How I spent my summer vacation in Daily

• June 7, 5:30pm, fell and broke my right humerus just above the elbow. Went to the hospital, hung out in the ER for 5 hours or so until they could get me into a room.
• June 8, had surgery Saturday morning. There is now a plate and eight screws in there. I have foggy memories of the surgeon telling me he was "going to be all over that radial nerve" right before they put me under. I woke up with a sore throat and an amazing sideways snot stalactite.
• After sucking on a lot of ice, I was taken back to my room just in time for the best lunch ever - hospital turkey sandwich and tomato soup that I made Leo pour into a cup so I could just drink it down. No patience for being fed or trying to feed myself with an IV embedded left hand.
• My co-workers sent an awesome Edible Arrangement to the room. (Oh yeah, while in the ER I was alternating trying to one handed type to my team to let them know what happened and dictating to Leo what to type when I'd hand over the phone. I'm a treat. Him: "Are you seriously micro-managing this email?")

• Saturday, Sunday, spent in the hospital having some not so pleasant first-ever experiences.
• Saturday, Sunday, also received visitors and watched Coyote Ugly then Juno twice in a row. I don't know what was up, but the third time Juno's opening music played, I dove for the remote control.
• Monday, June 10, some kind lady washed my hair in the hospital bed and put it in a french braid just before they brought my discharge papers.
• June 10 - 17, effectively lived in the La Z Boy. My arm was in a splint and wrapped in an Ace bandage from shoulder to fingers. I had to keep it iced and elevated to help with the swelling. Every time I had to go to the bathroom, Leo had to remove all the ice packs, move the pillows and support me while gently putting the foot rest down. Too much jerkiness hurt, breathing too hard hurt, the thought of bumping into a wall hurt. We're both eternally grateful I could still wipe left handed, even though he had to help me pull my pants up and down.
• One group from work had food sent to my house the day after I got home. Another group from work sent $100 in restaurant gift cards with get well wishes. They made me feel loved and appreciated. It was sweet. I sent out thank you cards with my shaky recovery handwriting.
• Oh yeah, still no showering at this point. Sponge baths and this weird dry shampoo called Psssst for when I had to leave the house.
• June 17, first follow up visit to remove the staples and get out of the splint. I wisely took an extra Percocet before that little adventure. I have pictures from right after the staples came out, but one shows a nipple and the other is even less flattering than this. I tried to count the staple holes and stopped at 45.

Swollen elbow is swollen.

If you can make out the bruise in this fuzzy photo, you'll see where the break is. I have a little dimple there now.

• Started physical therapy June 21. I could not bear any weight with my right arm until July 17, so therapy was initially stretching, range of motion exercises and scar tissue massage. Oh, and e-stim. I love that stuff. One day I beat a Candy Crush level for my therapist while she was torturing my arm; I kicked my feet and swapped candy pieces as a distraction.
• I'm still in physical therapy, but I've been released to go back to work with the restriction that I don't lift anything more than 20 pounds. That's laughable, since some of my exercises are with 2 pound weights.
• It was bliss the first time I was able to nap in my bed again. It was even better when I could stop camping in the living room and moved back to the bedroom full time.
• To pass the time while I was off and doped up, I watched every season of Justified for the first time, every season of The Wire again, a bunch of The Walking Dead when it was replaying and binge-watched the first season of Newsroom in advance of season two. I also watched a million House Hunters International and How It's Made episodes.

I have physical therapy tomorrow at 7:00am so I'm going to close with scar pictures.