Oh Lord… I think I am going to lock myself in a padded room with sea view the first two weeks of September for the future. September 12, 2017 I had my first cardiac arrest. September 8, 2020 I fell and presumably broke my foot (it was never checked until several months later) and yesterday, September 7th I fell on the scene of a traffic accident and hurt my hand…

First… I have full mobility in all my fingers and both wrists, therefore I see no need to go and get this x-rayed. It does hurt but I can deal with the pain. Yes a employee injury was submitted!

So I had re-parked the car and was walking towards my partner and he asked me to get the stretcher. I am going to do a 180 turn but doesn’t realize that there is loose gravel underneath me and my legs are just slipping straight out. There comes 200 lbs Hippopotamus flying down on the ground with my right arm and shoulder first in the asphalt. I hear two people (later identified as a firefighter and a sheriff’s deputy) say “ouch” loud and painful. I could confirm it hurt. But I got up on my feet fast and brushed off the gravel on me. Quickly realized I could move my fingers and my hand, so off we go. I had two patients to take care of. As long as nothing is broken and I can do my job, I can look at myself later.

So when the call was done and I had the time to look at my arm this is what I see

It is tender but only hurts when I push on it. So I go and get an icepack that I sit with for about 20 minutes so at least the swelling would go down. My right shoulder is also a little painful but the uniform makes it hard to see any bruising. Again, I could move it so I wasn’t worried.

Two hours later I realize that my medical bracelet is stuck on my wrist and I look and see this swelling

Well oopsie doo. Still, I can move everything and it only hurts when I aggravate it. It is quite painful as well to lift our heavy monitor but not to the point I can’t do it.

I continue my shift and as the time goes the wrist is becoming more and more colorful. That was the part that didn’t get any ice or cold treatment and we got busy so there was no time to do it. When I came back to the station a coworker looked at it from another angle than I can see it and her facial expression said it all… she helped me take some pictures…

Oh well. Maybe there is an injury in there. But I ain’t going to check that out. I don’t have time for that. Remember my foot injury two years ago? ( here is the blog posts about it: https://www.swedeintexas.com/2020/09/08/crazy-30-hours/ and https://www.swedeintexas.com/2020/09/09/my-ankle/ ) I walked almost 9 miles after it happened on the foot, never got it checked out and even though it took time, it turned out okay. So since I still have full mobility in my arm and hand I have no reason to bother a doctor. They will only put me in a brace and out of work and that ain’t happening. It would financially ruin me.

This morning I woke up… It was quite interesting to see how these bruises had developed…

Two new bruises had appeared on my left hand and that wrist was now swollen and painful. Good grief, I must have tried to come into a fetal position when I fell or something. That I didn’t break any of the arms or hands is quite amazing. Well, no we don’t know because I didn’t get it looked at but at this point, 36 hours later, if something would be broke I wouldn’t be able to sit and type this effortless. I could have hit my head and that didn’t happen either. Some ugly bruises for a couple of days I can live with.

Once again, extremely blessed and lucky that this was the outcome. I thought I would be more sore and in pain today than I’ve been. Thankfully I’m off tomorrow so if it is the 2-day after rule I can just sit at home and feel sorry for myself all day!

My dear friend Arley gave me a new nickname today and I actually think it was quite appropriate… “Crash”.

So what do you think? Just a bruise, sprained or fractured?