Day 3162

I injured my wrist again. I have no idea what happened. Yesterday, my wrist felt stiff when I woke up. By this morning, things had gotten worse and I could barely move it at all. Did I overdo things at the gym on Sunday? Did I pull a tendon trying to get the fitted sheet on the bed? It could have even happened while I was trying to get Dash's rubber boots on for his morning walk. That's what sucks about getting old. Just about anything can lead to a major problem.

I still have the brace I wore while I was recovering from last year's dog bite and started wearing it again this morning. Somehow, immobilizing your wrist goes a long way toward alleviating the pain. Without the brace, even drinking my morning coffee was painful. With it, life proceeded more or less normally. I definitely couldn't climb up on the roof today. I'm not going to be able to do that for a while. Here's hoping that our hot August weather will help the standing water evaporate.

I guess I should make a doctor's appointment, but I'll probably wait a few days to see if things improve. I've injured my wrist at least four times before and I know exactly what the doctor is going to do. They'll take an x-ray and tell me that no bones are broken. They'll ask me to move my wrist and discover that I can't. It's inflammation, they'll say. Then they'll tell me to wear the brace for a week and give me a cortisone shot. I've already got the brace and I hate taking steroids, so I'm just going to try to take it easy for a few days and see what happens. I can always go to the doctor later.

I hope that Dash doesn't need to go to the doctor again. His stools are still loose and his appetite is decreasing again. Most of the symptoms he's experiencing now are consistent with heart disease, so I'm not sure there's much we can do. I'd hate to change his diet. The homemade meals we're fixing now are very healthy and should be good for a dog with a sensitive stomach. I'm not even sure a trip to the vet would help. We've been through this so many times before. When the dog has nausea or diarrhea they'll give you some Cerenia pills. With an upset stomach, they'll want you to feed him canned Hills ID. If all else fails and you keep coming back with the same problem, they'll recommend a MRI. We've done all this. If Dash's leaking heart valve was treatable, we probably wouldn't be having a lot of these problems. The vestibular disease doesn't help either.

I contacted another auction house today. I'm discovering that consigning the second tier art is much harder than my initial experience with the desirable stuff. If there's something the auction houses really want, they'll treat you like royalty. If you have something they know won't sell, you'll be lucky to even get a reply. Ultimately, an auction house is just a business like any other business. They want to make money.

Dash and I looked pitiful this morning. He was wearing a brace on his leg and I was wearing a brace on my arm. We're troopers though. We both walked a mile and a half. I'm going to wear the brace to bed tonight. Maybe it will help me sleep better. That's probably just wishful thinking. I'm almost certain I'll be standing outside waiting for Dash to poop at 3 AM.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2753

Janet and I have to do all our errands together now. She can drive, but her doctors don't want her to lift things. I've got one good hand for lifting things, but I can't drive. Together, we make a pretty decent team, although I still don't understand why we are doing our shopping on busy weekends. When we were out today, I saw a couple of old people who had personal assistants. "We need one of those," I said.

I'll be glad when I don't have to wear the splint on my wrist anymore. I wish I had the forethought to fall on my right wrist instead of my left. I am so totally left handed that it's hard to even write my name or hold a fork these days. I am getting better though. The swelling is starting to subside on my left leg and I find it easier to sleep now. I'm going to have to revise my position on pain pills a bit. They do have their uses. When I took a Tylenol-Codeine pill before I went to sleep last night, it really helped dull the pain in my wrist. I may not even need a pill tonight. The pain is not as bad today.

Dash is a lazy dog and loves to nap, but I think even he is becoming bored with us. Janet and I both get tired so easily now. After we finished our shopping today, we both went back to bed and went to sleep for two hours. Although it is becoming easier to walk, I still can't be on my feet for too long. Moving around a bit is good for circulation, but moving around too much is bad. You really have to stay focused on healing. You can't pretend that everything is fine when it isn't.

This whole incident has made me realize that you have to start taking falls seriously as you get older. I've fallen many times before. I've even landed on my wrists before. It's kind of natural to try to break a fall with your hands. Although I've fallen hundreds of times for dozens of reasons, I've never put myself out of commission like this before. I'm going to have to be real careful when I go up on the roof. Old, brittle bones aren't very forgiving.

The animal control people were back in the neighborhood today. They were still looking for the owners of the dog who bit me. Janet and I have told them several times that the owners are out of town, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. When the guy knocked on my door again this morning, I gave him the owners cell phone numbers and asked him to please call them directly. Just knocking randomly on neighbor's doors and asking people if they'd seen the owners isn't going to prove anything. It's weird that animal control is ruthlessly efficient, but I can't get the sanitation people to empty my trash. When I look at how city government functions, it's no surprise that our national government doesn't work very well either.

My newly upgraded computer seems to be working well. Even though the cloned hard drive was supposed to be absolutely identical to the old drive, I'm noticing all sorts of little differences. The computer seems to know that there's been an organ transplant. Some icons look different now and the computer seems to want to go into hibernation and disconnect from WiFi when it has been sitting idle for more than thirty minutes. Maybe this is a good thing. The computer is idle quite a bit. Lord knows how much electricity I've wasted over the years.

I'll be glad when I can get back to walking Dash again. I miss our early morning walks. One of the best signs that I've been totally out of it lately is that the battery on my fitness tracker has been dead for three days and I only noticed this morning. I'll try to keep the battery charged, but it's going to take a while to get back to taking 10,000 steps a day.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2752

I spent most of the morning at the emergency room. I've had painful wrists for years, but yesterday I noticed that the pain was getting worse. It was excruciating last night and I couldn't even sleep. When I fell after the dog bit me, I must have either sprained or broken my wrist. Even though I rarely take pain pills, I took one of Janet's powerful after surgery pills in hopes that it might help me get some sleep. This morning, I still felt miserable, so I decided to go to the emergency room and get some x-rays.

Yesterday, I was driving Janet to the doctor. Today, she was driving me. Luckily, she got the OK to drive again just this morning. Amazingly, the emergency room wasn't very full. I got admitted within fifteen minutes and my whole exam from start to finish was less than three hours. All things considered, I felt like I was treated very well. I didn't have any broken bones, but I did have a severe sprain along with clear signs that I have osteoarthritis in my hands. I was fitted for a splint, given a few ice packs, a pain killer prescription and sent on my way. The doctor who examined me referred me to an orthopedic specialist to confirm the arthritis diagnosis.

Basically I'm a mess right now. My left hand is in splint, I can't raise my right hand very high because of my dislocated shoulder, and both legs are still very swollen and painful from the dog bites. Poor Dash isn't going to get a walk for a while. He doesn't seem very upset though. Actually, I think he likes hanging around the house with us. It's been a long time since Janet and I both spent all day in the house for weeks at a time. We may be going stir crazy, but Dash approves of this arrangement. He likes having the whole family together.

Despite all my problems, I still managed to get my computer upgraded. the employees at the repair place loaded the computer in and out of the car for me. Somehow, I managed to carry it from the driveway to the house with one hand. Amazingly, everything still works. The technicians told me that I prepared the clone drive correctly and I now have a working 4 terabyte internal drive. Probably my computer will be obsolete before I run out of space again.

Animal control didn't waste any time investigating the dog bite. They interviewed Janet while I was in the emergency room and I think they tried to interview the dog sitter as well. I told the owners to expect this when I talked with them yesterday. Physicians are required by law to report all dog bites. The dog will have to be quarantined while he is evaluated. If the owners are lucky, they will be allowed to quarantine him at home. Even though this dog bit me, I'd still hate to see him have to go to the pound.

The doctor sent me home with an ice pack and a splint. Unfortunately, I can't use the ice pack while I'm wearing the splint. You'd think somebody would have designed these things a little better. I've got to decide whether to use the ice pack or take a pain pill tonight. I think I'll opt for the Codeine. The ice I used last night didn't really do much.

Just so you know, it wasn't very easy to type this. I'm not going to let a bum wrist slow me down though. This is Day 2752 and it needs to be documented.

Delaney is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day