September 19th, 2024

Welcome to Part Two of the Surprise Big Finish Hike.  Thank you for be interested enough to want to know the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say - hoo boy, I'm really dating myself now!)

Just as an aside I had a cute graphic and several real photos of my damaged self to share but for whatever reason, my computer flatly refuses to upload them today.  So we will soldier on using just our imaginations to picture what I write.  Sorry about that.

So when last we left the tale,  to recap, I had just made a spectacular swan dive onto the hiking trail after catching my foot in a sneaky tree root.  After I caught my breath, I seemed to be fine so I got up, did my best to dust of as much dirt as possible, checked my camera for damage (it seemed to be fine) and we finished hiking out of the preserve.

By the time we reached the car, I had to admit that my hand was a little tiny bit sore and perhaps my ribs hurt just a mite.  Understandable as I fell, literally on my side with my right arm outstretched, camera in that hand.  Felt like no big deal.  I was sure that once I showered and changed, I would just as right as rain.  I was wrong.

I told Tim about my forest shenanigans upon my return and his concern leapt immediately to two things:  Urgent Care and Ice Packs.  I agreed to the liberal application of ice packs but only after showering (I was 12 different levels of filthy) but declined the visit to Urgent Care. After all, I was only a littlest bit sore, there were no marks on me at all. Nothing was dangling at odd angles, there was no blood and I was fully conscious. Didn't seem like a big deal at all.

By the time I got out of the shower however, I began to see a bruise forming in the palm of my hand which I thought was odd until I remember that I was holding my camera in my hand.  When I matched the two things up.....dingdingding..we have a winner.    I filled a bowl with water and ice and just let my hand submerge in that until it was numb.  Let it dry off and warm up, then did it over and over again.   I figured that along with a healthy dose of Alleve  ought to fix 'er up.  And of course some ice cream because we all know that Ice Cream has great curative powers!

The bruising continued to grow and pop in new places throughout the day as did the swelling.  Hmm I wondered, Maybe I really did hurt myself worse than I thought?   After a long, largely sleepless night due to the rib pain - both front and back which means that every time I lay down I was literally poking a sore spot with a sharp stick.  As softysoft as my lovely mattress is, it felt more like a bed of rocks that night.

By morning my hand was very swollen, front and back, as well as all the fingers save the index and the thumb.  My ribs hurt so much it was uncomfortable to sit or raise my right arm and an impressive new bruise wrapped itself all the way around my right forearm.  Pretty.  So yeah, ouchie.

By mid-afternoon I said Uncle and gave in to Tim's request to go to Urgent Care. Just to make sure nothing was broken.  It wasn't very busy so we were called to the desk to check in right away.  Where we ran into the first surprise (another surprise) issue.  She asked for my photo ID and insurance cards.  No worries, I was smart enough to have brought my purse.  Tim helped me open the zippy compartment where such things are kept and...................what the what?  Where's my driver's license?  Followed quickly by, Where's my insurance cards?  I escalated quickly to full panic.  Tim fortunately being of a much calmer nature began to methodically go through first my wallet and then my entire purse.  But nope, neither one was there.

I tried to look super calm on the outside but on the inside I was totally freaking out!  Did I lose it?  If so where?  Under what circumstances?  Was it stolen?  Is someone else out there masquerading as me? Holy Crap!

The lady behind the desk looked me up and found that I was an existing patient (at an urgent care center - tells you a little something about me, eh?) and the person in front of her matched the photo in her computer so we were set on the score.  Tim handed over his insurance card (same insurance) and that little issue was resolved and we were off to a patient room.

Very quickly a succession of various absolutely lovely, efficient and professional medical people came through to ask questions and take blood pressure and so forth.  The doctor, after a quick stop did order x-rays as expected and I was whisked off for those.  Once again, it was handled beautifully by the nicest people and then we went back to the room to wait for results.  And wait. And wait.

While we waited we played a made up game where we each had to come up with the name of one band or musical solo act for each letter of the alphabet.  Tim had just come up with ZZ Top for the letter Z (I had nothin' ) when the doctor came back in to give us the amazingly good news that Nothing was broken. Wow!  That's awesome!  But that I had some world class contusions, pulled muscles and ligaments and those can take longer to heal than a broken bone.  Well that part is not quite as good but hey, no broken bones. Let's take the win and celebrate!  Woohoo!

As we were driving home the marbles in my head finally fell into the proper holes and I remembered that the last time I was absolutely positive I used both my photo ID and my insurance cards was the day of my last surgery this past June.  The hospital always says to bring those but no  personal belongings (meaning no purse!) so after the hospital returned those items to me, I must have handed them off to Tim for safe keeping.  Which means, perhaps he still has them?

He was surprised at the thought.  Surely he returned them to me.  Once we settled back in, me with various and sundry ice packs here and there as I got as comfortable as possible, Tim left the room.  Shortly thereafter he returned with....yup, My drivers license and insurance cards.  Whew!  What a relief!

So now here we are exactly one week from the original Surprise Big Finish Hike and most of the bruises are but a distant memory.  The few that remain are fading.  My hand and my ribs still hurt like crazy but I know good and well that eventually, this too shall pass.

In the meantime I'm being a lot more careful about where I put my big feet, especially in the forest.

So there you have it.  And lest you think that I was smart enough to lay off the hiking for awhile, you are so silly. Of course not.  Joy and I were back at it yesterday.  I discovered that if I hold the camera in the left hand, I could still push the button with my right index finger and pictures still happen!  Woohoo!    Got some decent pictures too. Which I'll post, probably early next week as a Photo Safari Report.  If you like those, stay tuned!

And have a Great weekend!