As noted in my most recent post, I crashed while riding my Harley to work on Tuesday morning.
How am I doing four days later?
I tell ya’, it hasn’t been easy. Wednesday morning was the worst. I absolutely could not get out of bed, even with my spouse trying all he could to assist me. I’ll spare you the gory details, but the whole morning grew to involve three firefighter buddies in addition to my spouse, a trip to a hospital, another CT, and a confirmation of the original diagnosis: three broken ribs — nothing else.
I never, ever, realized how painful broken ribs can be. They can’t be bound in a cast or any other type of restriction because that could impair breathing and lead to pneumonia.
Anyway, now four days post-crash, I have accomplished the following five steps toward recovery:
1. I am off the pain drugs. Those drugs made me woozy and I felt out of control, tired, and weak. When the side-effects got worse than the pain, I stopped using them — or shall I say that I chose to accept and tolerate the pain more than the bloating, constipation, and ugliness of intestinal shut-down.
2. When #1 was accomplished, my second step toward recovery is: I can poop. Don’t ask/don’t tell… but know that being able to poop is a major milestone.
3. I was able to take a shower (under the close supervision of The Spouse.) It was great to rid myself of the gunky-smell that I was.
4. I was able to prepare dinner for my spouse and myself last night. While I love my spouse very much and he does a lot of things for me, let’s say that cooking is not his thing.
5. I am now able to get myself up out of a chair and up and down stairs without assistance. While I still cannot get out of bed for some reason, chairs work. I’ve been sleeping in a recliner in our family room these past few nights after being scared of trying the bed again after Wednesday morning’s incident.
So I am slowly recovering. My family, biker and firefighter buddies, and senior pals have made visits, brought food, gone shopping for us, and sent cards & flowers. I appreciate it — while my spouse would prefer to be left alone, it’s nice to know that we aren’t alone in this world.
Life is short: march on toward recovery!
I am sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you recover quickly.
Your accident sounds terrible. Broken ribs are, indeed, extremely painful. Hope you get well soon!
I pray for your continued recovery and am so grateful that your injuries were not worse. Take care of yourself; take your time healing.
Yikes, that’s scary. I hope you are up and about soon.