Home Alone

Beth's been away for a couple of days, and they happened to coincide with my "weekend", so I've had plenty of time alone in the house, though I still have the cats. Ghost in particular seems to have made it his business to hang around and keep under my feet.

First job yesterday was to take my Mazda to Oil Can Henry's for a service. I've never had a car long enough to bother servicing before, but it was quick and easy, and relatively cheap, to get a full 20 point service and change of power steering fluid. Just across from OCH is WinCo, one of the discount food stores in Eugene, so I dropped in there and stocked up on various goodies and foods. Beth and I share some foods and buy separately for others, as we often have to eat at different times, and have different tastes.

In the early evening I decided to go to Fred Meyer's gas station to refuel, as it's the cheapest in town with 10 cents a gallon discount if we spend enough in the store each month (and 3c just for having a discount card). I had a small bottle of fuel additive from OCH which is supposed to clean the engine and increase mileage, and I held out the bottle in my left hand for the attendant (in Oregon people pump the gas for you), along with my Fred Meyer card and debit card. Ping! Something gave in my upper arm, and I was gasping in pain. Ouch, Ouchy ouch. Ow. Ow ow OW that smarts.

As soon as I was finished at the pump I parked and got out to examine my arm and assess the damage. Zing, twang, various angles would send shooting pains through my bicep and shoulder - the symptoms felt like (what I consider to be) a trapped nerve, probably from the awkward angle I'd had my arm in when holding the bottle and cards. Odd, I've been lumping huge loads around at Wal*Mart, dragging pallets of water and Fun-Pops around, and I twing my arm holding a 10 ounce bottle.

I took a walk around inside Fred Meyer, trying to work my shoulder and arm to see if the pain would ease, while trying not to bring tears of pain to my eyes and look a complete wuss in public. Eventually I returned to the car and drove home more or less one-handed. By the time I got home the pain was no longer constant with sharp spikes, but would start up with any movement of my left arm, so I tried not to move it much. I watched some recorded shows, made a spagetti bolognese, all one-handed, and sat with the cats until bed time, when I had a hot shower to try to loosen my shoulder muscles and went to bed.

The next morning my arm was still painful, though slightly less so, but I decided to get an arm sling to rest my arm as much as possible during my "Sunday". I checked online for drug stores, and at 8am drove to RiteAid to get a $10 sling. I used it for a couple of hours but was dissatisfied with the fit (it pulled against my neck painfully) so I went back and changed it for the more expensive $30 option. That felt better, at least now the pain was shared between my arm and my wallet.