DawnPapuga.com — Reality 101

(L to R:  ChachiAKA8Bit, DjLunchbox, DocRemedy, and FatherSpoon)

As previously noted, I’m laid up with a nasty Kidney infection which means I couldn’t even make it to the YinzTeam game last night to cheer my friends on from the sidelines.  In short, that sucks.  Yeah, we’re all connected through the social media outlets and we’re able to keep tabs on one another throughout the day, but part of what makes the Pittsburgh New/Social media crowd so unique (at least in my eyes) is that we use those platforms to actually get together and have fun.  I’ve met some amazing people over the past year or two, and I’m thankful for all of them.

While balled up in what feels like a permanent question mark position, I got a text from @DjLunchbox to check my email.  The pictures I found waiting for me made me smile for the first time since I’ve been in the fetal position with this illness.  The one above is my favorite, and it means a lot to me.  And Father Spoon (aka Doogle) posted a run down of the madness that was the last regular season YinzGame–I understand there were planks to walk…

Thanks, yinz guys, for making me feel better and missed!  You really made my day.

I had the opportunity to visit an old friend today.  My Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. B and I go back as far as my 8th grade patellar dislocation from running suicides during basketball practice.  Over the years he treated my various dislocations and separations all the way through my college cheerleading and diving careers.  I was fortunate enough to never have any serious breaks, but that all changed today.

Turns out he called my sprain and raised me one broken Cuboid bone.  It took him all of 5 minutes to walk in, tell me it was broken, and declare that I will be in a boot for 5-6 weeks.  “You’re kidding, right?”  To which he responded by walking over to the table and taking my foot in hand.  “See this bruising?  Doesn’t hurt when I touch it, does it?  See this dark spot?  ~*presspresspress*~  That’s where you’re broken.”  Believe me, I yelped and jumped when he got to pressing.  He just laughed.  “Broken. I’ll show you the X-Rays when you get the boot put on.”  I’m pretty sure Orthopedics take some secret pleasure in poking and prodding like that.  Well, I’ve known him for a long time, and I’m pretty sure he takes pleasure in proving bull headed patients wrong.

How didn’t they see a clear break in the ER, you might wonder?  According to Dr. B, “That’s what we call Hem-Hawing in this business, Dawn.  That or the radiologist was an idiot.  I’d put money on both.”  Yeah, that made me feel better.  So I’m officially on the DL for YinzTeam Softball for the rest of the season, and I’m not at all happy about hobbling around in this boot for the next 5 weeks.  I’m actually incredibly fortunate to have had this happen.  Sounds odd, I know, but the chances of me dislocating my patella again and ripping my meniscus the rest of the way through was so much greater than me breaking a bone that the fact that I’m only in this boot for 5-6 weeks is a minor miracle.  Another patellar dislocation and the only answer would be surgery and a meniscal transplant.  Do you know where they get those?  Cadavers!  And you can never be sure where someone’s meniscus has been…

My co-worker is trying to learn French by using one of those “Word a Day” calendars, and because she knows that learning languages is a hobby of mine, she often hands me the discarded days so I can “learn” too (a.k.a. Throw them away because French and I have come to the understanding that we agree to disagree).  Today she handed me these, and in light of the YinzTeam softball game this week, I found this both a little prophetically creepy and funny at the same time:

See what I mean?