Catching up

Well, it was a short summer, but exciting....I'll put all my short post from FB here and put the whole shebang together.

June 2 I had a crown fitted at my dentist.

In July, on the second, I dyed my hair and became more of a brunette again.
On July 23^rd I flew in to in Kentucky, to be with my mother, my brother, Greg, my daughter Jenni, and my granddaughter Kara.

On July 24^th I took Jenni to get her blood tested. She'd been suffering from numbness in both her hands and her feet - which made life a bit harder than usual for her.
She had the tests at Floyd Memorial Hospital, which is where Kara was born - 16 years ago...
On July 26^th we got Jenni's hair and my hair cut — at Fantastic Sams. 

 We also went for a snack at McDonald's on Eastern Blvd. in Clarksville, while we were waiting for an "artist" to open up at Uncle Bob's Tattoos, also on Eastern Blvd.

Mmmm. Good rolls. We had our "farewell dinner — at Logan's Roadhouse. I left two days later, but I need a day with just Mom and Greg after a few days with the girls... We're all a bit nuts and do too much which exhausts me.

In August, we finally took the "day trip" I won to Atlantic City. It was a nice casino, and the room was great. Popeye, the slot machine paid off for Steven - he hit the progressive and got $99.36. Good enough! I didn't win this time around, but the hotel was my prize one night, so I figure I did better. Got a little bit of a sunburn on my chest and shoulders, but forgot to bring sunblock... Sigh.

 Not bad though. It was a nice mini-vacation at Golden Nugget Atlantic City.

We also went to 6 Flags on the way home - Steven wanted to go on a ride that they had been pumping on TV all summer. Well, when we finally got there, we found a 6 Flags a lot different than before. We had passes to get into the park free (a day admission is $66.99 per person - not counting the parking fee - which was an astonishing $25.00), thank goodness. But it looked like everybody else in the tri-

state area did, too. I went on two rides that I can remember. One was the Gotham City inside roller coaster and the other was Houdini's house. Anyway, after Steven rode the Nitro rollercoaster - which took him at least an hour in line, and the Houdini ride, we headed for home. That was the exciting part. We nearly got hit by a semi getting on the Garden State Parkway and once on it, we were going fine until 

 someone slammed on their brakes in front of us. Steven missed hitting him by inches. The car in back of us swerved, but hit us. Steven waved him off and we got home okay from there. Turned out the car just clipped our back bumper - and left the bolts from his front license plate holder in the bumper...

On August 24^th  we went  to Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament to celebrate both Elysha and Jimi's birthdays. It was his first time there, so Elysha treated him to the dungeon/torture chamber....

We also had them "knighted"... But I can't find the picture of that... Sigh.

 

And, for the grand finale. I left early for work on August 30^th. I got out of the car and fell just before the steps at the library. I think I caught my sandal on the Belgian Block and it pitched me forward. I had to haul myself up, go up the small set of steps from the parking lot, down the walkway to the front and up 13 steps to the font door.  I went to wash my hands after I dropped my bags behind the desk and the director, Cheryl Ashley asked me if I was all right. I said, "No, I don't think so." She had me sit down and asked what hurt and I told her I couldn't feel my left arm. Then the gals called an ambulance for me. There were 3 policemen, 4 or 5 EMTs, and assorted bystanders. They took me to Mountainside Hospital where I had to have surgery-tore 2 ligaments and broke the radial head on the elbow. My orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Gary Rombough - I always slip and think of him as Rambo) said it was the Terrible Triad...

 

 This is it splinted up before the surgery, or after - looked about the same. Probably after...

This is after I got home - see how big the elbow is? Yep, it was that big.

 

 

 

And  the two above are what it looked like when it was fresh out of the cast/splint.

 

Flowers from co-workers and friends were nice - although the flowers on the bottom, from my friends in California were not what they had ordered, so the next day the florist came and picked them up and delivered the correct order -- a teddy bear and chocolates! The arrangement from my friends at work also had chocolates, so I almost gained back all the weight I lost when I was one-handed.





 

So, I went to see Dr. Rombough on September 23^rd and he said I was doing pretty good - a bit ahead of schedule, considering my surgery was 4 weeks ago. I was getting better with my left arm and walked a bit to try and get my fear of falling under control. It was a nice day that day- really warm and sunny. I would start physical therapy as soon as I could find one. They gave me three of the ones in Montclair to consider. Kessler also has orthopedic physical therapy, but it is in Clifton... The others are not that far - two in Montclair and one in Cedar Grove. I picked one of the ones in Montclair and found that it was not covered by Workmen's Compensation, which will cover physical therapy because I fell in relation to work (mostly because I think someone is afraid of my family's lawyers...). So I went to one in Verona- just down the Avenue from the library. So I started PT there on October 1^st and have to go three times a week for the rest of the month. I see Rambo again on November 3^rd. I think I can expect more PT in November because the arm is good, but not great. It still hurts, so I'm not good about exercising it at home... But that probably went without saying.

 

So I'll try to keep up here. I guess Summer wasn't so short after all. I'm hoping Fall doesn't mean more falls.... I'm trying to do what I tell people when they leave the library - "be careful out there".....