Thursday, January 03, 2008

Does this sort of thing happen to you?

At what point do you begin to realize you're careening towards yet another disaster? And why do I only see these things in hindsight?

Okay...here's my last 24 hours:

I got a lathe for Christmas. Yesterday was my day off, so I started trying to organize the shed to make room for the lathe and the lathe operator to at least stand near each other, in case any lathing were to happen to occur. During the organizing part of the project I lifted a box up into the loft and hurt my shoulder. So last night I took a couple of naproxyns and sat on the couch and watched TV with Lori. I've never taken naproxyn before...aspirin's my NSAID of choice, but we're out. I've avoided naproxyn because it tore up Robbie's stomach so bad when he used to take it for his arthritis.

But by bedtime the shoulder felt a little better...better enough, in fact, to have some quality grown-up time with Lori without any obvious loss of dexterity. Or if there was, she was too polite to mention it. And then I went to sleep.

I woke up at about 5am with an upset stomach, so I went into the kitchen for a glass of water and then headed to the bathroom to pee. Somewhere along that path I passed out, hit my head on the counter, broke my glasses, and spent some unknown number of minutes unconscious on the floor. When I finally did wake up, it was with the awareness that pukage was imminent and my head was bleeding.

After Lori cleaned up my bloody head and I threw up everything down to my shoes, I finally went back to sleep, feeling totally craptastic.

I was still pukey at 9:30, the next time I woke up, but I feel a little better this time around. I can actually walk to the bathroom and stay upright for the whole trip.

Lori took my glasses with her to be fixed, so I'm wearing my old ones. I called work and found out that once again, with me there we're at bare bones rock-bottom minimum staffing in order to be in legal compliance. Without me, we're essentialy screwed if an inspector makes an unscheduled visit.

Therefore me and my old glasses, sore shoulder, bloody welted forehead and swirling stomach are going to go to a hospital and make life-or-death blood banking decisions for other people. Good luck, Other People. If you think you can make it 10 more miles to the next hospital before you bleed out, I'd recommend it. At least for today.

So...here's the question, finally: Why didn't I just shoot myself in the head when I first felt the pain in my shoulder?

7 comments:

Cedar said...

I am going with you knew you had a chance at getting laid so you would try and tough it out.

Ever think of just having the whole house padded?

Oh, and Happy New Year and stuff!

Kwach said...

I'm so co-dependent I worried the sex might have done it. Not that it's ever made her throw up before, and there was no indication it wasn't going well at the time, but if there's blame to be taken for anything, I'm your girl!

SP said...

Because that would have been VERY messy. In general, I have a no bleeding rule in my house. However, if the bleeding cannot be avoided, please keep the splatter to a minimum.

And, I'd miss you!!!

Jazz said...

Damn girl.

Problem with disasters is that I for one am always to stupid to see them coming. Even if they're staring me in the face, jumping up and down and screaming at the top of their lungs.

Jazz said...

Oh, and if you'd shot yourself, you would've gotten blood all over your pretty new lathe. Which I imagine is some sort of tool which could easily delete parts of my anatomy. So I don't wanna know.

Kwach said...

The lathe probably could do some damage, but it's a relatively friendly tool as power tools go.

It's the one that holds a piece of wood and spins it while you apply a variety of honed carving tools by hand to turn pretty spindles, wooden pens, fancy legs for furniture and gorgeous wooden bowls. It's one of the oldest woodworking tools and it's loved deeply by those who want to personally interact with their wood instead of feeding it past a whining, flesh-eating saw blade.

It's a zen tool.

It's the perfect tool for someone who loves someone who's addicted to writing instruments (I've been promised a spectacular turned wood fountain pen) and miniatures (my dollhouse needs porch spindles and staircase balusters).

:)

Linda said...

Good thing you got "laid" and not "lathed" that would have been even messier!