The Joys of a Broken Rib

Since my wife died, I've been doing a lot of travel.  Most recently was a western Mediterranean cruise that included some places new to me.

On a showery day in Palma de Mallorca I slipped on a broad, slick crosswalk stripe, instantly fell on my back and broke a rib on a large, rounded paving stone.

This is about my adventures getting home from Barcelona, where the cruise ended.

My return flight booking was on an Air France subsidiary called Joon -- pronounced and intended as a cute version of jeune (young).  That would get me to Paris where I'd catch a regular Air France to Seattle.

Alas!  I learned at the airport that the Joon fight had been canceled.  Fortunately, they were able to book me on British Airways to London and then Seattle, arriving not long after I otherwise would have.  That worked out well.

When I entered my apartment house the elevator had a sign saying that it was broken.  My man-cave is on the 4th floor.  So here I was, 22 hours after I had woken up, with a broken rib and a suitcase weighing close to 40 pounds.  The stairway is a zig-zag affair, doing one floor in two segments with a flat turnaround between each zig and zag -- six sets of stairs in all to the 4th floor.   The step rise is a little less than the standard 8 inches, which was helpful.   Pulling the suitcase after me was out of the question because that would have meant twisting my body under the strain of its weight: very painful.  So using a knee, I'd heft/kick it to the 3rd step, then heft 2 steps at a time to get to the next flat spot.  A slow process: tiring and with some pain.

Once I got to my apartment I had to decide where I would sleep.   The first two nights following my fall I slept in the ship cabin bed.  But getting out of bed was extremely painful because I had to twist my body.  On a scale of 0-10 where 10 is unbearable, I was at about level 8 or a touch higher, involuntarily crying out with each movement.  The final cruise night I slept in a chair, where rising didn't involve twisting.

I continue to sleep either sitting up or reclining. The first couple nights here I used the couch, but now I use a chair that reclines, allowing me to be more horizontal. Whether the rib is starting to heal or through better use of pain killers, I'm doing better on that front. I alternate Ibuprofen and Tylenol every three hours (based on the doc's hint) and that keeps a fairly steady stream of pain relief in me. The rib area is not pain-free, but the sensations are manageable.

Now I need to lose some of the weight I gained while on the cruise.