Ow, ow, ow.

Ouch!

I've been working with pain the last couple of days.  Stupid is, as stupid does.

On Wednesday (I think), late in the afternoon I got the 'hankerin' for some potatoes with chicken gravy.  Normally, this is a meal I would cook in my crock pot, but since this craving came on so late in the day, I pulled my largest skillet off the shelf, cubed several potatoes, cut up some onion and boiled the suckers out of them.  Then I opened what I thought was two cans of cream of chicken soup to pour over the cooked potatoes and onions.

My first mistake was that one of the opened cans was not cream of chicken...but old fashioned noodle soup.  What the heck? I dumped both cans into the potato, onion mixture, put the lid on the skillet and set the heat to 'low-simmer'.

Hummm, deeee, dummmmm, deeeeee, dummmmm.  (This is time passing.)

A short while later I fill a rather large bowl of my wonderful potatoes, onions and gravy,....oh, and noodles. It was delicious, I had a second bowl.

Burp!!!!!!!! That was delicious, too.

Here comes the stupid part!

Time came to break down the leftovers into individual packages to put in the freezer for later
eating. I grasp the handle of the skillet, and with my right hand, turned the skillet on its side to fill the first container.

A horrific pain shot up and down the outside of my right wrist.  It was horrible.  My first thought was to drop the skillet full of hot food, scream and grab my wrist.  Well, that would indeed have been stupid!  So, with time moving in slow motion ow, ow, ow, I contemplated taking my left hand and grab the edge of the skillet, to reduce the weight on my right wrist ow, ow, ow.  Well, that indeed would have been stupid! I'd have had burned fingers and an injured wrist.

So, pain and all, I started filling the containers with the leftovers. And, that was stupid.  Because the more I worked, the worse it hurt ow, ow, ow...I did serious harm to my right wrist.  By the time I got to the last container I had to sit the skillet down and use my left hand to finish the job.

Come morning I saw my wrist had swollen some, and hurt to the touch.  However, by now I was sure it was not broken because I could move it (still can) and I can work (although when I turn it too far to the right it still hurts).  I'm sure "it will be better before I get married" (my Aunt Lill's cure all saying).

I've been trying, ever since this accident, to figure out exactly how this happened.  I've used this skillet for decades without incident, what was different about how I poured the stuff out of it this time.  I've concluded it was where I had grasped the handle.  Considering the weight of the potatoes, onions, gravy...oh, and noodles, I should have had my hand closer to the skillet end of the handle rather than the other end. So, being 'off balance' my poor wrist had no other choice to 'step up to the plate' and work hard, r-e-a-l-l-y hard to keep me from spilling the leftovers all over the counter and kitchen floor.

Stupid, stupid me...a ladle was laying, right there, on my spoon rest...did I even think to use it. Nooooooo.  Stupid is, as stupid does.

Anyway, I'm not telling you this to get you to feel sorry for me, or to get free advise on how to cure my wrist, no, I'm telling you this because you never know when an accident is going to happen, even the most simple chore can have a disastrous consequence.  I was lucky, really, it could have been worse, I could have broken my wrist.  Maybe I simply had my mind on something else while I was dumping those potatoes, onions, gravy...oh, and noodles that I never gave the ladle a thought.  That's all it takes for an accident to happen...a wandering mind.  And, that really is the stupid part.