Oh

I hurt myself.

In attempting to move something that did not want to move and having thought quite distinctly to myself "I wish I had a rubber mallet.  I should really have a rubber mallet." but not having a rubber mallet, I used my fist to try to move the thing that did not want to move.

And as I slammed my fist repeatedly into said thing, I did eventually move the thing with a jerk that slammed my wrist against a solid, heavy immovable object.

And, um, because the thing hadn't moved enough, I did it again... and slammed again.  Boo. 

I was about to keep slamming the thing (it had only moved so much and not enough) when I glanced down at my arm (that didn't particularly hurt) and saw a massive swelling and the start of bruising.

Oh damn.  And also, ooops?

I wasn't in a lot of pain but I also knew this wasn't a super great thing and had the possibility to be not so great.

I stopped what I was doing, got ice, sat down and elevated my arm.  Which is surprisingly difficult to do "comfortably"!  At least on the narrow couch I lounge on...

I texted Jason a photo and he asked all the "is it broken" questions which I was pretty sure it wasn't due to lack of pain and full range of mobility.  I kept icing it off and on while I googled "hematoma" (big ol bad ol bruise with enough under the skin blood to cause a swelling.)  I got a little squeegie in my head (overthinking blood related stuff can get to me sometimes.)

I called my Mom.   (Retired nurse.)  She asked similar questions and said I'd done all the right things and forbade me from exercising that day (which I had not done yet and wasn't sure how to manage) as I didn't want to encourage blood movement and flow.

So I sat for the rest of the day icing off and on, elevating and not moving as much as possible. (I kicked my apple watch goals down to like 5 minutes of exercise just to keep my streak cuz come on!  Not losing my streak cuz I lost the battle to an immovable object!)

I mean you guys I was trying to move things around to get the air conditioner set up since it's supposed to be stupid hot this weekend and it was kind of like really?  I try to help myself out (it was miserable setting it up IN the heat last year so I tried to set it up earlier this year...) and I end up injured!?

I put arnica on it that evening and by the morning the swelling had reduced quite significantly but the bruise had spread out (expected).  So I think my body is healing as best it can and I've only bashed the spot against things a few times (whimper).  I have an unrelated doctor's appointment in a few days and I'll maybe get her to take a look at it as I don't think I've ever had a hematoma before, or at least not one that I remember (maybe I had one as a kid, I didn't think to ask my Mom!)

When I flex my arm in a certain way (bending my fist forwards) there is still a large lump there that isn't as big as it was but is still there.  I don't know how long until things go fully back to normal and while I don't think anything broke, I do wonder about perhaps a chipped bone but that's only because I'm a little over worried and I know I am.

The moral of the story is to get a rubber mallet and put it somewhere in case you need something to move that doesn't want to move.  

(P.S. I ended up kicking it with my foot so thankfully I didn't break anything there, ahem.)