Ouch

At Baron's War I attempted to singlehandedly carry a 5 gallon jug of water, simplemindedly thinking that since water weighs around 8 pounds a gallon, and I regularly carry 50 or more pounds of childflesh up stairs, I ought to be able to carry a 5 gallon jug of water. Sadly, I pulled something in my elbow, and had to rely on Little D to carry water for me for the rest of the campout.

Well, that was at the end of July, and my elbow still hurts. In fact I'm getting numbness and tingling in my pinkie and ring fingers too, and the pain's spreading to my wrist and shoulder. So I went to the orthopedist, who thinks I may have damaged my ulnar nerve.

Today I was subjected to a rather painful test to see the extent of the damage. Basically they strapped electrodes to my arm and shocked them with progressively stronger shocks to see if the nerves would transmit them. It felt like someone was repeatedly stabbing my arm with a very sharp pencil.

The test results will help the doc decide whether to operate or not. I'm not afraid of pain-- you are talking about a woman who's had two unmedicated childbirths, the second by choice-- but I'm not too thrilled at the prospect that this damage might have to be repaired by surgery. What I'm afraid of is that having to go in for surgery is really going to set off my Aspies, so at the same time they're melting down I'll have a diminished capacity to handle them. Heck, Bagel threw a fit this morning when we stopped by the bank on the way to daycare, because we don't usually do that. How upset is he going to be when Mom comes home with a bandaged arm, and she isn't cooking dinner or carrying him up the stairs?