but couldnt because wordpress was playing silly buggers, is this:

so you know how i had a mission this weekend to finish that pair of flirtini socks for my sister? well i didnt, but it wasnt my fault. it was the dogs fault. firstly, instead of just being the person who puts the balls in the box for the dogs, this weekend i ran a dog myself. usually trent runs possum in flyball, but this weekend he had to judge all day, so i had a go. i loved it! shes such a great little dog, knows exactly what to do and has a great time doing it. i ran 6 races with her without incident, apart from bad early passes on my behalf (ie, i let her go too early and she passed the dog coming back too soon). you do that when youre new to racing and have no idea what youre doing. anyway, we even won some races, and it was a beautiful day down there on burrill lake and we were all having a great time.

then, in the second last race of the day something happened. possum was running as the third dog, which means sophie runs first and then gets out of the way, wizz runs second and is supposed to get out of the way, and possum runs third, with pac bringing up the rear. for some reason, in this one particular race, as i let possum go from 45 feet behind the start gates (so that she would cross with wizz right on the start line), wizz decided she needed to cross in front of me, rather than stay on my left hand side and find her handler, rosie,  that way. i saw her coming at me and knew what was going to happen. she was so focussed on looking for rosie she had no idea i was there. if i kept running i would run right into her and hurt her. but she was moving fast and i couldnt stop or sidestep in time. there was nowhere to go but over. it happened in slow motion then, and i had that moment of thinking this is going to hurt as my arms went out to break the fall. i landed flat on my face. this is my drawing of what happened:

the judge (trent) blew the whistle and racing stopped as everyone ran to see if i was ok. i just lay there for a minute thinking about whether i was ok, or whether if i just lay there the earth would open up and swallow me. i think i thought ‘damn you trent for making me run your dog, even tho shes really my dog’ and then i thought ‘my first time racing a dog and this is what happens’ and then i thought ‘right, get up now’. i tried to get up but wobbled a bit, i tried to put my weight on my left hand but it collapsed under me, so people helped me, we checked for scratches, no blood, im ok, we can keep running. i shook my hand out a bit and realised i would need to move the tug rope to my right hand for possum to grab on the way back (not the ideal racing technique) but we managed ok for a couple more races.  when we finished racing though, i knew something wasnt right. i was shivering, like i was cold, but wasnt cold. people handed me ice packs and made me sit down.  i felt all buzzy and like i was talking too much, too fast. a member of the local dog club was a paramedic and she checked for major breaks, found nothing, put me in a sling, which felt better. we packed up and drove home, i couldnt really move it but we were pretty sure it was just bruised. it was a big fall and im not a little thing, so youd expect it to hurt. i wasnt going to do anything else about it, until monday morning and thinking about showering, i tried to put my hair up and nearly passed out. it was that kind of pain that just rips through you, no apologies, taking all your breath away, and all you can do is say oh.

so i drove myself (interesting experience with one hand) to the dr who didnt like the look of it and ordered xrays (thankfully just across the road) and the lovely radiographer took a couple of pictures and then went ‘uh oh’ and i said that doesnt sound good and she said well im not a dr im just the radiographer but yeah its fractured. so back to the dr i go, and yes it is fractured, right here, see:

no, you cant see it, and neither can i really, but its there. i got off pretty lucky really, i have a ‘vertical relatively undisplaced fracture in the centre of the radial head with prominent joint effusion’. a crack and fluid. a very common injury when people fall with arm outstretched apparently. also, apparently, extremely painful, as you may have noticed from yesterdays rant. but theres nothing they can do except try and keep it still for 2 weeks and put it in a sling to try and facilitate  immobilisation. i have to have another xray in two weeks to make sure its healing, then i can move it a bit, until it is all healed up in about 6 weeks. apparently i will know its healed when its stopped hurting. awesome.

i can still knit, see:

but its a bit awkward and hurts a bit. i can only do a few rows at a time then need to stop for a while. overall though, i am feeling much better today. i took some nurofen plus before bed and slept better. my sister called me when she realised i wasnt happy and i cried on the phone and that helped a lot. sometimes you just need a good cry and then the pity party’s over. i watched 3 episodes of dexter and ate only an inch or two of the homer hudson chocolate rock, which means theres more of that to do today. and its a gorgeous grey cold windy and wet day today, finally, so i am perfectly justified in sliding into trackies, throwing a blankie over my knees, and repairing to the couch.

thanks for the kind comments and suggestions yesterday. they helped a lot. no need to repeat them, tho i might send a little treat to the person who can make me laugh the most with a silly joke. good jokes would be acceptable too!

k xx