The next day. Did #2's hair, and she too was riddled. What can you do. Just spend a few hours of your day combing, combing, combing. Naturally by the end of that spree I was scratching my own head, but thank god I have the sense to have short hair. Did a comb through on myself and I am FREEEEE! And now that I've rinsed the conditioner out in tepid water, I actually feel slightly uplifted. Well.. things could be worse - imagine if I had them too! I will have to attack #1 when she gets home from a friend's this afternoon. She will think that now she is a teenager she is immune, but I am thinking that is unlikely. I can always hope.

What is of more concern is Marc's shoulder. He is in pain, but, being a man, won't take anything for it. Just sits there looking pained. And depressed about another hitch to our bike riding training - we were going to go into this Saturday morning community bike ride tomorrow morning. (As if Tracey having a cough for 6 damn weeks wasn't enough... he had 3 weeks off work, and we haven't ridden once, and the Big Ride is in 2 months.) If the roles were reversed he'd be nagging me to see someone, TODAY, but he is adamant that he needs to wait a couple of days. *[Edit: as if he sensed me writing that, he just capitulated and asked for painkillers - so it can't be good.]

He first dislocated his shoulder around 14 years ago - playing volleyball. He had a 10km trip to the hospital (along a bumpy road) with it still dislocated. So it must have been 'out' for nearly an hour. I wasn't with him at the time (I think I was home either very pregnant or with the baby) but it must have been excruciating. He took note of how the dr did it, and every other time it has happened he enlists whoever is closest to pull on his arm, in a sort of horizontal position, while he sort of manouvres his shoulder till it clunks back in. Strangely enough, his shoulder then HURTS for a while - the ligaments and muscles protesting at being jolted out of place like that.

[Yesterday he only had the two older girls with him, and so it was a Giant Turnip style tug-of-war scenario, with Cait pulling on his arm with both arms, and Alison with her arms around Cait's waist. "And they pulled, and they pulled... and they pulled...." ]

And, though he wasn't to know it back that first time, it does happen on a semi-regular basis, which is a tad inconvenient. He should probably have a shoulder reconstruction, but as he would have to be out of commission from everything for the recuperation period required, it's never made the 'things to do this year' list. Too much to do. It used to happen a fair bit, until he figured out what 'moves' he should avoid. He learnt that he could no longer spike in volleyball.. or sleep with his arm on the pillow 'above' his head. (Try being woken up out of a dead sleep to help him put his shoulder back in.) Or do silly things like reaching across the car to unlock a door (less likely to happen these days now that we have cars with central locking). No more diving to touch someone at Touch.. and be careful body surfing. When he does it, it makes him much more cautious for a while.. until he forgets. In the surf it's the dumpers that catch him, and that's what happened yesterday. And he really did get dumped yesterday - after it got thrown out on the downward dump, he was unceremoniously dumped, and rolled over and over. With. His. Shoulder. Out. (Yeah, it makes me shudder just thinking about it.) So given what he endured while it was out, it probably rates as one of the worst on his list of dislocation experiences, and thus it is likely that it will give him grief for longer.

So, not the most ideal start to our year, particularly with regard to our bike riding plans - and making the most of his time off work. In the scheme of things, it puts the nits in perspective. I guess. (Lucky he has some more cricket to watch on the telly this afternoon. I will hang out some more sheets, and then take myself for a bike ride to test the lungs. Just me getting on a bike might make him a bit happier.)

Labels: reality checks