Thursday, December 07, 2006

Truly Ridiculous Excuses ...

... for not blogging, that is.

Tuesday evening, I was chasing my cat down the stairs when, for some unknown reason, my right quadriceps tendon failed. This is the attachment of the large muscles at the front of the upper leg to the kneecap. The immediate results were a snapping noise that I could actually hear, a brilliant burst of pain quite unprecedented in my experience, followed by merciful unconciousness. I woke up when the EMS guys arrived. After a set of X-rays at Parkview North, I was informed that the subject tendon was "avulsed" (med-speak for "nuked") and was sent home on crutches and in an "immobilizer," with a referral to an orthopedic surgeon. So I went to see him yesterday, was MRI'ed, and scheduled for reparative surgery early Monday morning. It's an outpatient procedure.

I don't know whether this means I'll be posting (even) less than usual, or more. Sitting at the computer is uncomfortable; standing at it, even less so. On the other hand, I have a good bit more free time than usual right at the moment. So we'll see how it goes.

A final note: do NOT do what I did. It don't feel good. (Of course, since I can't really tell you why it happened, that's not very useful advice, is it?)

6 comments:

Craig said...

Good lord

Get well soon sir, and watch out for those steps.

lemming said...

How are the drugs?

Get well!

Jim Wetzel said...

Thanks, folks. I try to be careful, but in this case do not know what I did wrong. Next time, I'll just try to do it slower, I guess.

Drugs: they gave me some sort of prescription-strength ibuprofen, along with some Rush pills (hydrocodone or generic Vicodin.) I took two doses, and didn't really notice any difference, either in terms of pain or getting buzzed. I do not anticipate any need for taking any more of either. It doesn't hurt unless I move it the wrong way -- and if I do, it hurts in a way that I can't imagine any nonlethal amount of drugs helping much.

Thanks again for the good wishes.

John Good said...

Best wishes, and enjoy the pain meds! ;)

Jeff Pruitt said...

At least there's an elevator at work!

Hope you feel better soon...

Jim Wetzel said...

Thanks, John and Jeff! Yes, there's actually two elevators at the day job, now that I think of it. I dare say I'll be getting some unaccustomed use out of them in the coming weeks, too.