Almost worse

Ok, i bit the bullet & talked to the pastor about what happened Friday.  It didn't go very well, in my opinion.  I thought i could be brief about it, but i can't, so i moved that part over to my other blog.  


We did do a little garage sale-ing yesterday, we went in that Jeep.  Yup, after about 5 stops it didn't want to start.  It took Duane about 20 minutes to locate the problem & fix it.  (We ARE fortunate that way; he's good.)  I'm not sure he is likely to get me out in that Thing again.  Not until he has a complete set of tools to fix it, anyway.  


Duane took a tumble yesterday on his climb.  Or, actually, on his descent.  He called himself "stupid" & said he was kind of showing off.  He had been the fastest to make the ascent, & was coming back down - partially running to pass some other folks, & lost his footing on a rock & scree.  He scraped the heel of his L hand, & jarred his L & R wrists & mildly scraped his R elbow.  

We washed it & dressed the wounds (myrrh oil & manuka honey).  His L wrist didn't bother him much at first.  But later it began aching.  We tried icing it & i gave him some aspirin, but the pain increased & kept doing so.  Finally, near 7 PM he decided that he needed to get it checked.  

BUT, he carries Kaiser insurance.  The nearest Kaiser facility that would be open by the time we arrived was 1-1/2 hours away.  So, down the hill we went.  He's had Kaiser insurance since Feb 2009, but this is the first time he's used it.  (We may revisit the whole idea of Kaiser because of the distance, except, i don't think there are any BB docs on the other insurance he could get, & we still might not be able to use BB UrgentCare or ER.)


I will say, i was dreading going there on a holiday weekend, but they were very efficient & not too many folks were there.  We were in & out in just under 2 hours, so we arrived home not too long after midnight. 

It is strained, not broken.  (Broken = bone; sprain = ligament; strain = muscle/tendon)  We are thankful.  They gave him a wrist brace to prevent him from overusing it for a while.  He also got Vicoden (he'd never had it before).  The Kaiser doc told him he shouldn't do aspirin.  (Sorry, Tylenol & Ibuprofen are horrible too, in my opinion.)   He took one last night & hasn't seemed to need it since.  Also, now that i know that the problem is muscle/tendon (tho i'll make sure he sees the chiropractor this week to check that everything is in place) i can do massage & use my favorite pain cream on him:  Boswellin Cream by Nature's Herbs (you can find this at a much better price elsewhere).  Good stuff!

These are the pics Duane took from the top of Bertha Peak.  More to follow, i'm sure, as he does six more summits in the area.  One will be Sugarloaf, the tallest peak around Big Bear Valley, & at least one will be in the mountain range seen in pics 3, 4, & 5 - the ones in the background with snow still on them. 

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