Happy Holidays To All

Good morning, good morning!

Today, a little Happy Holidays deco box to use in scrapbooking, card-making, or any projects you have on hand where it will fit.

I am still not ready for the holidays, so I will be very busy this weekend.

I still have shopping to do, more candy-making, cooking for company coming, company coming, visiting, cleaning ... you know, the whole sha-bang!

Winter is coming in relentlessly in Columbus this year. Not as bad as some areas, or so I've heard, but quite "wintery" for Columbus. Oh my!

Many of you know that I had a "fall on my face" accident on 6/10 of this year, and hurt my arm pretty badly. Of course, I am still fighting to get physical therapy on my right arm and shoulder, so I still have a fair amount of pain, as well as loss of much use of my right arm.

Well, yesterday was bad. We had snow, and then rain here. Everything was wet on Tuesday evening, and the temps dropped overnight, causing all the wet areas to turn to ice. And I do mean ICE. Thick layers of ice.

I headed off to work yesterday morning, thinking that it must not be too bad out because everything looked a little wet, but didn't look dangerous at all. My car is in the garage, so I had a very narrow view of the real threats around me. The drive in was fine. No slipping. No sliding, further leading me to believe "all was well."

I pulled into the parking lot at work right next to my cube-mate at work. We would still have a fair walk to the building, even arriving at just prior to 6 a.m. At least we could walk in together. Makes the walk a little less challenging. But not this morning!

I put my foot on the parking lot and my foot slid. I looked down, and from the lights shining around, all I saw was a GLAZE of ice. OH SNAP! What a mess!!!

She jokingly asked if I'd brought my ice skates with me, and I was NOT amused. In prior years, our company had always prepared the parking lot and sidewalks very well for these types of days. But as I looked around, I saw one small salt truck, sprinkling the parking lot. Not much else had been done ... and we had had plenty of warning as to how it would be that morning. I was horrified, as I certainly didn't want to fall again.

No luck. We made it to out of the parking lot and to the sidewalk which is still a ways from the building entrance. It was easy to see that the sidewalks had "el zippo" preparation for the struggle to get inside. It looked like a mirror!!!

We walked in the grass as far as we could, but eventually, we were going to have to step across that sidewalk ... LARGE sidewalk. My friend tried first. DOWN SHE WENT. I leaned over to see if she was ok, but placed my left foot on the sidewalk ... AND DOWN I WENT AS WELL. I was carrying my purse and lunch bag in my left hand, and it fell on her. My already injured right arm shot down to catch my weight, and you guessed it! It took the brunt of the fall.

I scrambled to my feet, doubled over and yelled for 20 seconds easy. I can't repeat the words here, but suffice it to say, they were NOT pretty. I am also now having back problems (which I think are linked to the accident, but thankfully are not on my codes for my WC claim -- so I am in the process of getting that treated by my NEW family doctor. My back has sent me to the URGENTCare room once, and the ER at one of our hospitals here ... last visit; just 2 weeks ago. Thank you Vicadin!)

Unfortunately, I am overly-sensitive to NSAIDS- or non-steriodal drugs -- which helps inflammation. This has prolonged my injury, of course. My new doctor had decided to try a regime of Tylenol-Arthritis (a total of 1300 mg/day), and Advil (1200 mg/day). Advil is an NSAIDS, so we were trying to see how sensitive I was to it. After 800 mg ... (my doses are split into 3 different times of the day), I found myself burping to relieve indigestion. I mean burping, burping, burping. Horrendous. That was followed by acid burning in my throat and upper stomach, and later followed by stomach pain. I stopped the Advil, per my doctors instructions.

Darn!

Fortunately, I am drug-free so far this morning, but having the drugs in my system yesterday did help the new fall. This morning ... I am a little more sore and painful, but I don't think any new damage has occurred, even though my right wrist did swell a hour or so after my accident.

My friend and I were not the only ones to fall, of course. One lady took the shuttle from the parking lot to the building, got off, and fell, smacking her head on the curb and knocking herself out. The ambulance took her away with a back brace on.

Another co-worker, was at home and went around her car to get in. She fell under the back of the car where the exhaust pipe is and ending up sucking in fumes. Her husband was IN the car waiting for her to get in. She had to roll over -- now wet -- slid to the grass, crawl on the grass, and finally got to her feet. She has a bump on her left leg just under her knee. She's still wearing a wrist/hand brace since she had surgery from a fall at work, and this was NOT a good thing for her.

We went downstairs earlier in the a.m., and rode the elevator back up with the company nurse. Her comment as the doors shut was, "Okay, everyone. Come clean with me. If you fell this morning, and are filing an injury report, don't do it before I eat my breakfast sandwich." She had just come from the cafe with her breakfast. I told her, "Three of us here fell. We will not be filing an injury report; as I'm still fighting over my last injury from June." She said, "I'm so sorry to hear that. Poor girl."

Our nurse is under BWC. When I went down to talk to her about my problems with OWCP (Federal Worker's Comp), she said, "Thank heavens I'm covered under BWC. I tell Federal workers, 'Don't get hurt on the job!'" (Easier said than done, I'm afraid. People get hurt.)

'Nuff said. Enough stories for today, too!

I work today from 6 a.m. til 10 a.m. I will then be on vacation. Our group is going off-site for our Christmas party, and that is why I took 4 hours of annual leave. Most of our group will leave around 11 am, and the party will start at a local restaurant at 11:30 a.m. We'll go home from there.

I am off till 12/29. I will go back back to finish up the month's work for those 3 days of the end of the year and month, and then take off again. We will get to leave an hour early on 12/31, and we have 1/1 off, so I added 1/2 to make a long weekend. 2009 is just around the corner now.

What a fast year it was! What an awful year for me, this year. Hoping next year is much better.

See you soon. And take care!!!!