My whine for the day

**Risu-chan** · April 4th, 2003, 07:26 PM

Copied & pasted for reasons which will become self-evident... ^^;;

So I was running for a bus back in January because it was 40 below zero with the sort of windchill that says "don't leave skin exposed for more than 2 minutes" and everything was covered with ice, and I slipped and fell on my face and dumped my purse and jammed three fingers really badly and scratched my glasses and cut both knees and wrenched my ankle...

but the bus was getting away so I picked myself up and ran after it, and was within 2 feet of the doors when it drove off without me.

So I hobbled back across campus at half the normal speed with blood running down the inside of my jeans and a twisted ankle and my right hand hurting too much to use a key, and told my boss what had happened, and went home...

fast forward two and a half months; my finger still isn't fixed, but I didn't want to find out it was broken because then I'd have to have a splint on it. I'm a technical writer. I spend 8-12 hours a day typing. I don't want to have my right little finger in a splint because I use it ALL the time for the enter key.

But my finger still hurt enough that I'd been teaching myself to type nine-fingered anyway... and I looked at the calendar and figured "okay, just ignoring this isn't going to make it go away after all."

So I went and got it X-rayed this morning, and the crack is healing but I still have a really spiffy bone bruise and inflammation and stuff. So I've got a splint now anyhow. And even though I'd learned how to type 9-fingered, I'd learned that when I could BEND that finger to get it OUT OF THE WAY... I'm typing at about half the usual speed at the moment, and making some of the most peculiar typos.

And I can't fold my hand around a pencil at all because the splint goes down onto my palm! Typing I can manage, although badly; my Japanese professor only accepts handwritten work, and my handwriting is bad enough right-handed in English. Left-handed in Japanese is going to be impossible...

>.<

unfortunately I don't know how much of a damper the "it's a massive nuisance to type" factor is going to put on my translating and fanficcing for a while... going to try HARD to come up with practical alternatives; if nothing else I *can* write English left-handed, just slowly and messily... ^^;;

I need a secretary... and a vacation...

So that's my whine for the day...

**Lady Elanor** · April 4th, 2003, 08:09 PM

It don't sounds very good. I can't understand why you didn't wanted to find out if it's broken. Couldn't you stay away sick? Isn't there something like a payed status of employee's illness?

**tenjou_sama** · April 4th, 2003, 08:43 PM

Poor Risu-chan [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

I've broken my fingers a couple times from playing basketball, and jammed them as well. But to have that AND twisted ankle, bleeding, etc... T_T How long do you have to keep it in the splint?

**Risu-chan** · April 4th, 2003, 10:23 PM

@Elanor: (sweatdrop) the truth is I spent so much time around doctors when I was little, now I don't go unless there's no way I can avoid it. ^^;; I kinda figured "it's not going to kill me, so it's going to get better," which kind of doesn't always work with possibly broken bones... ^^;;

Paid vacation time -- well, yeah, it exists, but you don't usually get more than 10 days of it for a whole year, and I've got one finger that doesn't work but nine that do. So I figure I'd better save my sick days for when I've got the flu or something...

@Carole: They were pretty vague on that. "Keep it splinted for a couple weeks. If it's not better by then, we'll send you to the occupational orthopedics guy."

Me (mental visions of sadists with sharp things that like pulling and twisting on places that already hurt): "It's GOING to be better in a couple weeks! (And if not I'll keep it on a couple weeks past that.)"

I don't like going to physical therapists 'cause their job description is largely summed up by "smiling sadist." I think Dr. J. was born a century too early for his true calling in life...

(sweatdrop) I'm such a coward about doctors and things... I find all kinds of excuses to not go. I may have a genius-level IQ but that's no guarantee I actually *use* it intelligently about stuff like this! @_@ (squawk squawk... I feel pretty dumb for having left it for two and a half months... but on the other hand at least I haven't had to be typing with a splint for two and a half months, so maybe it wasn't all that dumb, except yeah it probably was... ^^;; [img]wink.gif[/img]

**Anime Goddess** · April 4th, 2003, 10:51 PM

Poor Risu-chan [img]frown.gif[/img] I have never had that bad of a day before.....I mean I have had a bad day before but not like that >.< I hope you feel better [img]smile.gif[/img]
And I am such a coward for doctors! I absoloutly refuse to go to one unless I am dieing. They totaly freak me out..... [img]eek.gif[/img] preety dumb eh? Well I don't think I will ever change my mind about doctors though ^^;;;;

Let's hope that never happens again [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ April 04, 2003 06:53 PM: Message edited by: Yaoi Manga Girl ]</font>

**Rubyjuls** · April 5th, 2003, 01:33 AM

I hope it is better in a few weeks like they said it may be. I am so sorry you are having such an awful day and can onlu imagine how much that hurts and what a pain you are finding it to only be able to use 9 fingers right now.

**Lady Elanor** · April 5th, 2003, 08:53 AM

Waah! To me this sounds absolut terrible! [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img] Unthinkable! Here in Austria if you are hurt there is no limit to stay at home and get paid vacation. Only if it takes a very, very long time (means many months) you can be resignt. But my father had a bad hurt with his shoulders and he couldn't work for a year and not in his old job at all. So the firm gave him a new job where he also earns more money because he had always been such a good worker.
The welfare system in the USA is something that shocks me deeply. [img]eek.gif[/img] Poor Risu-Chan! [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

**Risu-chan** · April 5th, 2003, 06:59 PM

Oh Lord, you're quarantined in your house with your family?

If someone locked me in a house with MY family for two weeks, there'd be blood on the walls and three corpses and a cackling homicidal survivor by the end of it!

Good luck maintaining sanity as well as keeping healthy...

**rev.tsukiyama** · April 5th, 2003, 07:59 PM

Bah! babies.

I had my foot ripped off a few years ago (but it went back on with a lot of surgery!!) I'm permanantly nine fingered, missing a little finger (which was self inflicted, but in hindsight, fucked with my keyboard playing). I'm deaf due to a virus (okay, I can lipread and hear a little). I'm always breaking bones (I've even done my pelvis), covered in scars, I'm allergic to most things. Oh and a few months ago I accidentally chopped through a big vein and a load of nerves by falling on a scalpel (no shit). The feeling in some of my fingers is still dodgy (this was a DIY repeair job making a bloody mess of the kitchen, I can't drive and couldnt get to casualty, so I /really/ recommend going to get these things sorted out properly!)
Oh, did I mention my carpel tunnel syndrome?
But yeah, I'm just clumsy, I suppose.

Having said that, good luck with the finger, Risu baby. Maybe they'll give you some wacky finger exercises to do...

Oh, and Crisis, you have my sympathy, I dont think I could spend more than a couple of hours confined with my family.

PS: *whines about lack of money, deadlines and being too lazy to get a haircut*