San Francisco, CA - Lefty

We really haven’t done much in San Francisco this time around. Certainly not as much as we did back in 2012 when we were here the first time. But, then I’ve been mostly flat on my back and staring at the ceiling. Not conducive to running around the city being a tourist. Here’s a short synopsis of what I’ve been doing these last few weeks.

Here’s the short story: I stepped off a dock, injured my left knee and a week later I realized that I had injured my left elbow and hand. There you go - now head on to the next blog entry - unless you are a masochist and want to read the long story.

        3/23 - I stepped of a dock into the cold ocean water and hurt my left leg. I iced it and kept it elevated but it had swollen a lot, was extremely tender and was looking ugly.

        3/24 - we went to the emergency room of the hospital since we feared the swelling might be just covering up more damage. They took x-rays, gave me a knee brace and the name of an orthopedic surgeon to look at it. I made an appointment for the following Wednesday and hobbled with the brace until then. We even took in a tour of the Charles Schulz Museum on Monday.

        3/30 - the doctor looked at my knee, took some more x-rays, gave me a much better knee brace (which actually bent at the knee) and sent me on my way with a follow-up appointment for the following Wednesday.

        3/31, I awoke in the middle of the night with pain in my left elbow. I also developed pain in my left shoulder

        4/1, 4/2 I lay flat on my back in bed since that was the only thing that gave me any relief. I’d rotate between the bed and sofa and back again. So dull and boring. In the meantime I was trying out different kinds of medication and learning about different kinds of OTC pain medication (so many kinds): acetaminophen, aspirin, naproxen, etc. (I can even tell you what NSAID stands for.)Nothing seemed to do any good but, then, I was taking it at the prescribed dosage. Maybe, for my pain, I should have taken more at a time. I don’t like to take medication so didn’t want to take more than prescribed.

        Meanwhile, I realized that the fingers of my left hand had lost a lot of strength. Things I could do prior to my accident I couldn’t do any more like pushing the little button on the shower head to cut the water for a bit while I was lathering up. Like picking things up with my left hand. Pretty obvious that I had a problem here.

        4/3, we headed back to the emergency room and had some x-rays, got a sling and a prescription for some more potent pain killing medication. This seemed to work and the first day I took 1 pill every 4 hours as prescribed.

        4/4 we planned to visit the Jack London State Park so I took 1 pill with breakfast but, before we left, I felt light headed and a bit nauseous. This passed by the time we got to the museum and we had a fine time. That night I took 1 pill and not only felt nauseous, but lost all my cookies. Umm - not good and not something I’ve done for years - like 30 or 40 years. I immediately cut my dosage to 1/2 pill.
        4/6 - Wednesday with my leg in its brace and my arm in a sling. I told the doctor that my leg was doing just great, that I could see little signs of improvement every day like I could bend it further, like each foot could take its own step rather than one step at a time. Lots of little improvements so my knee wasn’t my concern. But, please look at my arm. He did, ran me though a range of motion actions to check to see what hurt and what motions I could not do. At the end, he told me - that he could do nothing for me since my range of motion and bones seemed to be just fine. He recommended a physical therapist. Oh, shucks, not what I wanted to hear. I wanted a simple answer. Nope, more appointments, more work. Drat.

        4/7 - I got in to see Brian, a physical therapist, learned a bit more about the human body and the medical system. Drs work with bones, physical therapists work with muscles, nerves and ligaments. He gave me a series of motions for my arm, checked to see where the pain was, checked my left hand and - gave me a load of exercises to do and a follow-up. I was impressed with his analysis and prognosis.

        4/8- I began work on the exercises that Brian gave me for my hand and am also typing this blog so am exercising my finger agility this way too. Meanwhile I ordered some Theraputty from Amazon. Because I have some pain still, I began to take Tylenol Extra Strength - which knocked me out and all I wanted to do was to sleep.

        2 emergency room visits, 2 doctor appointments, a knee brace, an arm sling, a visit to a physical therapist and here I sit. Oh, yeah, have we had any time to visit San Francisco and do all the things I’ve got on my list? What do you think? We’ve seen a lot of the inside of the RV this month.

        And, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.