I had planned to go into work on Monday despite it being the MLK holiday. I planned to work on a manuscript and prepare for my graduate course which is meeting today (Tuesday). Braving the cold, I bundled up and drove to campus. I walked up to the building door and.... it was locked. I forgot that it was locked on holidays and I did not have access to the building. The facilities management people recently switched our building locks from keyed to keyless entry, but my employee card was not working. Argh! I looked around the building, hoping someone was around to open the door, but it was to no avail. So, I made my way back to the parking garage and drove home.
Once home, I procrastinated for a bit and then started to clean up the office. HW and I have lots of unopened boxes that needed to be sorted through and filed away. I decided to move the table and bookcase and just rearrange everything. At one point, I went upstairs to drop off some stuff. On my walk back down the stairs, I slipped while holding a few small items and fell hard on my right elbow and left hand. Of course, as bad luck would have it, I had placed three framed art pieces on the steps (temporarily as I was cleaning the office) and that is where my left hand landed. Crash! Shattered glass everywhere but (amazingly) just a small cut on my palm. Phew. Major accident diverted. My right elbow also stung but there appeared to be no blood through the shirt. Another phew.
As the day went along, my right elbow stiffened up and I noticed that my neck really got kinked/stiff from the jolt to the ground. By evening, I noticed that I actually did cut my elbow. Moreover, it was really swollen and black and blue. And my range of motion was quite limited. Oh great. I touched the area and made sure I could move without sharp pain. All was okay or enough okay that I don't think there is a broken elbow or anything. Still, I am definitely on injured reserve. Enough so that I didn't play basketball last night.
So here I am today. Able enough to type (and blog!) and, although on injured reserve, I am good enough to work and fortunately to teach tonight. Let's hope the fall and injury was not a premonition for the rest of the semester. Wish me luck.
Posted by richlee at January 22, 2008 09:51 AM