Winter Whimperland

Continuing the running commentary del whinage, it’s been one of those weeks. A massive cold front has spread across most of the continental U.S., and when I say most, I mean like 98% or so (based on my highly scientific glance at a map on a weather site). With the cold came snow and ice, and in a fit of wintry novelty, I coaxed Aeyong into coming outside to check out the lovely white expanse.

Bad choice. In an uncharacteristic spree of high spirits, Aeyong decided to ski down the driveway and made it about a foot before disaster set in. I think she only made it to the first e of “Whee!” before her feet were launched skyward. Gravity is a harsh mistress and wasn’t offering any soft landings on the frozen driveway. I thought she landed directly on her tailbone, but it was her right wrist that bore most of the force of impact. And, in a contest between bone and frozen concrete, the latter almost always wins.

She sustained a comminuted, intra-articular, angulated and displaced distal radius fracture. In medical terms, we refer to that as “F&*# Me!” As I told her, she wasn’t fucking around. This is her first broken bone in her life as far as she remembers. If you wait until your mid-fifties to break your first bone, you should do it in style, you know the old saying. We both have now sustained orthopedic surgery inducing fractures, just in case anyone thinks we don’t go full throttle when the time is at hand.

The irony is that the rare cold front with snow/ice included that caused the injury in the first place has also shutdown most of our infrastructure, making medical follow up all the more complicated. We were fortunate enough to be able to get her all-wheel drive Toyota out and make it to the nearest ER in Arlington. We’ve subsequently learned that just another few blocks down the street is a Level II trauma center, which would have been the preferable place to go. Lesson learned. Although I’m still practicing medicine in the fringes of disability, local hospital and medical center infrastructure hasn’t been something I’ve investigated very thoroughly. I always kind of tangentially knew there was a medical center/hospital with an ER right there on the highway and down the street from our PCM, so that was always the default ER location we’d attempt first if it was beyond an acute/urgent care type visit.

Now we know to go a little further down the street if it’s trauma or more likely to require the services of a specialist. We don’t routinely need to avail ourselves of medical care in general (not counting prescription refills which are mostly remotely automated), so these aren’t issues we have a great deal of experience with in the recent past.

To add insult to extremity trauma, the infrastructure shutdown has carried across all sectors, so we couldn’t reach anyone to arrange follow up yesterday. I left messages on our primary care doctor’s site and the ER doctor had recommended several orthopedic surgeons, most of whom wouldn’t accept our insurance. Thankfully, one of them was part of our PCMs group and does accept our insurance. Their appointments department called me at the end of the day yesterday, and we’re in the process of coordinating a follow up appointment not with that doctor, but with the groups hand/wrist specialist.

Hopefully the doctor and his clinic will be open for business and we’ll be able to navigate the streets across town. The temperature hasn’t risen above freezing for a few days and that’s going to last a few more days before it slowly starts crawling back upwards. Right now it’s a sweltering 1°, and that’s Fahrenheit. But hey, no wind to speak of! We’ve had at least one set of pipes freeze for an upstairs bathroom sink that’s on the outside wall. Once I noticed, I went around and set all the other sinks to drip, but this one doesn’t seem to be budging. I really hope we don’t get burst pipes out of this, just to add onto all the other fun.

Because of the need for me to look after Aeyong, I requested VES to cancel all of my upcoming schedule until we get a better idea of her upcoming treatment schedule. Surgery will be a definite necessity and then there will likely be a great deal of physical therapy in her future. Hopefully most of that will be during the week, so I’ll eventually be able to return to work, but I imagine it’ll be several weeks before we’re on the other side of things.

I’m sure I’ve expressed my religious beliefs (lack of) here before, but I do like some of the wisdom found in tomes spiritual. “God laughs while you’re making plans.” This could also be expressed as “Life is what happens while you’re making plans.” We’ve had a year chock full of life happening in direct defiance of all our plans and expectations. COVID-19, layoff and eventual termination of my work with the VA, all the nail biting and teeth gnashing related to the state of politics and governance in this country, etc.

It’s not all bad, though. As I’ve said before, we’re among the fortunate in that we have a steady retirement income, a good home, and we haven’t truly suffered any deprivation this whole time. This injury has been the most devastating medical event in several years time, and it will be rough going for Aeyong for weeks and months to come, but we’re both still standing and we’ll come out this intact I’m sure.

The urge to dip into our retirement savings has reared it’s ugly head yet again, especially considering the prospect of not wanting to work for several weeks and wanting to maintain a positive cash flow. We’re not at a point that we need to make that decision just yet, though. Financially, this should hopefully just be a temporary setback while we get Aeyong healed and I can eventually get back to work and get some cash flow restored.