Ringing in the new year with a crack

OK, so, New Years Eve day. It's supposed to be my day off, but I agree to go into work for overtime so that the rest of the team won't be short-staffed on a holiday. Since it's a holiday and the zoo is closed we start at 7am and can leave by 9am if everything is done. Tara was staying at my apartment so I told her I'd be home around 9:30. Lauren was planning on coming over at 10 and then we were going to go out for brunch. Around 7:45 I tripped and fell for apparently no reason, at least not that I can recall. I was going to a spigot that was on a raised curb to rinse off a big knife and a syringe. I didn't hear a crack, but as soon as I looked down at my wrist I knew it was broken. They're not supposed to be S-shaped. F*ck. Well, at least I didn't eviscerate myself on the knife, right? I was a bit light-headed but I walked to the curators' building to get one of them to help me. No one there. Walked to the other end of the zoo and told Andrea. She was wonderful and called public safety for me, and coordinated with the other bird people to pick up what I hadn't been able to finish.

So...got hauled to Penn Presbyterian E.R. in an ambulance. Realized my cell phone was back in my car at the zoo. Had no way to call Tara or Lauren to tell them why I wasn't back yet. The nurse gave me a percocet. I knew I wouldn't be able to swallow it, so I asked her to break it in half. Still choked. Great- now I have a mangled wrist AND something obstructing my airway. Had x-rays taken. They told me I broke my radius really bad and would likely need surgery to put in plates and screws. Back to the bed where the nurse put in an IV to give me some morphine before the orthopedist came down to twist my bones back into place. Ahhh, morphine. The orthopedist comes in and he's a young Asian guy. He injects my wrist about 15 times with a local anesthetic. Then he straddles my arm (so, yes, picture my arm going between his legs) so that he can pull on it with all his strength without pulling me off the bed. The guy was pretty strong, but he was grunting with the effort and it still took him a couple of pulls before he managed to get my wrist realigned. That done, he set it in a temporary cast and told me I would have to come back in a couple of days to see the hand specialist and find out about hand surgery.

Then Catherine, from work, came by and it was so good to see a familiar face. She took my car keys and went back to the zoo to get my cell phone from my car. I think it was probably around noon before I finally was able to call Tara and Lauren.

One more set of x-rays to make sure the bone was in fact in the right position. Lauren and Tara came around 1 to rescue me. We went back to the zoo to pick up my car and then to the Target pharmacy to fill my prescription for percocet. By the time we made it to "brunch" at the place we wanted to go, it was 3:30 and the place was closed.

We did make it to Jen's for the planned party. Had a wonderful time with people I get to see way to infrequently. Oh and everyone decided that I need to have a much cooler story for when people asked me what happened- so what I'm going with is that the rhino escaped and I got knocked over while trying to protect others and get him back into his yard.

More updates to come, as I'm predicting a lot of boredom in my future while I can't go in to work.