ask, how health care works in a place like yours. You are on track when you can also look for positives in lifes situations. Thoughts are coming your way from here.
Hang in there girly. We will be praying for you. Love you.
Yikes! That sounds painful. But hey, at least you did get all of this over a two-day weekend and didn't have to be in misery while working!
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