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TODAY'S WORD:
luxer (loox-ay)
: to dislocate
AUDIO FILE:
Listen to today's word in context: Download MP3 or Download Wave file
En promenant Smokey en laisse, Kristi s'est luxée le coude droit.
While walking Smokey with a leash, Kristi dislocated her elbow.
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A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE… by Kristin Espinasse
The night before I was to leave on a three-flight, four airport journey home I dislocated my elbow!
I should have listened to my daughter when she said, "Reste à la maison!" But no, I wanted to watch her and her father play tennis our last day together! I had packed my suitcase and was ready for my 3:30 a.m. wake-up call. A little exercise before the long journey would be good! I would bring Smokey along and, after a brisk walk around the tennis club, the two of us would watch the father-daughter match.
I had a strong premonition as Smokey and I wandered forth into unknown territory. Looking around le voisinage that circled the tennis courts I noticed the houses, each with a tall fence enclosing its yard. What sorts of dogs lived behind those fences? What if one of them began to bark? My gut told me to turn back, but it was a pity to miss this chance to give Smokey some needed exercise.
Approaching a cul-de-sac at the top of the road, I was relieved to have an excuse to turn back. But wasn't it strange that not one of the houses we'd passed had a dog? What a quiet neighborhood! A little too quiet. I wound my wrist around Smokey's leash, to tighten my grip and to assure my unquiet mind….
No sooner had I secured the leash than Smokey began to bolt, taking me hurtling towards an angry dogue de bordeaux–or what some call an English Mastiff! The dog was barking like mad from behind a tall fence.
My first thought was how am I going to land? Currently I was hurtling towards a wire fence, the gravelly ground below me getting closer and closer. This was going to be a painful meeting. Would I land face first?
A split second before the face-plant, Smokey made a hairpin turn. Because my wrist was wrapped so tightly around the leash, I made the hairpin turn right along with him! No longer was my head in danger, given my new direction (still downward!), I might break my hip–and never make tomorrow's flight!
Instinct kicked in and I threw out my arm to break the fall. Only, when my hand hit the ground–followed by the rest of my body–something snapped. I looked up to find my forearm twisted gruesomely away from me!
It was surreal to see my arm so deformed. Given the unusual angle in which it rested, I thought, It must be broken! In my current state of shock my brain overrode my usual tendencies. The tendency to depend on someone else! Besides, there was no one else! No one around to ask "What do I do? How to fix this? Help!"
My body seemed to know the answer. Quickly, my left arm grabbed my right forearm and flung it back toward my rib cage. That's when I heard the pop. The elbow snapped right back into place!
Cradling my arm I scooted across the road like a snake. And when I reached the fence I began to began to moan. Smokey ran up and I managed to used use my free hand to lace his leash through the fence opposite the mastiff (who was safely behind his own fence).
Once my elbow and my dog were secured, reality hit: something was very wrong with my arm and this meant I would not be travelling to see my family tomorrow!
NO! NO! NOOOO! I shouted, wailing from the pain and the loss. NOOOOO!
A neighbor, who turned out to be the dog's owner, ran up and began to assist me. Her husband arrived next.
"Réspirez! Réspirez!" the kind-faced woman said, when I complained of nausia.
"Je crois que je vais vomir," I said. The woman's husband ran inside to get a down coat, returning to lie it over me. Crying from the pain and apologetic for the chaos, I tried to tell them how to reach my husband. The rest was babbling: vous êtes gentils. merci. désolé. mon chien! aïe! ça fait mal… qu'ils arrivent vites!
I could now hear the speaker on the tennis courts, just behind the couple's house: "Monsieur Espinasse. Vous êtes demandé à la reception…." But when Jean-Marc arrived the question remained: How to transport me to the emergency room? What to do with Smokey? We couldn't all four of us ride to the urgences!
The tennis court manager, who had accompanied Jean-Marc, suggested calling les pompiers. "It's a bumpy road all the way to the hospital, better for her to ride in an ambulance…."
Three fireman arrived next. They placed what looked like a deflated raft beside me. On the count of un, deux, trois I was lifted into the "raft" (located on a gurney). One of the firefighters began pumping air into the contraption which began to hug my entire body.
"There. Do you feel secure now? Can you move your hand?" The pompier wanted to know.
Entombed inside the inflatable body-brace, only my front sticking out, I felt like a swadled baby. Looking down I tried to wiggle my fingers and saw that they could move.
At ER I was wheeled to the x-ray room where nurse asked me to lift my arm up onto an x-ray table and I informed her I could not move it.
"Well I don't know the reason for which you are here!" she said, in her defence.
The rest of the staff were just as sympathetic, and when my x-rays finally arrived on the attendant-doctors desk I watched, in amazement, as she tossed them across her desk!
"I don't have time for all this now!" she complained.
From my gurney in the ER entry, facing the giant window behind which the doctor and colleagues processed the paperwork, I watched her storm off.
Seeing my son walk into ER was a great soulagement. Then came the tears. The sum-total of this freak accident hit me. I looked at the clock which crept toward the dinner hour. I should be getting up 8-hours from now… getting on my flight.
"You have a flight tomorrow?" the doctor said, when she finally arrived with the x-rays. "Well, your arm is back in place, but you shouldn't be travelling like this. Is your trip for business or for pleasure?
"I'm going home to see my family…"
"Well, it's up to you but I would not recommend it," the doctor concluded, with a reminder that I should be seeing a specialist the next day, one who would review the x-rays and examine my arm–beneath which my tendons were flairing from pain. (The codeine only made me more nausious.)
After stopping at the pharmacy to buy a sling, or un gilet d'immobilisation d'épaule, Jean-Marc and I rode home. On the way, my husband kept assuring me I'd be just fine, each time I voiced my doubt about flying with an elbow of frayed tendons and a giant sling. But the constant encouragement to go ahead and fly tomorrow was beginning to sound suspicious.
"Do you happen to have any plans this week?" I asked, fishing for an answer to my doubts.
"No," Jean-Marc said. "Apart from seeing all my girlfriends," he joked.
" Seriously, you seem intent on getting me on that flight tomorrow. Are you sure you don't have any plans at all this week?"
"No, there's nothing in particular…"
* * *
(To be continued… Dear Reader, please excuse any mistakes in today's edition. I just arrived home and am catching up on a lot of stuff… but wanted to be sure an get this post out to you!
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FRENCH VOCABULARY
reste à la maison = stay home
le voisinage = neighborhood
réspirez! = breath!
je crois que = I think that
je vais vomir = I'm going to vomit
aïe = ouch
ça fait mal = it hurts
qu'ils arrivent vite = (I hope) they hurry!
soulagement = comfort, relief
les urgences = ER
les pompiers = firefighters
un, deux, trois = one, two, three
un gilet d'immobilisation d'épaule = sling for dislocated shoulder
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I am celebrating becoming 75, and being sans luxer
I am celebrating becoming 75, and being sans luxer
Hope all is well with your arm.xx
Hope all is well with your arm.xx
I am celebrating the hope for PEACE on earth…
I am celebrating the hope for PEACE on earth…
The birthdays of my first two sons, Christmas, all the miracles of this passing year.
The birthdays of my first two sons, Christmas, all the miracles of this passing year.
Our twentieth wedding anniversary.
Our twentieth wedding anniversary.
from Joanne Polner, New Jersey
We are continuing to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our Marriage. We began with a three-course luncheon in a beautiful hotel room with windows and doors looking on the outdoors and open to it (still, then, in mid-October, in glorious autumn color). One hundred twenty-five of our invited guests attended. We toasted, not with alcohol, but with organic apricot mango juice, sunshine in a glass, remarking that we wish all family and friends truly good health and happiness in the coming year and always. We had a program wherein we spoke about the experiences, the objects, and the people who have brought us together and keep us together. We asked the guests at the 12 tables to look at the half dozen or more photos per table set in clear frames around the live, decorated pumpkin centerpieces. The guests were to look at our personal photos, all of which exemplified the topics we talked about: family, friends from organizations where we volunteered and had membership; art, music, dance, and theater; travel and vacations, especially the beach; food; sports; cars; home furnishings; historic societies and places, and of course photography. We thanked all the guests for their inspiration and their support for ideas and ideals over all these years, whenever and wherever we had come into friendship and family. Our anniversary cake was topped by the small aladdin’s lamp which at the time of our engagement my husband had given me. He had had it set on a small plaque and inscribed: “May I be Your Genie Forever”– and he has! We are still very much in love! We actually were married in the third week of November fifty years ago. This month of December we are going out to dinner by way of a number of gifts; we enjoyed Broadway theatre gift tickets to “Beautiful,” we dine at home with special gifts in view, and we re-read cards of congratulation and of thanks to us for the wonderful celebration our Fiftieth year. The coming together of our friends and family sharing tables, sharing lives, and sharing happiness has been the greatest gift of all: genuine love and interest bound us all into a magical experience. Our “Conversation” as we stood before our guests at the end of the party and spoke aloud, covered parts of our lives: 1) the the days of romance; 2) of parenting –and this must be told: our two daughters had spoken to the guests earlier during the luncheon about their reflections on our life styles that they appreciate today: being outdoors, especially on nice days, and being active in every season; our support for education across all subjects; our support for expanded thinking and actions outside of tradition; and the support and praise they received for their very own choices and lives; and 3) we also had “conversation” about mature love and the continued importance of friends and family. It was a dialogue that I composed using Beatles’ song titles as part of every sentence. We were indeed, all of us, guests and ourselves, “Glad All Over!”
from Joanne Polner, New Jersey
We are continuing to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our Marriage. We began with a three-course luncheon in a beautiful hotel room with windows and doors looking on the outdoors and open to it (still, then, in mid-October, in glorious autumn color). One hundred twenty-five of our invited guests attended. We toasted, not with alcohol, but with organic apricot mango juice, sunshine in a glass, remarking that we wish all family and friends truly good health and happiness in the coming year and always. We had a program wherein we spoke about the experiences, the objects, and the people who have brought us together and keep us together. We asked the guests at the 12 tables to look at the half dozen or more photos per table set in clear frames around the live, decorated pumpkin centerpieces. The guests were to look at our personal photos, all of which exemplified the topics we talked about: family, friends from organizations where we volunteered and had membership; art, music, dance, and theater; travel and vacations, especially the beach; food; sports; cars; home furnishings; historic societies and places, and of course photography. We thanked all the guests for their inspiration and their support for ideas and ideals over all these years, whenever and wherever we had come into friendship and family. Our anniversary cake was topped by the small aladdin’s lamp which at the time of our engagement my husband had given me. He had had it set on a small plaque and inscribed: “May I be Your Genie Forever”– and he has! We are still very much in love! We actually were married in the third week of November fifty years ago. This month of December we are going out to dinner by way of a number of gifts; we enjoyed Broadway theatre gift tickets to “Beautiful,” we dine at home with special gifts in view, and we re-read cards of congratulation and of thanks to us for the wonderful celebration our Fiftieth year. The coming together of our friends and family sharing tables, sharing lives, and sharing happiness has been the greatest gift of all: genuine love and interest bound us all into a magical experience. Our “Conversation” as we stood before our guests at the end of the party and spoke aloud, covered parts of our lives: 1) the the days of romance; 2) of parenting –and this must be told: our two daughters had spoken to the guests earlier during the luncheon about their reflections on our life styles that they appreciate today: being outdoors, especially on nice days, and being active in every season; our support for education across all subjects; our support for expanded thinking and actions outside of tradition; and the support and praise they received for their very own choices and lives; and 3) we also had “conversation” about mature love and the continued importance of friends and family. It was a dialogue that I composed using Beatles’ song titles as part of every sentence. We were indeed, all of us, guests and ourselves, “Glad All Over!”
Celebrating being alive to turn 70 and reach my 5th year being cancer free.
Celebrating being alive to turn 70 and reach my 5th year being cancer free.
I’m celebrating my admission in a postgraduate program.
I’m celebrating my admission in a postgraduate program.
Kristin,
Freak accidents are the worst 🙁
Hope you improve each day.
We celebrated 46 years of marriage 🙂
Love, love your blog. You are an
awesome writer. You write from the
heart, it is very easy to connect with
you.
Joyeaux Nöel et Meilleurs voeux de
Santé et de Bonheur pour 2015
Marti
Floride, USA
Kristin,
Freak accidents are the worst 🙁
Hope you improve each day.
We celebrated 46 years of marriage 🙂
Love, love your blog. You are an
awesome writer. You write from the
heart, it is very easy to connect with
you.
Joyeaux Nöel et Meilleurs voeux de
Santé et de Bonheur pour 2015
Marti
Floride, USA
I’m celebrating my freedom and my solo life. I have saved enough money through the past six months to take a holiday in Thailand and Malaysia. I’m celebrating the joy of living, of breathing, of being 🙂
I’m celebrating my freedom and my solo life. I have saved enough money through the past six months to take a holiday in Thailand and Malaysia. I’m celebrating the joy of living, of breathing, of being 🙂
I’m celebrating Jesus’ birth and also my oldest son and both of my granddaughters have birthdays this month. Lots of celebrating in Wilmore, KY.
Have a blessed month!
I’m celebrating Jesus’ birth and also my oldest son and both of my granddaughters have birthdays this month. Lots of celebrating in Wilmore, KY.
Have a blessed month!
My hubby and I are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary on 16th December! 🙂
Hope you are feeling a bit better now!
My hubby and I are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary on 16th December! 🙂
Hope you are feeling a bit better now!
Welcome back, Kristi! I have missed your blogs! Certainly hope your injury is healing well!
I am celebrating time with family and friends and this year, especially, the return of much needed rain to CA!
Welcome back, Kristi! I have missed your blogs! Certainly hope your injury is healing well!
I am celebrating time with family and friends and this year, especially, the return of much needed rain to CA!
Celebrating Christmas with my kitties and a hopefully uneventful day! Also a long distance celebration of my step-son’s birthday on Dec 16th!
Celebrating Christmas with my kitties and a hopefully uneventful day! Also a long distance celebration of my step-son’s birthday on Dec 16th!
In addition to Christmas, I am celebrating 29 wonderful years of marriage.
In addition to Christmas, I am celebrating 29 wonderful years of marriage.
Yikes! I couln’t stop reading. I also had a fall but was not so lucky. I hit my knee and broke the tibia plateau. Fait Attention!
Yikes! I couln’t stop reading. I also had a fall but was not so lucky. I hit my knee and broke the tibia plateau. Fait Attention!
I am celebrations my son’s nameday today – happy nameday Nicolas!
I am also celebrating our first winter’s Christmas in Nice France, very exciting! We are from Australia and at this time of year we would be getting set up for warm days at the beach.
I am celebrations my son’s nameday today – happy nameday Nicolas!
I am also celebrating our first winter’s Christmas in Nice France, very exciting! We are from Australia and at this time of year we would be getting set up for warm days at the beach.
During December, I’m celebrating Christmas. This includes visiting with my family & friends; also enjoying the glorious music of the season.
Joyeux Noel tout le monde
Cindi
During December, I’m celebrating Christmas. This includes visiting with my family & friends; also enjoying the glorious music of the season.
Joyeux Noel tout le monde
Cindi
Kristi, so sorry to hear about your freak accident and the harsh treatment from the attending doctor and nurse, but very glad you were able to make your trip back home.
This month- and for all the months that follow- my brothers, sister and I are celebrating our beautiful mother’s having successfully come through lung cancer surgery a few weeks ago.
A non-smoker, and the best mother, grandmother and human being with whom one could have been blessed.
Kristi, so sorry to hear about your freak accident and the harsh treatment from the attending doctor and nurse, but very glad you were able to make your trip back home.
This month- and for all the months that follow- my brothers, sister and I are celebrating our beautiful mother’s having successfully come through lung cancer surgery a few weeks ago.
A non-smoker, and the best mother, grandmother and human being with whom one could have been blessed.
I am celebrating living through a heart attack on August 29th at the age of 52 and having am aortic valve replacement and triple bypass-so lucky to be with my family celebrating Christmas this year! I do believe in miracles!! Carpe Diem!
I am celebrating living through a heart attack on August 29th at the age of 52 and having am aortic valve replacement and triple bypass-so lucky to be with my family celebrating Christmas this year! I do believe in miracles!! Carpe Diem!
Thankful and joyful for each day past and each to come.
Thankful and joyful for each day past and each to come.
You are so courageous, dear Kristi! Your accident sounds incredibly painful and stressful; especially so taking place just hours before you were to leave on your trip to the States! I am so very grateful to know you had such a wonderful visit with your family.
God speed to your healing!
You are so courageous, dear Kristi! Your accident sounds incredibly painful and stressful; especially so taking place just hours before you were to leave on your trip to the States! I am so very grateful to know you had such a wonderful visit with your family.
God speed to your healing!
I AM CELEBRATING BEING 83 , NEXT MONTH AND IN EXCELLENT HEALTH. HEALTH IS EVERYTHING, SO SORRY ABOUT YOUR ACCIDENT. YOU ARE PRECIOUS AND LOVED. YOUR FRIEND, JOY WOOD
I AM CELEBRATING BEING 83 , NEXT MONTH AND IN EXCELLENT HEALTH. HEALTH IS EVERYTHING, SO SORRY ABOUT YOUR ACCIDENT. YOU ARE PRECIOUS AND LOVED. YOUR FRIEND, JOY WOOD
Looking forward to celebrating the birth of our lord Jesus as a family, with thanks that we have with His constant help endured as a family especially since 2008, with hope that this December one and during 2015 one or two more of our main problems will by His mercy be resolved.
Looking forward to celebrating the birth of our lord Jesus as a family, with thanks that we have with His constant help endured as a family especially since 2008, with hope that this December one and during 2015 one or two more of our main problems will by His mercy be resolved.
Celebrating my loving and patient husband and my happy beautiful grown daughter!
Celebrating my loving and patient husband and my happy beautiful grown daughter!