Boink

I began having pain in the knuckle on my right index finger about 6 years ago.  My doctor diagnosed the problem as arthritis and recommended a steroid shot, not to cure it but to relieve the pain.  The injection worked great, completely relieving my pain for eight months.  Over the years, the time between steroid injections grew shorter and shorter and my knuckle grew to twice the size of the other knuckles.  My doctor said it was time for surgery to freeze the joint to stop the pain.

COVID-19 delayed the surgery, but it was finally scheduled for last Monday.  After a COVID-19 test (I was surprised that the nurse pushed the swab so far up my nose that she must have gotten brain tissue), I checked in for about a four-hour procedure.  After a nerve block, I was put to sleep and woke with my hand and lower arm in a cast.  Aloma drove me home and got me settled in a recliner.

My arm and hand were completely numb, no pain and no movement.  With my other hand, I lifted the cast by bending my elbow.  Then the cast crashed into my face.  BOINK.  I saw stars and Aloma said, “Why did you hit yourself?”

“I didn't do it.  My arm did it by itself.”

A few minutes later, I moved my arm and got boinked again.  I was surprised again.  This time Aloma laughed.  “That is so funny.”

Over the next hour my poor face received three more hits.  It was really weird.  By 10:00 p.m. I could move my fingers and control my arm.  Then the pain from the operation started.  A few pills dulled the pain, and I slept pretty well.

After a week, I have little pain and am healing normally.  Actually, the pain is less than before the surgery.  My main issue is that doing everything with my left-hand takes twice as long.

I wish I had a video of the boinking.  It would have gone viral.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com

Robin

I’ve written before about how much we enjoy sitting on our patio watching our plants and wildlife.  Sheltering-in-place makes this activity even more enjoyable since we don’t do anything else, although we did eat out for the first time last week.

We put out a suet feeder for the birds every evening.  I whistle the song, Mockingbird Hill, and the birds swoop in within minutes.  Aloma says the birds come because they see us on the deck and watch me put out the suet.

We get the usual backyard birds: mockingbirds, brown thrashers, robins, sparrow/wrens (I don’t know which), bluebirds and sometimes starlings.  Hummingbirds enjoy our flowers and cardinals sing for us and use our bird bath.

Last year a pair of bluebirds were feeding their family from the feeder, but a robin chased them away every time he saw them.  Aloma was angry at the robin and told it that it was a bad bird and chased it away every time she saw it. 

This year a robin (who knows if it’s the same robin) comes to the feeder and looks around.  If Aloma is there, it will just pick up crumbs underneath the suet feeder.  If she is not out, it will fly up to get some fresh suet.  Our chairs are only about six feet from the feeders.  When she goes inside, the robin will watch her go in, look at me, then fly up to the feeder.  I warn it when I hear Aloma returning with a fresh drink.  It quickly flies down to the ground and pecks the dirt, looking innocent, waiting for her to go inside again.

We look forward to when social distancing ends.  Maybe we’ll be normal again--or maybe not.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com