THE JOYS OF HOLIDAY AIR TRAVEL

With much of the U.S. in the midst of an unprecedented storm, California is basically sunny but getting here from elsewhere has been quite the "adventure". We celebrated early Christmas in Albuquerque with Darrin and Charley. Lou returned on time, uneventfully last Sunday. From there it's been a downhill battle to get anywhere in the air.

I left on Wednesday, December 21, at the beginning of the nationwide storm and was met with an hour delay on my first flight out of Albuquerque. The connecting flight in Burbank was still on time. There is no way to fly from Albuquerque to Sacramento nonstop. Every route requires a connection and anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of time on a good day.

For those of you who don't know, I somehow broke my foot about 3 weeks ago and am in a walking boot. That qualified me for pre boarding and a wheelchair. Lou thanked me for breaking my foot since it got us on first and seats in the bulkhead.   - a nice thing for a 6'3" guy. 

I kept tracking my return flights and knew I'd only have about 10 minutes at best to get to my flight in Burbank. I decided to risk it even though it was the last flight of the day. Southwest is really good about holding late flights. I've waited on many fully boarded planes for 15 minutes or more for connecting passengers and luggage. I crossed my fingers I'd make it okay.

Sure enough, we landed with about 7 minutes to spare BUT there was no gate available. After about 15 minutes we pulled up to the gate. I was in row 2 with my pre board and I hightailed it (as fast as I could go in my boot) to the plane to Sacramento. Figuring I'd be in a middle seat in the back, I was surprised to see they saved me a seat in the first row since they knew I was a pre board. Hectic and stressful but I made it home only about 20 minutes late. However, it took half an hour to get my bag and took Lou another 20 minutes to maneuver through the airport traffic. I'm surprised there aren't 10 wrecks a day at busy airports during peak travel time.

Unfortunately, that was just a preview of what my son went through yesterday flying from Albuquerque to Oakland for Christmas with his girlfriend. He called me after taking his daughter to her mother's and heading to the airport where he found out his first flight was delayed an hour. The connection in Las Vegas was also delayed so he wasn't sweating it and commented, "I'll take delayed as long as it isn't cancelled." As the afternoon wore on the delays and cancellations increased. Weather in the southwest was fine but the storm was wreaking havoc with previous flights. The airports were packed full of people trying to rebook and get somewhere for the holidays.

Darrin made it to Las Vegas late in the evening and had another lengthy delay during which we chatted a few times. I stay up late anyway and he texted that he was boarding the aircraft at 12:30 am! I went to bed only to get a call an hour later. Turns out they boarded the entire plane only to find out there were no pilots available. WTF? The flight was cancelled and the travelers were stranded until the next day (Christmas eve). Every ticket counter had at least 40 tired and stressed passengers in line. Darrin was discussing options with me and decided to call the special Southwest frequent flyer number while waiting in line. About 2 am he texted that they got him on a flight at 7:30 am this morning. 

After a couple hours of sleep in Las Vegas International Airport and a Starbucks breakfast, he was finally on yet another delayed flight after two gate changes and ultimately landed in Oakland at 10:30 am! He was still laughing about the ordeal and doing his best to take it all in stride. We were thankful he wasn't flying from somewhere back east with Charley. He related families spending the night on the airport floor with babies and small children in tow. 

We are all where we plan to be for Christmas - finally! I can remember the good old, glamour days of air travel when it seemed so civilized. Now, it is a crowded, crazy-ass madhouse. I keep reminding myself that it's all part of the adventure.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good-night!

BROKEN FOOT UPDATE

Just got back from an appointment with the Sutter orthopedic podiatrist. I am wearing a new, rigid, state-of-the-art walking boot up to my knee. You'll recall I found out my foot was broken on Friday afternoon and I was referred to orthopedics. They called me at 8:45 am this Monday morning and said they could get me in today at 2:15 pm!

Sutter Orthopedics gets an A+ from me. The doctor was great. More on him later but first Sutter Urgent Care's "Gaga grade" has been lowered to a D-. First, that doctor said he thought it was a sprain but he would call me if it was broken. Still haven't received a call from them. I self-treated with ice, ibuprofen and an old boot from a stress fracture years ago after seeing the results online. AND their referral said it was the third metatarsal (it is the second) on the left foot (it is the right foot). What the HELL!!?!!?

This doctor showed me the X-rays and gave me four options. Option 1 - The fracture is displaced a noticeable amount but both ends of the bone are touching and it is raised up slightly. He said it will heal on its own and probably be fine for my activity level provided I stay totally off it until it is healed. Option 2 is put a pin down from the top of my toe to mid foot but the toe won't bend at all. Option 3 is open it up and put a plate with screws but the toes will bend. Option 4 is to bend my toes straight up during surgery and put a pin (which is removed after a month) into the bone beneath my toes that will stick out and I will be totally on crutches the whole healing time. I was definitely leaning towards Option 1.

After thinking about if for a minute I said, "Okay, here's my question...." He had a fun sense of humor and says, "Oh, no, you're going to ask me what I would do if it was me or my wife." I said, "Yep, what would you recommend your wife do?" He replied, "My ex-wife or my current wife who I love?" We both laughed out loud. He went on, "My current wife would hate her toe not bending and I know she couldn't be on crutches for a month. My ex-wife maybe I'd suggest go kick a curb with it." Lots more laughter.

After some serious discussion I suggested let's do the boot and let it heal then if it doesn't we can put the plate and screws in. He told me that was a smart decision. I will wear the boot religiously and go back for an X-ray and office visit in a month. Hopefully, I'll be well on the way to recovery. If not, it will be outpatient surgery with local anesthesia. Then maybe someday I'll be injury free for awhile. Sigh....I can only hope.

Laughing so much with the doctor today got me thinking how much like my father I'm becoming. Not just dealing with several health issues but the joking. My dad used humor every time he was in ER or at the doctor. My favorite example which I know I've shared previously was the time he was in ER for something pretty serious. The nurse was working on him and the doctor was assessing him. Noticing his partially amputated foot the doctor asked, "Why did you have your foot amputated?" My father's quick reply was, "For fun!" I giggled, the nurse laughed out loud and the doctor semi-glared at all of us like we were nuts. 

In closing, I never thought I'd have something in common with Jimmy Garoppolo but, alas, I do. In case you're not a fan, he's the 49er quarterback who is my favorite player and was having a great season. Yesterday he broke his foot and will have season ending surgery. 

QUEEN OF RIDICULOUS INJURIES

Here we go, again! It seems that I am becoming the "Queen of Ridiculous Injuries". My surgically repaired shoulder is finally getting close to performing normal activities after reattaching torn tendons (caused by pushing a chair) in August. That's the good news. The bad news is that I seem to have broken a bone in my right foot after doing something crazy like sleeping all night.

I woke up yesterday morning with a fairly sore foot. At first, I attributed it to my neuropathy acting up. As the morning went on it got worse and worse. By afternoon I could barely walk. The pain was excruciating with every step I took. It was approaching the number 8 range on the hospital pain scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being the worst pain in the world. I never went higher than 7 in my previous surgeries. My son and I have discussed this surmising that a 10 would be someone cutting off your leg with a dull knife. Not that bad but this was serious pain yesterday.

This morning it was just as bad with every step causing agony. And there was a fair amount of swelling across my toes and forefoot. The decision was made that Lou would drive me to Urgent Care. Fortunately, it wasn't crowded and I was called in after 5 minutes. From there it bogged down taking 45 minutes to see the doctor. He thought I had a metatarsal sprain but ordered an X-ray to be sure nothing was broken. I was to take ibuprofen, ice it, stay off it and use a cane when I did walk for the next week to 10 days.

A few hours later I received an email that my X-ray results were online. Yep, you guessed it, the first line read, "Comminuted, mildly displaced second metatarsal fracture." I learned a new word today, 'comminuted' means more than one fracture. Well, shit. It also showed several old injuries I wasn't aware of that I won't go into here as well as "mild degenerative changes".

I wracked my brain as to how I could have broken my foot by just going to bed and think I came up with a possibility after discussing it with my best friend. It requires a convoluted explanation but here goes. I love taking hot baths in the evening and have a beautiful new bathtub in our new house. I couldn't push myself up with my right arm due to the shoulder surgery so I would turn sideways on to my knees and stand up using mostly my left arm.....until the past 3 days.

My right arm is now able to push pretty hard so I discovered I could push up with both arms getting my feet underneath me and stand up quite easily. BUT most of my body weight was on my bent toes as I stood. We surmised that due to the neuropathy any pain felt minimal but the stress just might have snapped my 72 year old bones. I told you it was kind of convoluted and I do think the term "Queen of Ridiculous Injuries" applies. And I can't think of anything else that could have caused this.

I have been referred to an orthopedic doctor that I will contact early next week. It just seems like such a stupid occurrence that makes no sense. I've decided to give up trying to make sense of it all and go with the decision that "shit happens". And at least I know that I'm not a wimp who can't deal with pain since I was walking around with a broken bone in my foot. I'll keep you posted.