Something Broken
by Carol Wallace
On Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend, I badly injured my left wrist. I was trying to remove a stubborn nail from the gazebo at the cottage. I slipped and the momentum of my body caused me to fly backwards with the hammer in my right hand, then fall forward very hard on my left hand. While Jim was on the ladder at the time, I quickly ran into the cottage and grabbed an icepack and placed it on my ailing wrist accompanied with loud screeches, that would have no doubt echoed throughout the Rideau Canal at Chaffey’s Locks.
I hoped and prayed that the wrist wasn’t broken. That night it became swollen and colourfully bruised, but miraculously I was not in any pain, and was able to cut up some potatoes to prepare for Monday’s Thanksgiving supper.
On Monday, when my family arrived at the cottage, many of them thought my wrist could be broken, and suggested I see a doctor soon. So, I eventually saw the Nurse Practitioner on Friday (four days later). My doctor’s office is located just one block away from Hotel Dieu, where I dropped my mom off for her cataract surgery the same day.
After having an x-ray of my wrist, I went home. Which was great, because we had the Silent Auction, and Chris Murphy concert at the church to look forward to that evening (in which Carolyn Bond did an amazing job organizing). Jim and I were responsible for putting out the cookies and drinks that many people from the church had graciously donated. Since my mom couldn’t help out; our neighbour willingly filled in. Gloria had phoned me earlier in the week and said she would also help pour the drinks and organize the cookie distribution.
Forty-five minutes before we were about to leave the house for the church event, I received a phone call from the Doctor’s office, saying that my wrist is broken and that I must go to Urgent Care at Hotel Dieu to get a cast on it. At this particular time, Jim was cooking a stew and asking for my advice, and my daughter, Jamie dropped in to see us. She came at a crucial moment, when we needed her thought process during this predicament, we found ourselves in. Was I going to go to the church event with Jim or was I going to take myself to the hospital?
Jamie called Hotel Dieu and asked if it was worthwhile for me to go to Urgent Care now or tomorrow? The staff member advised that I would need to get there now, before they closed for the night. So that is what I did. Jamie’s job was done, she went home, I went to Urgent Care at Hotel Dieu, and was happy that I knew the way, knew where to park, and knew to avoid the construction on Union Street, which I had discovered earlier that morning when I drove my mom down. Jim wrapped up things in our kitchen at home to pick up our neighbour in a timely fashion and proceeded to the kitchen at the church.
When I arrived at Hotel Dieu, I was the very last person they accepted that evening. By 9:30 pm. I was home with a cast on my left arm. Jim was also home and he said that he, our neighbour and Gloria enjoyed working in the kitchen together, and the evening was a lot of fun and that the event was a roaring success.
Well done everyone!!