Warning! Dryers Can Be Dangerous!

When one thinks of the dangers of the clothes dryer, the thought of fire is the most obvious...don't be deceived. Well, we have a special dryer. Its name is Earl, affectionately named for its many quirks. One of these quirks is the fact that once it gets going, it doesn't stop until it is done or you turn the knob to off. So, when you open the door it keeps right on spinning. This is not a real issue (usually). Today, however, was not an usual day. I threw my daughters swimsuit into the dryer this morning to get it dry for a swim play date we had scheduled. (We went swimming last night and hers was not quite dry yet.) As I went to retrieve it, I opened the door of the dryer. It never occurred to me to turn the nob to off and grab the swimsuit then. No, I just stuck my hand in and tried to snatch it. There are slats inside a dryer to tumble the clothes and one of those caught my arm. (Yes, I know the opening is very large, but the swimsuit was stuck to the side.) Before I knew what was happening, my arm was flipped in a circle and discarded out of the dryer. As I sat on the floor of my laundry room sobbing from the pain, my mother (who was luckily there) found me and helped me to get to a chair. I thought I just banged it up pretty good, but the pain wouldn't go away. In fact, it was getting worse. Then, I felt my elbow. I touched the other elbow to compare and there was a definite difference. I had my mom feel it and she said, "I guess we're going to the emergency room!" The bone was not where it should be. I called hubby, still sobbing and told him what was going on. My mom called our play date and canceled. All I could think was, "What a stupid thing to do!" Luckily my sister and brother in law live close as they came and picked up the kids from the emergency room. We were there for about three hours total. Somewhere along the line, my arm readjusted itself, as my bone was no longer sticking out. The doctor said that the body will do that, just put itself back. The x-rays showed I had no broken bones, but the doctor said I had deeply bruised my soft tissue. She comforted me with, "It will be worse tomorrow." Right now I'm wishing I was good friends with a chiropractor, as my whole body is aching from the dryer jolt. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that our new health insurance doesn't kick in until July 1st. Now that is irony. What is that? 11 days? Overall, it's pretty funny really. Well, lesson learned: Don't Mess With Earl!