Tuesday, April 9, 2019

I'm Back

I've finally healed enough to type (and it's extra physio). It's been a very difficult 10 weeks. There are so many things that are affected by a break that no one is aware of until they're in the midst of it.
Here's my neat little Frankinstein scar covering my metal plate.
Soon I'm going to see if I can single-handedly wrist-hold a magnet!



I broke my wrist on Jan 22nd; had surgery on Feb 6th and got my cast off 2 weeks ago on Mar 21st. In between the break and the cast coming off there was, understandably, considerable pain. The doctor gave me an opiate for pain, but I didn't see much difference and I was quite wary of increasing the pills as they're so addictive. So instead, I smoked an Indica strain of cannabis; it helped me relax and took away 60-70% of the pain which meant that I could rest.


And rest I did! Wow! Your body goes into healing mode and all a person does for the first 3-4 weeks is rest. Getting all the pillows into an appropriate pattern to allow me to rest and support both my arm and back needed strategic planning and design! And thank goodness once again for Netflix and Crave TV which helped to entertain me.

I only missed a total of about 3 full weeks of work. Then I went part days:  my co-worker picked me up in the morning and my landlord brought me home at about 3 pm, exhausted and in such pain! But I was glad to get out of the house and didn't cuss too much at having to type one handed. I've been back full time for 2 weeks. Friends and family have helped to feed me; and I bought a lot of frozen meals so my diet suffered along with my hand. But I was happy to not have to prepare many meals myself.

I broke my foot 10 years or so ago and wasn't able to walk, of course. But did you know that when you break an arm or wrist, not only can you not use that particular limb, but you can't do a number of fairly important things. 

  • I couldn't style/dry my hair, put backs on earrings or do up clasps on necklaces, or wear any pants that had zips or buttons.
  • I couldn't butter bread. (All my aprons have permanent grease stains on the belly portion from attempting to butter 'n' jam my toast.)
  • I couldn't chop veggies or slice bread. When I wanted to quarter an orange, for instance, I used my elbow to stabilize the orange and a bread knife to saw through. Exhausting!
  • I couldn't wear a mitten or glove and had to wear my oversize ski jacket both for fit and so that I could cover my cold little cast fingers.
  • I couldn't do up my bra; so it had to be fastened first, put on over my head (inserting my casted arm first) and then carefully, painfully pulled down into place. This took upwards of 5 min work and I always needed to rest afterwards.
  • My back was bruised and hurt for a whole month after the fall. And I had to keep my arm elevated as much as possible. So, there were no soothing, rejuvenating epsom salts baths. And drying oneself after a shower was a long, hard process.
  • AND it doesn't stop when the cast comes off as you now have to re-teach your arm/hand joints and muscles how to work. Nothing would move and the muscle pain is pretty awful. I'm doing my own 2x a day physio; and after 2 weeks I can touch my thumb to all my fingers and can curl them half way. Still not too much flexion in my wrist, but there is improvement every day. This week, I can use all my fingers to type (but I make a lot of mistakes with my left hand.)
Needless to say, breaking a wrist/arm is a tough go, but I'm on the mend. Thank you for entertaining me with your blog posts; and hope to begin blogging again soon on a more regular basis.



Here's hoping spring will come to my province soon to brighten my days and allow me to walk again. 

Ciao bellas!







7 comments:

Kay G. said...

Wow, you just don't know how much you use our hands, do you? Glad you are getting better but poor you, you have really been through it.
Take care and keep aging disgracefully! You are funny.

Kay G. said...

Wait, that first sentence is funny...you don't know how much you use YOUR hands, do you? HA!!

Jeanie said...

Welcome back! I know what you mean about an arm being out of commission from shoulder surgery years back. It's a discovery, isn't it, what we can and can't do! I'm amazed you were back at work in only three weeks!

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

It's good to see your post and so glad you are finally better. 10 weeks is a long time to be without your hand. But on the bright side you can still use it. It could have been worse. One of my son's broke his arm when in college. I had to buy him sweat pants and such so he was able to dress himself had to fill his freezer with frozen meals so he could eat. Not to mention I had to also clean his apartment and do his laundry so I can well relate to what you are saying. Keep up the good work and before long you'll be back to normal.

Barbara said...

Knock on wood. I hope I never have to go through it. The frustration would kill me.

mittens said...

oh I can sympathize, deeply. I didn't break anything, but I did have surgery, which was the easy part, since you are out for the event--it was the before and some of the after that is both scary, and annoying. But it does get better, inch by damned inch.

FabricDiva54 said...

Glad you are back and on the mend!

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