On April 1st, I took a spill and put out my left arm to brace myself. I knew I had broken something because I heard and felt the crack. But it wasn’t until I saw the orthopedic surgeon and found out I had completely fractured the radial head, and it had turned 180 degrees during the break. Not only would I need an internal fixation of the radius, I would need a new, prosthetic head of my radius. I had surgery two weeks later, going home the same day with a new prosthesis and a numb arm from the anesthesia given to me during surgery. My orthopedic surgeon was very pleased with my progress when I saw him two weeks after surgery. I was in pain. I live with pain on a daily basis, from the effects of lupus and fibromyalgia, but this was pain like I had never felt. But my orthopedic surgeon understood about chronic pain and gave me strong pain medication that helped. I also started physical therapy, which I did twice a day.
Now, my elbow is feeling better, but my forearm, wrist, and hand still have severe pain. It makes it difficult to type, but it’s gotten better enough to write articles, and the occasional entry on Facebook. I was set to start my B.A. in Christian Studies at Grand Canyon University before my fall, but I had to push my start date back. I was disappointed by the delay; I wanted to start classes, especially because they accepted all my credits from nursing school and a year in a liberal arts program. I only have one class to take before I start my classes in my major. I’m fifty years old, and I want to get school done as soon as I can, so I can start doing what I want to do- being a hospice chaplain.
A week ago, I called my counselor at Grand Canyon and told him I was ready to start class. Last week was my first class and I was a little behind because I entered the class on Wednesday, with no idea how to navigate around the site, where to find assignments, etc. Luckily, my best friend is taking her B.S. in Nursing at the University of Phoenix and their program is quite similar to mine. She was able to give me pointers, and I took a tutorial that the college provides. What I didn’t figure into the equation was that I was still having quite a bit of pain and also flaring from lupus because I’m tapering prednisone, which I’ve been taking for sixteen years. Lupus and Fibromyalgia are both unpredictable diseases. They flare, and the flares can last from a day to weeks. At one point, I was in a lupus flare for over a year. This was after my son was born, and was expected by my rheumatologist and obstetrician. But I didn’t expect it and it was hard to care for a baby while exhausted and in pain every day and night. Thankfully, my husband was a “hands on” dad and did more than his share of work, caring for our son while working full-time, while I was on disability and muddling through.
By Friday of this week, I was in a panic because I had an assignment and had no idea how to do it. That’s when I took the new student tutorial, which answered almost all the questions. I made my entries on the Discussion Forum, even answering the extra credit questions, all while taking heavy-duty doses of pain medications. Our assignment was due by Sunday, today, by midnight Mountain Standard Time. I planned to do it last night, but I was so exhausted after being out shopping for Father’s Day and food shopping, that I couldn’t even think of doing anything on the computer.
So, today, when I finally woke up at 5 p.m., I logged on to the classroom site and did the assignment and submitted it with time to spare. I’m not one of those people who do things by the last minute. I like to have things done ahead of time, mostly because I don’t know when I will feel well, and when I will feel bad. I checked my classroom, and I did all the entries on the Discussion Forum and my assignment was submitted. Now it’s just waiting to see how well I did in my instructor’s eyes. In the meantime, my son has been on his own today, probably playing video games that he was grounded from playing. But the pain medications have kicked in, and now it’s 11:30 p.m. and I’m wide awake and the pain in my arm feels better. I hope to get a good night’s sleep because I have a busy day tomorrow, including making doctor’s appointments, and setting up water physical therapy, which I will do three times a week for the next month. Plus I have a radiation treatment on Tuesday, and my son has a dental appointment Monday evening and swim lessons on Wednesday. My husband is doing three overtime shifts this week, so he’ll be tied up most of the week.
So, tomorrow I’ll hopefully start my day logging on to my classroom and getting my assignment for the week.
