Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

It's Not Broken Anymore

HA! I can type! I normally type 75 wpm, and I would guess I'm at about 50 now. Not too bad I think.

Anyway, yesterday was hand therapy. Let me tell you those people are trained to torture you and be nice about it! LOL

The first thing she did was take of my bandages. This was a really weird feeling, as my arm felt VERY vulnerable all exposed to the world like that. She got to the bottom layer and the bandage over the incisions and slowly peeled them away. Now, I have seen lots of incisions without any problem. Angela has had countless GI surgeries, and I'm always removing stitches from the dogs or puppies, but looking at my own incision on my very own arm made me want to throw up. Why is that?

She cleaned all the sticky, itchy stuff off my arm, and then it was time to take measurements of my range of motion. There were several different types of movement she needed to measure and they weren't too bad, except for one. I can't turn my palm up toward the cieling. In fact, I really can't turn it at all, it just stays palm down. This is because of the small break on the radius bone, and the damage to the muscles they had to move out of the way during surgery.

I was then fitted for a brace. I asked why they do braces now, and not a cast and was told, "Well, your wrist isn't broken anymore, because it has plates holding it together. If it were a free-floating break then we'd cast it, but like I said, it's not broken anymore."

Ok, someone please tell my brain that my arm is no longer broken!

I sound like a crybaby, don't I? Well, I've never broken anything like this before and it hurts and it's disrupting my life. In fact, as soon as I'm done writing this I'm getting a haircut. I can't do my hair. Not that I spend much time with in under normal circumstances but now it REALLY looks bad!

I do have to say this though, my brother in law has RSD this is a HORRIBLE disorder caused by damage to the nerves in his leg from an injury and subsequent knee replacement. While I will have a few weeks of discomfort, he faces a lifetime of excruciating pain every moment of his life. And so, keeping that in mind each day, I'll get things sorted out and eventually get back on my motorcycle and continue on with my life.

Oh, and just for kicks, here's a picture of my arm this morning. Lovely huh?

4 comments:

Christina said...

OUch Leah! MAN does that make me cringe!!!! I hope you get better really soon!

JennyH said...

wow! very impressive Leah! Glad they got you fixed up so fast. I hope for a speedy recovery.

Kathy said...

ugh. Leah, I can see why you wanted to vomit upon first glance. I'm glad you aren't broken any more, even though I'd still be calling it broken, if it were me. On another note, HAVE YOU HEARD FROM YOUR SON?

Kim @ Kim and Mikey said...

Leah, I am sorry about your break. But happy to hear that you are on your way to mending. I'll keep you and yours in my prayers.