Tag: sign language

My New Leg Injury

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, Exercise, Health, HumorLeave a comment

I’m sitting here in my room reading “Official Book Club Selection, a Memoir According to Kathy Griffin” on my Nook and I hear the ice cream truck. Darrin hears it too and he tells me to go stop him. I opened the door and saw he’s already across the street, he says run to stop him.

I’m in my bare feet and I’m running and waving like a maniac. They aren’t looking in the rear view mirror either. I think they get off on that.

I pass about 6 houses and figure they aren’t going to look in the mirror and they are driving the same speed that I am running which means, I have to pick up speed to catch up.

That’s when it goes horribly wrong. I pick up speed and just then “POP” my left calf makes this popping sound and I can feel the pop too. Crack one of your knuckles, that’s the popping sound that I heard.

I immediately had to stop because my calf tightened up, sort of like a Charley horse. Not only could I not continue running but I can’t even walk, heck, I couldn’t even stand up straight. My left leg hurts like hell when I have it straight like my right leg. The only way my leg is comfortable is if it’s lifted up in the back, like I’m on crutches. The tendon is tightened so that it hurts when I straighten my leg out.

I look towards our house to see if Darrin has come out of the house to come to me as if I had stopped the truck and he sees me bent over and I used a sort of sign language, as if I’m mimeing like I’m driving a car but rocking the wheel too far to the left and right. That was my way of saying, get in the car and come get me.

He’s not coming and I’m standing there with my leg bent back, I can’t go anywhere but I start hobbling towards the house. I saw the white car coming around the corner and he stops at where I’m at and opens the door and I painfully got in.

He drove to where the Ice Cream truck is because I’ll be damned if I hurt myself in vain. He gets our “Mama Flip” ice creams which is soft serve in a cup with chocolate syrup and sprinkles.

We come home and I’m not only about ready to throw up but I’m also about ready to pass out. He goes in the house to get the crutches that we have had since his mother broke her leg in 2000 and I go in the house with the intentions of laying down with some ice on it with hopes it will get better. It’s not getting better.

I went to WebMD.com and looked it up and it tells me to immediately go seek medical help so we went to the E.R. where I sat for about 3 1/2 hours waiting for them to call me. After 1/2 hour I told Darrin to go home, I’d call him. No sense in both of us being bored and losing internet time lol.

The doctor couldn’t do an emergency MRI or even x-rays but he bends my leg back and forth and moves my foot and he gives me his diagnosis which I couldn’t remember (remember that I have a learning disorder?) but all I can say is he thinks I must have torn a muscle which is what I figured out right when it happened.

He tells me to rest and put ice on it for 15-20 minutes several times per day for the first 3-4 days then after that replace the ice with heat. He also gave me a prescription for Motrin and a muscle relaxer. I can’t say the name of it because I can’t read his writing lol. I have some ibuprofen from when I had the neck and shoulder pain so I can take that until we can get to the pharmacy tomorrow (followed by Subway or Panda, you know, while we’re there lol).

I have to report to my doctor in the next 1-2 weeks to let him know what happened and maybe perhaps get an x-ray or MRI done if it’s still hurting by then. Oh and I get to be on crutches for a while too which in a way is a good thing because now I don’t have to take the dog out, I can’t if I’m on crutches (wicked evil grin).

Unfortunately, I can’t count on Darrin to do the dishes for me and when I make dinner he’ll have to bring it to me. If I leave dinner up to him we’ll be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a while. Or soup, he loves making soup lol.

I was afraid I would miss my shows but when I got home it was some hometown sports show plus the Closer is on tonight instead of my Sunday night Fox cartoons. Oh well, I’m glad I didn’t miss them but it would’ve been nice to know they weren’t going to be on so I wouldn’t have been stressing about miss them during my 3 1/2 hour wait time lol.

Anyway, so I’m off to go rest and ice my leg.

Ultimatums Suck

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog, Friends and FamilyLeave a comment

Has anyone ever given you an ultimatum or have you given anyone an ultimatum? They are not fair. There are certain times when it is ok to give someone an ultimatum like when a husband is drinking, gambling, cheating etc. But family members should never give you an ultimatum to choose your lover over them.

When I was 17 years old, my mother gave me an ultimatum. Leave my boyfriend Robert out in the cold in a strange city without anywhere to sleep and without any transportation back home or choose her and continue living at home. The choice was obvious. I would rather be homeless myself than let a deaf person wait outside for me to never return to help him find a place to sleep for the night. He was DEAF!

How cold-hearted are you to allow any human being to be homeless for the night until they can catch the bus in the morning back home?  I told her to at least let me call his mom to pick him up and she said no, let him freeze.  What a cold-hearted bitch!  I hate saying that about my own mother, rest her soul, but that’s how I feel.

It was 1987 and he couldn’t call his mother on a cell phone and speak sign language with a video call like you can do today. He had to use a TTY which by the way was at his house in Simi Valley. He took the bus to see me after 2 years of not seeing me and waited until the last-minute after the last bus had left for the day so he was stranded without any way of getting home. I asked a co-worker who lived down the street from me if he could stay with her on her couch and she said yes, I just had to bring him there. He was out of cigarettes so I went back to my house to get him a pack and that’s when my mother cornered me and gave me the ultimatum and that’s the night I became homeless.

My cousin just called me and he went to visit his sister in another state with his wife. His wife is 15 years older than he is and because some people don’t approve of such age differences, she was treated like crap. His sister gave him an ultimatum. His wife or his sister. That’s not fair. You know? You can’t make someone make that decision especially when they are married. What if he did choose his sister? What then? Is she going to take him in? No, she’s not. So now that he has chosen you, he’s going to be homeless all because you made him choose you over the love of his life.

Why do that? Why not just suck it up? You don’t even live in the same state, just deal with it. She is the person he chose to be with so live with it. It’s not your decision, it’s his.

I am in a relationship with someone who is 21 years older than me. You know what my sister said to him when she first met him? “How old are you?” And she didn’t ask it nicely either, she had this disapproving tone in her voice. It’s like, who asked you for your opinion? It’s none of your business. This is who I chose to be with so deal with it.

I think if someone is coward enough to make this type of ultimatum then they deserve it when they are the one being rejected. If someone gave me an ultimatum I am going to choose the person they are making me leave for them. There is no doubt in my mind that I would tell them to go to hell just as I told my mom.