Wednesday, December 21, 2022 we left Sebastian Inlet State park to return to Lake Louisa State Park so we could spend the Christmas and New Year’s holidays with our “East Coast” kids and grandkids. Cindy was feeling much better after her bad bout of food poisoning and we were looking forward to a fun time celebrating before leaving the Orlando area after the first of the year.
We got Nomad set up and planned to use both of our outdoor screen rooms to host everyone for the Saturday night Christmas Eve meal at our place. But the weather forecast called for cold temperatures (for Florida, at least) and rain so we decided to just set up the new screen room in case anyone wanted to escape the smaller confines of Nomad since there would be eight of us inside the RV.
Friday, around mid-morning, I took our dirty laundry to the park’s laundry room about a quarter mile away (when driving). I knew it would take a while because I had three loads and they only had one washer and one dryer for the entire loop. Sure enough, I had to wait for someone to finish their last load in the washer before I could start my first load. Good thing I always bring a book to read.
Shortly after 11:30 I was washing our second load and drying our first when my phone rang with a call from Cindy. When I answered it I could barely hear her whispered voice and said, “What?” She spoke a little louder, in a voice tinged with tears and pain, “I need you…”
“I’ll be right there, hold on” I quickly replied as I ran to the truck and drove back to the site. As I raced through the door I found her in one of the recliners crying and holding her left shoulder.
She had decided to move some things from the inside of the RV to make more room for all of us on Christmas Eve. She went out the door and down the steps with both her arms full of things. As she placed her foot on the second step she slipped and fell sideways to the gravel ground. She told me she had been in such pain that she laid out there for several minutes just trying to push through the agony in her left shoulder so she could get up and get back into the RV.
I’m not a doctor and I don’t even play one on TV, but I felt around her upper arm, shoulder and collar bone trying to see if I could feel any broken bones. Nothing seemed out of place or protruding but her upper arm was starting to show some pretty bad bruising and she said she was hurting very much. I had her sit still while I went back to the laundry room to get our clothes and while I was there she called me and said she wanted to go the ER because it was hurting so bad.
So she was going to be going back to an ER for the second in six days for two very different reasons.
We went to the nearest ER and got in pretty quickly, but then it seemed to take forever to get her out of the exam room to X-ray and then for a doctor to come in with a diagnosis. Everyone as very nice, just slow. Plus we came in during a shift change so there was that to deal with. Eventually the doctor came in, showed us the X-rays and said that Cindy had an “impact break” where her shoulder ball had jammed so hard into the should socket that it fractured the should ball in at least one spot and possibly a second under the ball. That was why I couldn’t feel any broken bones when I was checking her. Nothing was out of place, but it broke the shoulder ball and DID slightly displace the shoulder ball from the socket. Just not enough for me to feel it. On the X-ray it looked like someone had taken a black magic marker and drawn a rough, jagged line on the top of the shoulder ball.
I texted the East and West Coast kids to let them know what had happened and how she was doing while we sat in the exam room waiting for some pain medications. Her son and I discussed just bundling her in up bubble wrap for the remainder of her life.
Pain meds were given and prescribed and a shoulder sling was fitted and we took off to get the prescriptions filled. That is a whole ‘nother story of craziness but we eventually got back to Nomad after dark and had dinner. Cindy was in a good deal of pain still even with the Oxycodone and other pain meds. Plus, she couldn’t lie down flat to sleep now because it was just too painful. We got her set up in one of the recliners for her to try and sleep in but even that did not give her much rest. And we had to get her an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon, but that couldn’t happen until sometime the following week after the Christmas holiday.
Our Christmas Eve dinner was the next day. The kids were bringing some dishes and we were providing the main course of turkey and ham and some other items. Cindy told me everything I needed to do and I spent the morning getting our part of the meal ready.
We ended up having a great time with the kids and grandkids with everyone enjoying the food and opening our presents. Then Cindy and I went to bed (well, I went to bed and she went to the recliner) to get a good night’s sleep so we could be at Amber and Abby’s house early the next morning for their Christmas gift opening and breakfast. After that we drove over to Ann’s to see what all of them had gotten for Christmas and got a picture of their matching holiday shirts.
Cindy and I usually go to a movie together on Christmas Day but there was nothing we wanted to see this year. We met our friends Kirk and Laura for lunch and exchanged gifts with them, then returned to Nomad to relax the rest of the day because we were both exhausted.
These are the times when you realize just how much you and your partner do together. Because when one of you can’t do what they usually do, you pick up the slack and come to see just how much they do in your relationship. All the things you used to split are now on one person to do and the truth of the matter is that Cindy usually does a lot. This was a good thing in that I was reminded NOT to take all things she does for granted. That can happen sometimes when you fall into routines, but the disruption of those routines lets you see all the smaller parts that make up the whole and you gain a new appreciation for what the other person contributes.
We got an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon the following Wednesday. He gave Cindy some exercises to do to help her shoulder not “freeze up” due to inactivity and we made a follow up appointment for three weeks later. It would mean we would have to cut our trip to our next stop short by one day so we could return, but it was fortunate we weren’t going to be a longer distance away than we were.
The rest of our time at Lake Louisa we pretty much just took it easy. I got to have lunch with Ann at Olive Garden while Cindy had lunch with her friend Judith in the same restaurant but at different tables. I always love spending time with my daughter and we had a great time. Abby came an spent a couple of nights with us and was a big help to me in taking care of Grandma. Then it was off to our next stop.
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