Monthly Archives: May 2026

Day 2: Wednesday, May 13th

Struggled to get up, but managed the bathroom downstairs. Appetite good – not ravenous – but had my regular boiled egg and Marmite toast. More painkillers. Read that pregabalin and oxycodone have a negative interaction so I messaged Dr. Fanucci that I was suspending pregabalin.

CT scan at Emerson. Had to negotiate how to get out of kitchen into garage. From a standing position (on one leg supported by frame) I have to kneel down (on the knee of the bad leg first, then knee of good leg) and roll to the left to sit on my butt, rotate to have legs pointing out the door, then butt slide down the steps. Once on the stoop of the garage, I can hoist myself up with arms on the car door door frame, good leg push up, and slide my left buttock cheek onto the passenger seat. Then reach over and with hands around right thigh lift the leg into the car. The appointment itself was less of a problem. Roll up into the circle at the entrance of hospital and a wheelchair guy shows up. Called Miranda while waiting for the scan. Devin’s in Vietnam visiting his parents.

The scan was no problem. The test results will later show nothing exceptional. Pick up the oxycodone script from CVS, and a wheelchair from the Stow Council on Aging social worker.

Back home and now it’s time to get the plants for the plant sale out of the greenhouse, labeled, and loaded into the truck. The plan originally was that Maureen would drive to the Red House and drop them off, but Anne Sterling said she’d pick them up. (She did, the next morning.)

Now the trip up the stairs to the bedroom. Tricky, but the butt slide is the best way into bed. Much better night’s sleep, woke up a few times – at one point the leg was hurting a lot but popped an oxycodone and managed to drift off again.

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X-ray of fractured tibia

Day 1: Tuesday, May 12th, 2026

It was going to be quite a busy day, but we had no idea how much busier it was going to be. In the morning, Maureen had an early appointment in Hudon to have a new cap at the dentist. I had all the plants out of the greenhouse ready to deliver to the Red House in Acton for the plant sale. I drove the truck to Home Depot in Waltham to pick 20 bags of stone and a new downspout. After lunch I started weeding the hellstrip; every 15 minutes or so, dashing down to the basement to get the lettuce bowls soaked. On the last trip down I tripped on the bottom two steps and found I could not stand!

Excruciating pain in lower right leg where I’ve been having pain for the past few weeks. Crawled over to the stairs and up to the garage where I called for Maureen. Slid into the back seat of the Mazda and off to Emerson emergency. Admitted, and eventually saw the on-call doctor, who ordered X-rays. As soon as I saw the pictures I said to the X-ray tech “Fractured!” In the report later it reads “there is an oblique non-displaced slightly elongated angulated fracture of the mid to distal shaft of the right tibia.” The tech nodded and said “I’m not supposed to tell you, but yes.” I took a picture. The fracture shows up clearly.

X-ray of fractured tibia

Subsequently I was seen by a nurse who put a cast on my leg. They tried out crutches, but I settled for a walker. The fall was about 4:00 PM and we were back home by a bit after 8:00 PM, just a few minutes too late to pick up oxycodone from CVS – but fortunately we had a stash at home.

It was a bit of a hassle figuring out how to get in the house, but I was able to crawl out of the car into the kitchen and lift myself up on a walker (that we had from my hip surgery). I spent the night on the couch – quite a bit of pain. I slept every now and then. Fitbit said I slept 3 hours 24 minutes, awake 3 hours 37 minutes, 0 deep, 7 minutes REM.

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