Kontan Jou

Finish the story . . .

One dark night I decided to stay up late to do my homework. Suddenly I noticed a big bump on my bedroom wall. I looked closer and saw a rounded lump about a foot across and about eight inches thick which appeared out of nowhere. I rubbed my eyes, looked again, but the lump had disappeared. I figured I must have stayed up too late, so I went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I was convinced that the mysterious lump was just a dream. But . . . two nights later when I was studying,the lump appeared again. This time I examined it more closely and found…

the events of this week have consumed me. i hate seeing djembe in pain and frustrated at having to have help with this or that. each day is progress though. we were FINALLY able to get in to see the orthopedic doc…we chose the same that fixed tweety’s arm. i asked for a two for one deal, don’t think he’ll go for it. after he gave two shots in the wrist (OMG THAT HAD TO FREAKIN HURT) he put djembe in a contraption that held his arm up by chinese finger cuffs with weights on his upperarm. after a few minutes doc then pushed the bone back in alignment…or as close asen djembe could stand him to get. that obviously hurt as well. xray looks better and no surgery as long as the bone does not shift. as for the right arm, it is a bad sprain with other possible damage that should heal on its own…just take it easy with it. needless to say it has been an interesting week.

now off to find something else of interest…maybe work on the month of novels plan . . .

djembe said i’m never happy unless i have a project…i teased him when grad school was officially over and told him that he was going to be my project. oh little did i know. . . his pain is getting under control and is able to do a few more things for himself. i really like taking care of him, but know he is independent and doesn’t like to feel like he is being a burden. he’s not at all. time to repay the favor after his wonderful care following two children, stitches in the foot, and a surgery. i just wish i could do more to make his pain stop.

i thought the transition from grad school would be more difficult, but circumstances have forced me to jump in with both feet. i’m back to being mom and teacher…working then coming home to cook, clean, and meet the needs of man and child. today was the first day back with kids and i came home wiped out. not easy to stand talking from 730-4…(i had a meeting afterschool). my knees and back do not appreciate it. currently dinner clean up is waiting for me to regain motivation. no motivation is there…but i know the mess will be worse if i put it off.

time to again overcome procrastination tendencies…besides it’s sleepytime. thanks for stopping by.

i need to vent and this seemed like a decent place to start. my husband (djembe) fell from a ladder sunday evening just before 6 PM and broke both arms. the left one pretty bad and the right not as bad. we arrived and checked into the ER at 6:39 only to wait for HOURS before he was seen. now, i understand that if you go to the ER you will have to wait and it will take a while. what i don’t understand is why so long. it was 2 AM b/f they did anything to him and 4 AM before we returned home. i saw people there who didn’t seem ill enough to warrant an ER visit and saw people there who had been there for many hours more than us. one elderly lady in particular had been there since noon. she left around midnight w/o being seen, but was obviously very ill. there were babies there that were also really ill. one was finally taken back when the parents were almost frantic b/c he couldn’t get his breath. he had been there longer than us and was still there, at least now in an ER room, when we left. i just felt horrible b/c there was nothing i could do to ease djembe’s pain. i did give him tylenol as often as i thought i could, it didn’t do much to touch it.

now, when he was called. . .

they call his name and i motion that we were there. they had been doing checks like that all evening. after a moment i went to the desk to see if they were just checking or if they needed something. she said they were going to take him back. great! so i go gather the few things we had and notice that she is just standing across the way, apparently waiting. i ask if we are supposed to follow now…she had not indicated anything. now i don’t mind pushing him or doing whatever is needed but would like to be instructed as to what someone wants. she said something like ‘well yeah’. o-k. i followed. we get to the room area and she mumbles something, parks another patient, and goes into a room. again, i didn’t know if this was ours or another. i peek my head in and ask if this was his room…*not so kind voice* ‘bring him on in’. o-k. did. he lays down and it apparently felt much better. so we rest there for a while.

skip ahead to the splinting of main arm…two nurses come. one was the same that had shown us back and is enjoying the music in her head, the other is in a great mood as well. wonderful, but kill the perkiness when you can see someone needs calm. a little confused as to what the plan was at that point i was unable to get any info from either of them. they are less than gentle with djembe’s fragile arm. the water bowl that was used for the splint clanged to the floor b/c it was resting on a slanted surface. that made a bad jittery sitch even worse. water is all over the floor. after they finished wrapping him up they start to wipe up the water. head-music nurse slips a little, catching her fall with a hand on djembe’s abdomen…this happens twice. there was just absolutely NO bedside manner or seemingly no care that he was hurting. i know they see hurt/sick people everyday but come on!

that was our third visit to the ER this year. the first two times were with our youngest. oddly enough it was for a broken arm the first time. i’m just not impressed with the organization and service there. there were good techs but overwhelmingly i am disenchanted with much of the ‘service’.

well, so far 2006 sucks. we’ve been redecorating and everything is really coming together. we decided to wall mount our bedroom tv. djembe did a wonderful job of it, then chose to break both arms. OMG! ladder accident and he broke his fall with his left arm, rolled on his right. so the left is currently in a splint and the right is in a brace. this all happened yesterday. we made it to the ER around 6:30 PM and returned home around 4 AM. fortunately we have great neighbors that ran over when i called, put a splint on his arm (she’s a doc), took care of locking up the house, fed the dogs, and took our kids (as well as the puppy) for the night. djembe is in a TON of pain. i hate it, there is nothing i can do to take it away. the meds aren’t really taking it away. i had to go back to school today…no students, but i did have first semester grades to take care of and rosters to grab for new kids tomorrow. maybe i will take time to finish my storage goals, but i have to take care of my teaching junk first.

i certainly hope the new year gets better.