Let’s Chat: An allergy to gravity

By Linda Tooth on May 21, 2025.

I cannot believe I am writing about this again, but here we go. We decided to go glamping during the long weekend and were having a great time until Sunday morning when I heard a crash in our trailer at 5 a.m. and was aroused by words I cannot write here.

I asked my partner what was wrong, and he said, “I think I have broken my arm.” You may remember this is the same partner who had colorectal cancer surgery, a kidney removed last fall and then went to virtual reality in January and broke his left wrist. Well, this time it is the right arm, his dominant arm.

I jokingly said previously that assisted living might be the thing to start thinking about and now I feel we are moving even closer.

After calling our friends at 5:30 a.m. to see if we could drop our dog off, we made the short journey to Taber. We arrived at the emergency room just after 6 a.m. and were greeted by a wonderful triage person who took his information to start the admission process.

To my surprise, we had to call a toll-free number to complete that process as the next step and the person who completed that did not start until 7 a.m. Once that was done, we went into a room and were told the x-ray technician started at 7:30 a.m., and they would be with us shortly.

After the x-rays were done, a doctor came into the room to inform us the right arm was indeed broken in two places, and that he was going to consult with another doctor on shift to see if surgery or casting was the best course of healing. It was decided to cast his arm.

I so desperately wanted to watch them reset the arm but was denied again! Oh well, after they sedated him, they reset the arm and put a cast on. It was about 9:30 a.m., and I thought we could finally leave, but oh no, they wanted to take another x-ray to ensure the bones had reset properly.

Unfortunately, one of the bones had shifted slightly. They asked if we were closer to Lethbridge or Medicine Hat as they knew we were not from the area, and they needed to consult with an orthopedic surgeon regarding possible surgery. We said Medicine Hat and they were off to make that call.

Luckily for us, the orthopedic surgeon they spoke to is the same surgeon my partner saw for his wrist and the one I saw for my broken elbow. I am sure he will be thrilled to see us again in a few weeks when we once again visit the second floor of the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.

You may wonder about the allergy to gravity. When the doctor came into the room in Taber and asked my partner if he had any allergies, he replied ‘no’ and the doctor said yes you do and it’s gravity. I almost peed myself from laughing so hard.

Have a Meowtastic Day and keep reading.

Linda Tooth is a part-time communications instructor at Medicine Hat College

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