lixor17

Thursday night, I tripped while walking (city's fault really). I'd lost a lot of mobility in my arm by friday, so I went in to have it checked in case I'd torn a muscle and needed special physiotherapy or something like that. The wait was moderately long (about 3 hours before I was examined) -- a nuisance, but really I wasn't in more than a minor amount of pain (less than banging your knee).

It turned out that I didn't tear any muscles or ligaments or anything like that, but that I -did- get a small fracture right at the top of a bone of my lower arm, at the elbow. Small enough that they said that it'll heal easily by itself and slings and casts were not recommended: that the greatest danger in such a case was the muscles stiffening up. So I should just take care to gently exercise my arm, bending it more, working it (sort of like a pitcher loosening up his arm); the doctor said that probably I'd regain the majority of my mobility as soon as the swelling went down some. Which has turned out to be the case: yesterday afternoon there was no way I could possibly have raised a fork to within a foot of my mouth, and now it's just a little bit of a strajn to hold my chin in my hand. So I think it will heal fine.

The cost to me to have it checked out, with about 5 different x-rays, was nothing (zippo, nada, free) other than taking the sick leave while I had it checked.Oh yeah, and a couple of dollars worth of snacks to keep me going for the wait. (The waits were prioritized: the people with more severe problems were seen first.)