No soy una ¨Bad Ass¨

My Peace Corps doctor sent me back to my surgeon today. (I´m so special...I have three doctor: my general Peace Corps doctor, my arm surgeon who repaired my bones, and my physical therapist doctor). It turns out I ain´t as Bad Ass as I thought. Mr. Hand remains swollen so my Peace Corps doctor had it checked out. It turns out that I might be doing too much.

Case in point, I walked into the doctor´s office with Mr. Hand carrying a bag filled with a Spanish dictionary, another book, and groceries. I was then berated by my doctor who told me that I wasn´t supposed to lift anything still. Just when I was about to do the ¨Why didn´t anybody tell me this¨ speech, I suddenly recalled a conversation not too long ago where he did tell me ¨not to lift anything.¨ Oops, my bad.

I guess the swelling might have something to do with the fact that Mr. Hand has been carrying 3 liter water bottles around and I tried to bench press a couple of days ago. You´re probably thinking what the heck was I doing bench pressing and where, but let me tell you, my physical therapy office has all sorts of neat exercise equipment/gadgets. I couldn´t help but see if I was able to bench press the bar. (I couldn´t and, how could I when even before the accident, I wasn´t able to do it.) But it did hurt like a mother trying.

So now I´m back to taking it easy again. The doctor said that my bones have still not fully recovered and that it could very well break again if I´m not careful (another fact that was new to me). It´s really good that he told me that. Since I have a tendency to fall, I already had a ¨Safety Action Plan¨ in mind. Should I fall, I was ready to catch myself with Mr. Hand since it is now secured with two metal bars. However, since this is no longer a viable plan and I don´t want to injure my other remaining hand, my new plan involves me twisting my body to one side and putting both arms up in the air before hitting the ground. Smart, huh! That way, no limbs get hurt.

On the plus side, the doctor did evaluate my progress and said that Mr. Hand is doing extremely well considering that the cast came off exactly one week ago. (Happy anniversary, Mr. Hand!) For example, I found out today that Mr. Hand can now shave my left armpit with no problems at all...Oh, happy day! :)