Deckman--I am kind of anti drugs myself and had some real issues with all the pain meds and other stuff they loaded me down with at the hospital--but one screaming insomniac night post-surgery was enough to convince I just needed the damn shot of Demerol. Percoset was the only thing that helped me sleep. Can't get a scrip for it, tho, cuz it is so heavily controlled in NY. So I had Vicodin to take home. Worked fine but the resulting constipation was almost worse than the broken leg. I am no longer taking any pain killers. Thinking of selling them on the streets to pay my (uninsured) hospital bills. (joke--the selling. not the lack of insurance)

Jeri--good advice re: resting. I have "overdone" it a bit a couple of times and had to endure some pain and swelling. It seems to all be healing okay but occasionally I look at my leg in horror as if I am a Frankenstein monster--where did my perfect limb go? But I am hoping it is just swelling and another couple of weeks will make it disappear.
I am working on several writing projects which is keeping me busy. Bubba Ho Tep is awesome! Go get it. Bruce Campbell is amazing as Elvis.

open mike: yeah, "rescue" is the word. I slipped on a muddy path in the dark while camping at the place I go every summer--my sensible boot got mired in mud while the rest of me fell, try though I might to fall on my butt. Crunch. Ouch. Wish I had the excuse of being drunk or even distarcted but, alas, it was just very bad luck.
Friends nearby came running with a chair, a flashlight, a coldpack and an ace bandage. Then a "human chariot" was made to carry me over a muddy bridge in the dark (damn that was scary) to get onto a golf cart (the only vehicle that could make it to that part of the campground). Then off to the camp first aid station. I was close to being in shock at that point, thinking I just had a bad sprain. The first aid EMT guys joked with me as I asked for arnica homeopathic remedy, then they unwrapped my foot to ice it and whispered behind their hands for a bit. Then they announced I had to go get an x-ray--NOW. Thankfully the ambulance turned off its lights and siren when it arrived, so all my friends wouldn't think (as we always do every year when an ambulance comes on the site) "damn, what did some idiot do this time?"
Got an x-ray at the hospital which confirmed a compound fracture and severely torn ligaments. Back to the campsite to doze in achair for a few hours, then off to another hospital to see an orthopedist. Next morning the doc said I needed surgery ASAP. So long to my vacation. I checked into the hospital in the muddy clothes I fell down in and one shoe. My friend who drove me there went out and bought me a toothbrush and a phone card.
More to tell but suffice it to say, you find out who your real friends are when shit like this happens.