Michigan has had some great days weather-wise this
week---sunny, but not so humid that people were complaining about the
temperatures in the 80s. Wednesday I spent some quality time with one of my
Gathering Girls friends in a small town thirty-five minutes away. The town was
founded on the Flat River in the early 1800s as a trading post but it’s only
grown to a population of around 4,000 people. Their downtown area is a
collection of quaint old buildings covering a six block area that is over
shadowed by a massive 228 year old mill that today “produces 1,300,000 pounds
of flour and 500,000 pounds of whole wheat products each day.”
But the town’s most famous claim to fame is a riverboat named
The Robert E. Lee that they use as a showboat. When the White Supremacists had their
rally in Charlottesville, VA, last summer it set off shockwaves that were felt all
the way up here in Michigan. A hot debate and a petition drive to change the
name of that showboat became the area’s obsession and it ended with one of the
city’s leaders resigning and the others making plans to change the showboat’s
name. "A few coats of paint and a steady hand is all we need to take the
right symbolic steps to denounce racism."
Back on topic: The outside of the buildings on Main Street
might be turn-of-century quaint but the two art places we explored first were anything but
quaint inside. Except for the original hardwood floors, they’d been gutted and
were sleek and modern---high black ceilings, white walls, with great lighting
that showcased a large assortment of work by artists working in various medium.
The one place was an artists’ co-op, the other was an impressive art gallery
and the theme of the show we saw was places in Michigan. My God, I could not
believe the prices on the paintings---mid hundreds to low thousands! Made me
wish I was still an obsessed wanna-be artist. Also makes me glad I still have all my framing
and mat cutting tools, should I ever decide to become the next Grandma Moses.
We also found some nice antique shops after lunch. The place
where we ate, though, had great food but it was tacky with a capital T. It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten
in a place so in need of a good purging and a makeover. But it’s good
to be reminded from time to time that while I might come home to messy house once
in a while it’s never truly dirty or neglected for lack of money to keep it up.
That sad little place with its friendly waitress and cook sporting prison
tattoos was well pass its heydays. A set of sliders at the back hinted at its
former glory. They once opened to a long-gone deck that would have given outdoor diners
a good view of the showboat parked across the river. But one
thing struck my funny bone---a sign on the front door about wiping your feet
before coming inside. The inside was so at odds with what that sign suggested we’d
find---I expected prissy pristine---and that still cracks me up.
Speaking of bones, I saw my orthopedic doctor the next day
to get the results of my yearly bone density test. Great news! There was so
much improvement from the Reclast infusions that my risk factor for a major
osteoporotic fracture (hips and back) had gone significantly down. Now for the
bad news. I had surgery at my elbow back in 1999---broken bones in three places---and it’s been hurting
again, so I asked the doctor to x-ray it. When he looked at
my images he said, “Wow! What we’re looking at here is a massive surgical
failure.” One of the screws that once held the top of the ulna bone to
the bottom was floating around free-willy in my flesh. Another screw that
looked to be around 1 ½ or 2 inches long had backed half way out and was no longer anchoring the ulna bone to the radius bone like it was supposed to do, and a stress fracture was showing
a few inches below the screw.
The bottom line: Every time I lean on a table, for example,
or put any kind of pressure on the back of my lower arm---I get a sharp pain. And
I get a duller pain in my forearm every time I rotate my wrist. He said to fix the mess would be “a major ordeal involving a very long surgery, weeks in a cast and months of physical therapy” then he added a few more 'wows' like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The good news is I’m
not getting a pinched nerve---yet---but that may happen down the road, he said,
as the ulna bone floats around unconnected at the top and with the screw migrating around. I can never again lift anything above my waist. Bench pressing is out, too, which I was actually doing last
year at the YMCA.
I have to go back to the doctor in two weeks after taking a round of Prednisone to reduce inflammation and we’ll go from there. He did not do the original surgery but he replaced both my knees, fixed a broken radius and wrist in my other arm and repaired my shoulder not long ago but he's not known for shoving patients into surgery without trying other things first. Laser energy waves therapy for pain management was mentioned along with a few other tricks he has up his sleeve. And here I was wishing I was just being a wuss and the old surgical point was starting to act like a weather barometer. ©
I have to go back to the doctor in two weeks after taking a round of Prednisone to reduce inflammation and we’ll go from there. He did not do the original surgery but he replaced both my knees, fixed a broken radius and wrist in my other arm and repaired my shoulder not long ago but he's not known for shoving patients into surgery without trying other things first. Laser energy waves therapy for pain management was mentioned along with a few other tricks he has up his sleeve. And here I was wishing I was just being a wuss and the old surgical point was starting to act like a weather barometer. ©
P.S. In case anyone is wondering, this elbow is not the same
one that I had the Popeye’s Elbow in earlier this year.
