labour day

On Labour Day, this past Monday, I took a
Parkinson's-induced fall and broke rib #9 on the right side (left in this picture). It's the last & smallest one w/ cartilage at both ends, the 3 floaters below it.

There's nothing the medical people can do for a busted rib. Patients are told 2 rest & stay quiet, & breathe deeply, 3 things that R tuff 2 do when you're in a lot of pain. Broken ribs R what drs. call a "pain management" problem.

I knew all this from a little cursory internet searching, and went to the urgent care place nearby where they took the X-ray & prescribed Percocet. Supposedly a heavy-duty pain killer, it gave me nothing but an  unpleasant "downer" high and constipation. So this morning I went to a regular hospital emergency room where they gave me a big old dose of Dilaudid, a synthetic morphine, & prescribed Toradol.

I'm sitting here now feeling 4 ft thick, drinking warm apple juice to try to unplug my gut, & feeling ø pain. They say 3-6 weeks, which'll be doable if I can cut back on the downers in a few days. Have U ever felt like someone else but U didn't know who?                                                                                                                                  

The strangest thing about all of this: when the pain was most intense, I felt intensely glad 2 B alive.