[Sca-cooks] How I spent my Thanksgivig

[Stefan li Rous]

Gunthar brought up:
 > So, what are y'all making for Thanksgiving?
 > On T-Day itself, my lady and I will be going to a Household dinner
 > so we'll be bringing a couple of potluck items.
 >
 > I'm bringing my crustless mushroom quiche, homemade cranberry
 > sauce, cornbread dressing.
 > April will bring sweet potato casserole and pumpkin tarts. Maybe
 > something else.
 >
 > So, whatcha bringing?

Well, since both my family here in town is small, the plan was for  
both to meet at the country home of one of my in-laws. I had planned  
to bring a chocolate bundt cake with soft fudge center using one of  
our new cake pans we bought recently, and a pair of non-period  
seafood appetizers posted here several years ago. My wife was going  
to make Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday evening we were finishing up a 3-mile walk  
around Town Lake, a lake which winds through downtown Austin, we were  
getting drinks of water at the water station, and I backed up to give  
some folks more room. As I backed up my foot caught on small memorial  
stone set into the powdered granite, and down I went.

I didn't loose consciousness, and I didn't really hurt, but since I  
couldn't move my left arm far without it hurting, I didn't think it  
was good. There was also this unusual bump slightly above my elbow. A  
nearby runner called the EMS and they showed up fairly quickly. I  
wasn't about to stand, stumble across the street and have my wife  
drive be to the ER. The ride there getting bounced abruptly up and  
down against the sides was making me wonder if the former method  
might have been better. Those rigs are big, but you can send fragile  
electronics in air-ride vans. I'm not sure why they can't cushion or  
actively stabilize the gurney.

The EMTs tried multiple attempts to insert an IV while I was on the  
ground and finally gave up. For whatever reason this continued  
through the next week.  Maybe because I was a bit dehydrated.

I had hoped that maybe they would fix the sprain  or apply the cast  
for the fracture and we could still make fighter practice at 7:30.  
Instead about that time I was being admitted to the hospital, and the  
had put my arm in a sling and scheduled my surgery for 7:30 am the  
next morning.

I guess when I do something I don't fool around. I totally broke the  
bone in my upper arm about two inches above the elbow and the two  
pieces overlapped about half an inch. Then they found out during  
surgery Wednesday morning that I also split the bone vertically from  
the break through the elbow.  They put in plate(s) and screws

At least this was my left arm. I'm right handed.

Actually my left arm hasn't been hurting that much since the surgery,  
although there have been times when it really has...  I apparently  
bruised several ribs on my right side though, and those have hurt  
much more. Before the surgery, having the bones
wiggle and rub against each other while my arm rested flat against  
the table, now *that* was weird.

I've never broken any appendages before. Just compressed some  
vertebrae five or six years ago. I'm trying to learn to do things one- 
handed and dealing with things like this sling/cast itching. To  
increase the pressure, it looks like Dell Computer may still be  
interested in my skills since they want to bring me in to talk to the  
board design managers, rather than the mostly systems managers they  
had me talking to in early October. Hope I'm not too grungy or have  
the cast stinking by then. I'll have to get my wife to drive me there  
since I don't think I can drive with the cast over my elbow and arm.

I can still type but I'm rather slow with one hand. So I can comment  
on here and work on the Florilegium continues, just at a much slower  
rate than usual. :-)

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****