Forced to Relax on Easter Weekend

Last Tuesday my knee started to swell up. I went to the local clinic where Dr Laura looked at it for about 3 seconds before telling me to get to the Comox emergency ward. I was actually hoping for a few codeine tablets and bottle of antibiotics, but 2 ferry trips, a 5 hour wait in the emergency ward, and a overnight stay on Vancouver Island would have to do. For a short time it was looking like I was going to have to make the trip back to Comox every day for the next week to get an intravenous injection of some industrial antibiotic. I made about 500 phone calls and was able to:

1. Get Dr Laura to commit to having her husband, John, an RN, give me my daily dose. This was to be scheduled in between removing staples from a recently rescued dog and having our Spinal Immobilization evaluation. More on that later... the eval, not the dog.
2. Get St Joe's Emergency Ward to sign off on me having my antibiotic course take place in a rural clinic that is run out of a double-wide trailer.

A full week later, and my knee is looking more like a knee and less like my upper thigh. I still can't go to work, though. After being vertical for any more than a couple of hours and it swells right up again. Hopefully, I can get back on Thursday.

Right... The Spinal Immobilization Eval, herein known as the SIE... It, the SIE, was to take place on Friday morning, and I was more than a little concerned, considering that an entire scenario takes place with the evaluee (me) on my knees. That was going to be a big problem for someone who was barely able to bend his knee enough to climb into a car to get to the firehall. The weather gods smiled on me, though, and brought rain, storm force winds and massive power outages to around 100,000 households. The ferries were unable to bring the evaluator over, and I was given a reprieve. Then we paid for it with 48 hours of no electricity.

Here is how Rachelle passed the time. That bag beside her is her knitting. Many socks were built. Me? I laid on the couch and complained about my knee and built nothing.