Archives for October 2009

Halloween at the Grand Floridian

Here I sit, on Halloween, in a gorgeous hotel room at Walt Disney World. Luxury to me is the little touches, and this place has ’em. I’m listening to my iPod Touch, which is docked in the iHome alarm clock. (Incidentally, my iPod on shuffle is bizarre–Rasputina’s If Your Kisses Can’t Hold the Man You Love followed by Handel’s And With His Stripes We Are Healed.) I’m eating a delicious giant sugar cookies from Gasparilla’s Grill, where I had dinner: grilled salmon and smashed potatoes and asparagus on a paper plate. (Dinner reservations at the Grand Floridian Cafe, where I had lunch, would’ve been at 8:45 pm)

Had the easiest/best flight ever. Nonstop is the way to go, and rare, it seems. Southwest is excellent. The stewards and stewardesses are generally quite amusing. Case in point: while giving the oxygen mask spiel, the steward said, "If you’re seated with a child, put the mask on yourself first and then on the child. If you’re with more than one child, put it on the one who shows the most promise." I about fell out of my seat laughing. I don’t think the guy beside me was paying attention. The flight wasn’t full either, which made it wonderful. When I say "guy beside me," I mean there was a seat between us. Ah, luxury again.

I suppose I "should" have looked into getting tickets to some Disney thing, but I am so happy right now, just relaxing and not following any "shoulds" that pop into my head. I took a nap this afternoon. I wore my sling for traveling, and it was hot and really tired me out. Really glad I wore it, though.

Last night brought it home to me that my shoulder is still not healed. Thomas and I went to Spooks in the Stacks, the second annual celebration of the University of Montevallo’s ghosts, sponsored by the Carmichael Library. The weather was perfect–drizzly and windy. Three stations were set up at King House, King Cemetery and Main Hall where people in costume told stories of the ghosts there. In the basement of the library, Birmingham Paranormal Society did a presentation. I was disappointed by that; we had to wait about 45 minutes, when the presentations were supposed to be 15-20minutes long. I think the group before us got wild with questions. Ours was barely 10 minutes. They are recruiting, however. Would love to join them. But we heard about Condi Cunningham, the ghost who haunts Main, a young woman who ran screaming after she set herself on fire while making fudge on an illegal chafing dish in her room. We also saw "THE door," the famed one on which her face keeps appearing. It doesn’t look very old to me. At the Cemetery, students made up as zombies leaped from trees and behind walls. A man in civilian Civil War attire told about the massacre in Reynolds Hall, a hospital during the Civil War days. Quite tame, but fun and diverting.

Tomorrow I get together with my brother and his lovely wife! Hope we can get reservations…

Ektron Synergy events start tomorrow night.

A Scary Story for Halloween

Amid all the crazy of the past months attendant on the launch of the new home page and the CMS issues, on August 21 I fell in the highly polished marble lobby of my building on the way in to work at the insanely early hour of 6:15 a.m. Flat on my face, with my right arm stretched straight out. Now, according to the rules, the first 10 feet of falling incurs 1d6 nonlethal damage, which is what I guess I took. Yikes. My shoulder popped out of its socket, much like happened about 12 years ago with my other shoulder. Serious pain, but my only thought as I sat there on the floor was, I have GOT to get up and get to work. Later, my therapist said I should’ve called 911 and gotten an ambulance. Farthest thing from my mind.

It hurt. A lot. I reported it as a worker’s comp claim, but I waited a week to actually go to the doctor. Too much going on! When I finally did go, no doctors were available for some bizarre reason and I had to come back the next day, although I did get an X-ray. The next day, the Occupational Health Center doctor put me in a sling, wrote on the form I could resume my duties with no restrictions, here’s a prescription for naproxin sodium and a muscle relaxer, get thee back to work.

So it popped out of socket three more times. After several weeks, I went back to the doctor, who scheduled me for an MRI. Had it done at ImageSouth Shelby, a facility I highly recommend, btw. Then I got a phone call at work. "You don’t have a rotator cuff injury," the voice tells me. "Good," say I. "You have a fractured shoulder. You have an appointment to see Dr. Jeff Davis at St. Vincent’s at this time and day."

Wow, I was freaked out. Fractured shoulder? I’d been walking around with a fractured bone for about a month and a half.

So I asked Thomas to go with me and we went to the crazy-huge complex that is St. Vincent’s, to the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center, where I got another X-ray. When I saw the doctor and was relating once again the story of what happened, I got to the part about having an MRI the previous Thursday (this was on Tuesday). He looked at me funny. "An MRI?" He shuffles through my chart. "You have the films?" "No," I answered, with a rising sense of frustration. "They just called me on the phone and told me I had a fractured shoulder and to come see you." "I don’t have your films. I can’t diagnose you if I don’t have your films."

He arranged to get my films sent to him. His assistant told me to be sure to call if I hadn’t heard from them in 5 days, since I would no longer be in their appointment system.

Yeah, I called in 5 days, and was assured he’d get back to me. Ten days later (2 weeks, as the crow flies) I emailed the campus worker’s comp coordinator and was told that they were working on scheduling a CT scan for me. Yesterday, October 15, I had the scan and Tuesday I will have my appointment with Dr. Davis, to decide if I need surgery or therapy on my fractured shoulder.

Today is 8 weeks since the accident.

I’m sorta frustrated by the whole experience. If it hadn’t been worker’s comp, I’m sure I’d have been taken care of 7 weeks ago.