EddyTeddyFreddy does a faceplant

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It all started out so well this morning…

Or, um, no. No, actually, it didn’t start out all that well; for whatever reason I’d been unable to get to sleep till nigh on 5:00 a.m. Only the desperation move of getting out of my sleepless bed to do some proofreading finally coaxed Morpheus out of hiding. (Or was it the Benadryl?) When the alarm went off a little before 10:00, it was so tempting to just shut it off and go back to sleep.

But no! No, I’d planned to go on the inaugural hike over a newly opened section of trails in the Appleton Grass Rides this morning, to be there in time for the ceremonial ribbon-cutting, congratulatory speech-making, and group march. Stride-off time was 11:00 a.m.

So, sleep-deprived as I was, I struggled upright, fed the cats, pulled on suitable clothes, and headed out – forgetting in my foggy haste a pair of mittens or gloves, though as it turned out the day was pleasant enough that they weren’t needed for more than a fit of futile fretting on the drive over.

There was a good turnout – couple of dozen, easy, with a lighthearted leavening of dogs revelling in their off-leash freedom. We did the ceremonials, then headed out. I found myself in the first cluster, marching alongside two of the men who’d done yeoman service in planning and clearing this abandoned and overgrown segment of the Rides. Walking briskly over the leaf-strewn undulations of the ride, we were merrily chatting, enjoying the day…

Then my toe caught the low stub of a cut-off sapling, hidden by the leaf litter, lurking unseen till my tripping over the damned thing revealed it.

Next thing I know, I’m toppling forward – downhill, just to make it all more exciting – my abrupt embrace of gravity ending in a full-body faceplant, complete with arms flung forward in a futile attempt to break my fall, which did nothing except rewrench a previously injured shoulder.

My solicitous companions, reassured by my regaining my feet and my evident possession of full mobility, were kind enough not to laugh. I brushed off the leaf litter coating my forward aspect, ruefully examined the sad warping of my glasses’ frames, winced at the sullen protests offered by my shoulder at any attempt to move it in certain directions, and went on with the hike.

I knew by the time we returned to our starting point and I got into my car – well, not my car, actually; the one I’m renting while my own dear little Scion is in the body shop getting healed of the damage inflicted in a moment of inattention on my part; but that’s another story – when I drove off I knew I was going to be feeling some after-effects, and so it has proven.

My first stop after Appleton was the barn, to visit and ride my horse Ben. Lucky boy! Between my sleep-deficit fog and the low mutterings of developing body aches, I’d had enough after only ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Well, not wholly lucky; I turned over his reins to the young woman who exercises him for me, so he didn’t entirely get out of working, just didn’t have to bear as heavy a burden, or work as correctly as I insist on expecting from him.

Then home again, home again, jiggedy-jig, for a belated lunch, a reviving cup of coffee, and a judicious ingestion of aspirin, with stronger stuff in reserve if things really start going south. Now, some five hours later, I can actually trace the lines of the various aches brewing in arms, legs, neck, and back. It’ll be, um, interesting to see how stiff I’ll be when I get up (or try to, anyway) tomorrow morning.

So, that was my mostly excellent adventure today. I do hope tomorrow isn’t quite so exciting.

2

Yeah, that sounds like a do-over day you had there, Eddy.

Did your glasses fling off your face, or did the nosepieces get mashed into the corners of your eyes?

I think ibuprofen is better than aspirin in your case, no?

::scritches Ben’s nose::

3

Yeah, ibuprofen’s better at tending the unhappy muscles than aspirin, but it can be hard on the stomach or liver, depending.

Ice for the first 24 hours. Heat after that, and don’t forget the arnica ointment for the bruises.

4

It’s a bad sign when they don’t laugh after you’ve fallen. It means they are being respectful to the elderly. That day has come.

Poor baby.

5

Got some ibuprofen aboard now, just one tab, and it’s helping – so long as I don’t move the bad shoulder in certain ways. Unfortunately, that is the side I normally sleep on. I’ll have to go looking for arnica ointment tomorrow, if any bruises show up, but so far there’ve been none.

What I do appear to have are very sore and/or strained muscles. To ease them, a couple of times today I’ve rubbed in a camphor/menthol/methyl salicylate ointment I found in the medicine cabinet. That does seem to be a bit helpful. Smells good, too. The greatest discomfort, with occasional stabs of pain, is in the spot I’d injured a few months ago, where the right-arm deltoid ties into the biceps. The left deltoid insertion is bothering me too, though not as severely. In both arms there’s also extension of soreness into the biceps and triceps themselves. That’s where I’ve been applying the ointment.

I can tell my brachial plexus is going to be stiffened up tomorrow; it’s already grumbling. The nape of my neck is also muttering vague threats. Some fingers are offering disgruntled comments on my clumsiness as well. My wrists likewise are not happy about their role in my failed attempts to stave off gravity. The lower back figures what the hey, might as well jump on the bandwagon too.

The glasses didn’t go flying off, criminey.jicket; they stuck close enough to my face for it to ram them through the leaf litter into the underlying solid surface of the trail. While my face is unmarked, the lens frame is canted inward at the bottom and one earpiece is winged outward from parallel.

Ben says thank you for scritching the map of Texas on his nose, but where are the cookies?

On preview: Jeez Louis, Zoe, as if I weren’t feeling bad enough already?!? :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Got some ibuprofen aboard now, just one tab, and it’s helping – so long as I don’t move the bad shoulder in certain ways. Unfortunately, that is the side I normally sleep on. I’ll have to go looking for arnica ointment tomorrow, if any bruises show up, but so far there’ve been none.

What I do appear to have are very sore and/or strained muscles. To ease them, a couple of times today I’ve rubbed in a camphor/menthol/methyl salicylate ointment I found in the medicine cabinet. That does seem to be a bit helpful. Smells good, too. The greatest discomfort, with occasional stabs of pain, is in the spot I’d injured a few months ago, where the right-arm deltoid ties into the biceps. The left deltoid insertion is bothering me too, though not as severely. In both arms there’s also extension of soreness into the biceps and triceps themselves. That’s where I’ve been applying the ointment.

I can tell my brachial plexus is going to be stiffened up tomorrow; it’s already grumbling. The nape of my neck is also muttering vague threats. Some fingers are offering disgruntled comments on my clumsiness as well. My wrists likewise are not happy about their role in my failed attempts to stave off gravity. The lower back figures what the hey, might as well jump on the bandwagon too.

The glasses didn’t go flying off, criminey.jicket; they stuck close enough to my face for it to ram them through the leaf litter into the underlying solid surface of the trail. While my face is unmarked, the lens frame is canted inward at the bottom and one earpiece is winged outward from parallel.

Ben says thank you for scritching the map of Texas on his nose, but where are the cookies?

On preview: Jeez Louise, Zoe, as if I weren’t feeling bad enough already?!? :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Ha! I have discovered a quirk of this board in its current incarnation! I attempted to edit my post to fix a typo (“Louis” instead of “Louise”) but got the little “Too late, sucker!” box. Disheartened, I hit the back button and found myself on the page where I’d originally composed the post. I poked the missing “e” onto “Louis” and hit submit – and there it was, the double post, only now with the correction inserted.

My browser is Firefox; I dunno if this would work in another browser.

8

Youch! If you lived closer, I’d send my massage therapist over to you and she’d fix you right up. She’s not a fru-fru therapist, she’s a rehabilitation therapist, and she’s goooooood!

I did a face plant from atop a bicycle a couple of years ago, and am still nursing an injured shoulder. One thing I find helps a little is taking a bath with therapeutic bath salts.

Hope you feel better soon!

9

Thanks, Shayna. As it happens, the massage therapist for my horse will be working on him this coming Thursday. Maybe if I nicker and paw she’ll do me too?

Why are you looking at me like :dubious:? Equine massage is quite mainstream these days. Just ask Wikipedia!

Of course, it’s my horse that gets the massages and I never treat myself to one… :frowning:

10

Fall Onto OutStretched Hands or FOOSH as the ER docs like to call it.

I did one myself just this August. Fell off my bike from the sidewalk onto the road. At night. It must have looked pretty horrendous, because the only car on the road pulled over and stopped to check on me. I ended up with a hairline fracture of my radius that acted much larger than it actually was.

Also, it turns out to be true that the palms of your hands don’t discolor with bruises, but that’s because all the blood seeps down into your wrist for a truly bizarre color show. And, my shoulder still hurts every now and then, but it’s not too bad.

Considering that the witnesses might have refrained from laughing because you scared them so bad, respect for one’s elders isn’t such a bad thing, ETF.

Hang in there. I wish you happiness and massages.

11

FOOSH, huh? The last time I did that, some years ago, it was by tripping over a shovel and slamming headlong onto asphalt; and I too got a hairline fracture of my radius, right up at the elbow. The orthopod was kind enough to inform me that, if I had to break my elbow, I’d done it in the least dire way. I was in a half-cast and sling for a while – which didn’t stop me from tacking up my horse and riding after I’d had a couple of days to get over the worst of the shock. It’s amazing what you can do one-handed if you’re determined/stubborn/stupid enough. :smiley:

Anyway, I hope your shoulder resolves itself. Mine, unfortunately, is still bothering me many months after I hurt it yanking a girth tight too strenuously.

12

Just want to jump in and say hope you’re feeling better… and that Ben is adorably cute! More Ben pics, please?

13

Why, thankee kindly! This morning I’m still quite sore, with new areas registering fresh complaints – did you know that fingers strongly disapprove of being jammed into the ground? – but overall less stiff and hobbled than I’d expected. Why, I even have a full range of motion in my neck! Still, this will be a day of careful motion, you betcha.

Yes, Ben IS adorably cute in my eyes too, and he has the puppydog personality to match. Amazingly laidback and mellow for a Thoroughbred, he’s athletic without being excitable, and an all-around good guy. You’d never know it to hear me talk, but I’m crazy about the boy. :wink:

Pictures, you want pictures ---------- be careful what you wish for! You might get whole albums:

Ben and Friends

Ben’s Rainy Day Corral

Never Ben Better at the Twisdenwood Show

A Playmate for Ben

Kids’ Pony Ben

Ben Moves to Gathering Farm

And the latest, with some funtime playpix: Ben and Diego: Playtime! Includes Ben rearing, the silly boy.

14

I did a FOOSH yesterday myself. Everything seemed to work okay afterwards, so I didn’t think anything was broken, This morning, it feels like my entire left forearm is sprained. There’s no major swelling or discoloration and I have no desire to spend all day in the emergency room, so I’ll be calling my doctor’s office first thing on Monday.

15

THANK YOU!!! Loved all the pictures, and Ben looks like a real sweetheart… makes me miss my horses something fierce. :frowning: I shared some of his pics with a horse-loving friend and she agrees… you can see his kind disposition in his eyes.

16

Ben is one cutie-patootie! :slight_smile: Thanks for the pics. I miss my horsie too now. :frowning:

17

That’s exactly how I did mine. The tiny little break was up at the elbow end of the bone. I could handle a little compression, but rotating my arm was right out. I didn’t have to have a cast, thank Og, but I was in a sling for about three weeks, with another three weeks of limited exercise.

Oh, and I got good drugs. The things I’ll do for good drugs.

18

My cast was the kind that’s a plastic tray which you strap on, so after a few days I could risk taking it off long enough for a shower while pressing the injured member to my midsection. I found that I could use the sling-supported hand to help the free hand control objects (like a saddle) but not to lift anything heftier than, say, a pencil.

Today I have the ghost of a golfball-diameter bruise on my inner left forearm, just below the elbow, and assorted aches and stiffnesses scattered about. Luckily I found a stash of Epsom salts, so a long hot soak is next on the agenda.

19

Ah, a splint. Not so much a cast. I don’t believe casts come off until it’s permanent.

But, go soak your arm! It will feel better.

20

I did! In fact, I poured the Epsom salts into a hot bath and soaked my whole self!

Did wonders for me, I’m here to tell ya.