Flowers, food, and a broken and sprained ankle

July 2, 2012

I woke up early this morning, showered and got to work at 7. I was walking in and I noticed a change int he bougainvillaea along my way. The flowers had flowers. My first thought, "Only in Hawaii do the flowers have flowers..." I think it is the stamen and pistol of the flower that make it look like a second flower is blooming on the flower.

Even the trash bins have flowers! These plumeria had fallen onto the lid of a trash bin set out for pickup. They were lovely so I took a photo.

As I was going up the steps at work I noticed this tree also had interesting flowers.

So I spent the morning finishing up the childhood obesity data crunching. I got that sent off to Ann right before lunch. We stopped quickly at Times Supermarket so I could get my July bus pass. For lunch we went out to where Lisa lives, out near Pearl Harbor. We stopped and got lunch at a place called Tanioka's Seafoods and Catering. I got fried rice, a fish patty and 2 salmon patties. They are like salmon croquettes. They were tasty. I'm not a huge fish fan, but these were good. I also had a masubi made of the diced pickled plums, and some sort of purple seasoning. It was good but very hard to describe.

Lisa got several items, including a spam masubi and a seafood cake. She wanted me to try both. They were alright but I am glad I didn't order either. I STILL do not see why the spam masubi is such a regional delight. I have tried it. Twice. Done with the whole Spam masubi thing.

After we grabbed lunch we went quickly to Lisa's house. Ann was checking out a plant in the garden to help Lisa identify it - it is agave.

Lisa's house has a lemon tree in the backyard, there were TONS so she gave us bags and we picked some to take with us.

On the way back we stopped by Samurai's for dessert. Samurai's is a little hole in the wall place that makes guri guri (some call it goodi goodi) which is a Mauia style homemade sherbet. It is milky so it is more of a cross between ice cream and sherbet. Ann got the prepackaged lychee flavor and I had a taste. Yummy. I had the soft serve strawberry and vanilla swirl. I got the small and it was HUGE. It was very tasty. We actually were taking the food back tot he office so I ate my guri guri on the way back, which meant I was stuffed already before I started my meal. 

Lisa got come candied popcorn (you can kindof see the bag behind my guri guri above) which is a lot like kettle corn, but sweeter and not really salty at all. It is red and green so it looks Christmasy. She also got furikake potato chips. We tried them and they are DELICIOUS. I must try making these at home. Rob and Alex - try the furikake I sent you on potato chips. They also put it on popcorn, rice, and anything fried.

After stuffing myself with food I went back to work on data. Ann has a new project for me to help with but since I hadn't been able to get on the internet all day that was put aside. I got instructions to work on it around other ongoing projects. I spent the afternoon working on the DVFR data and starting to get some facts written out into paragraphs.

By this time my ankle was extremely painful. So I gave in and asked the folks at work where a good place to go that was NOT the Emergency Room might be found. After looking at several options I chose a place right next to Kahala Mall. I figured I could take the bus there and back. A lady at work, Shu, lives right near there so offered to drop me there on her way home. Thank you Shu!!! So I went to the Urgent Care Clinic.

This is probably a good thing. It turns out that my right ankle has a grade II sprain on the outside portion of the ankle and a crack in the bone on the inner ankle portion. The doctor said I probably hadn't felt the pain from the crack until the pain from the sprain decreased. So I've been walking around for almost 2 weeks on a serious sprain and a cracked ankle bone. They wanted me on crutches, which I said NO. The next suggestion was one of those big walking boot contraptions. I also said NO to this. If I wore that I'd be falling down the stairs here at the house constantly. I pointed out that I've been walking on it and doing stairs for 2 weeks with just an ACE wrap and I hadn't dislodged the cracked bone yet. He agreed and we settled on an AirCast splint type ankle brace. That way I can wear a regular shoe and be in less danger of tripping or falling down the stairs. It gives a LOT more support and takes the majority of pressure off the ankle. If it gets worse then I'll have to go get the big clunky walking boot or crutches, but we agreed this was a better plan for a first step. I am allowed to walk, just not to do anything crazy on it. No waterskiing, hiking up huge inclines, NO HULA, etc. They offered me painkillers but I again said NO. I told him that since we were going with a brace instead of crutches or a big walking boot that a small amount of pain would keep me from overdoing it. If I didn't hurt a little I'd be out running around on the ankle and making it worse. I told him I had brought my Tramadol (Ultram) with me in case my back got too bad and could always take one of those if it got unbearable. Tylenol or Ibuprofen should be good enough though. He laughed and said he didn't usually have to talk people into accepting a prescription for pain meds. I have things to do though and don't have time to be drugged and sleepy or stupid. I'm sleepy and stupid enough on my own :)

So this is the side with the crack in the bone.

This is the side with the grade II sprain.

I am indeed talented. Why can't I instead be talented in winning the lottery?

It feels MUCH better with the Aircast. Good enough that I left and walked to the corner and to the mall so i could go to whole foods. It was only about a block so not very far. I was going to take the bus home but Lisa called and said she needed to go to Long's Drugstore which was right there next to where I was. She offered to pick me up outside Whole Foods and take me home. So I got the few items I needed in Whole Foods then went with her to Long's. I got a few more items for the gift boxes to send home. Then she took me to get Jack in the Box since I have been craving breakfast. Bacon, eggs and little silverdollar pancakes! YUM. Thank you Lisa!!! Emily from work had offered to pick me up but my ankle felt good enough to take the bus. After getting to Whole Foods though I was glad Lisa was going to Long's and I could get a ride home after all.

So I am home, groceries put away, food consumed. I am ready to sleep. My ankle hurts when I take the brace off but I don't want to sleep in it in case I have swelling. So I'll take it off and get to sleep. Goodnight everyone, have wonderful dreams.

~Malama pono, (Take care)
~Melissa