Hey hey! Guess who’s back at their computer?

Sort of. I’ve got a massive brace on my right forearm that doesn’t make typing easy. I’d say I’m at less than half-speed right now. Maybe a quarter.

But … that’s better than nothing, and better than a phone. So what’s the story with the arm and what’s going on?

Well, the injury if from my part time job. If you’ve ever been at a college or a convention center, odds are you’ve seen air-wall. Those large, mobile wall pieces used to divide rooms in half?

Well, in our building’s largest room, we have two of them. The ceiling in this room is fifty feet up. That bit is important. As well is that these air-walls are pretty … old and badly maintained.

Yeah, there’s no other way to put that. This was the third incident of falling metal from the air-wall railings. And the first instance of it hitting someone. The air-wall came to a stop, we tried to start it moving again, and …

A six-foot, 15 pound or so piece tore free and dropped right at me. Unfortunately, this happened at the junction where the air-wall moves into its storage. Which meant that I was backed into said storage and really didn’t have options for moving out of the way easily. So I ducked my head, put my arm up in a block (I did martial arts for several years in high school and I’m glad that muscle memory held up), and took this long bit of metal right on the back of my arm, wrist, and shoulder.

And amazingly, all I ended up with was some massive bruising, seven stitches, and a doozy of a sprained wrist and hand. And yes, I will have some pictures for you guys in the future.

That’s right, after my x-rays yesterday (now that the swelling has gone down a bit; no joke I couldn’t fold my fingers in on Sunday morning) it has been determined that I have no fractures or breaks! This is incredibly lucky (I myself credit this as divine interference). By all rights we (myself and everyone who saw the accident) were expecting at the very least a fracture. A broken wrist was almost a given. But neither happened. Instead my wrist is so sprained that simply holding open the pages of a paperback or trying to hold my cell phone hurt.

Yeah, I’m still going to be left-handed for a while. And that’s with a brace on.

Oh, the brace, though. The hospital gave me one after my x-rays yesterday and it is so wonderful. Came home able to just set my arm down and not have to try and find a comfort spot. I almost immediately fell asleep and slept from like 8 PM-ish to 2 AM.

Typing with it, as I am trying right now? Not easy. And a little painful. Monday’s Being a Better Writer post is up in the air at the moment.

But hey, I can use a mouse now. Kind of! And nothing is broken! So now it’s just taking care of the stitches and letting my arm rest.

In the meantime, thank you to everyone that’s contacted me to wish me well and express concern. I read every one of your messages, and I am glad to report that things came out at the best possible conclusion.

Now I wait to see what my job does. They’re paying for the medical bills, but I’m honestly more curious about the air wall and workplace safety.

Oh, unrelated but awesome: 99 ratings on Goodreads, after two 5-star ratings came in from new readers in the last two days. Almost at 100!