and I've been kept busy enough that I was not able to update this page till today.
It was a week and a day since the accident when I finally visited the Ortho. That week had been a weird one, and needless to say, it was fairly rough, but kept getting better as the days progressed. The Ortho said "no surgery" (woohoo!!!), further explained the details, and answered our questions. One of which was, "Can I work?", to which the answer was "if you want to" (yay!... not a matter of want to, but afford to).
So, I'll continue where I left off last week with more detail... Please NOTE: Portions of the following will likely trigger fits of boredom and drooling in some individuals, as I will go into a bit of detail for others who may be going through this same ordeal. If you find a paragraph dragging on, just skip to the next :-)
When they released me from the ER, they sent me on my merry way with a few things and very few words (that I recall). I had a Shoulder Immobiliser and a Sling combination that was roughly holding everything in place, a prescription for some decent pain killers (more on those later), and a stack of papers.
The Immobiliser/Sling combination was definitely strange. They were not specifically designed to work together, but with tweaking of the two of them, I was able to keep my shoulder fairly comfortable and immobile. Initially, they tried just the immobiliser by itself, which was too painful, as it let my elbow weight pull down too much on the shoulder and caused extreme pain (even with the shot they had given me shortly before). The sling to support the elbow was added, and in conjunction with the immobiliser's humerus strap (not using the wrist strap at all), ended up being the right combination.
This combo got me through the first 3 nights, as the pain killers were keeping me zonked enough to make it through the discomfort. Taking the 2AM dose was extremely painful, as that is about the time where the last dose was wearing off. During the daytime, I was usually just on a large dose of ibuprofen, which surprisingly, does quite well with the pain, and keeps me out of "the fog" of the prescription pain killers.
On the 3rd night, I experienced something that stopped me from taking the prescribed pain killers completely...
It's about 1:30AM, and in a half-dream state, I "see sparklies" running up and down the length of my forearm. As I become more conscious, I realise that half of my forearm is "asleep"... I.E. very limited blood flow (my ring finger, pinky, and that lower half of my forearm to the elbow)... Owwww! At this point, after sitting in an upright position for about 30 minutes, I loosen the humerus strap, and lay my arm as best I can where the humerus is supported by the bed, and my hand/wrist is supported on my chest. The following evening, my wife and I fashioned a cradle for my arm with a sam splint that got me through the next few nights of sleep.
Monday, 25 October 2010 ~3:30 PM, it has been a week and a day since the accident. My wife and I arrive at the Ortho's office. A bit of paperwork, and it is time to go see the Doc.
It turns out that the fracture is different than I understood it to be. I still have not seen the x-rays, but as I understand it, I have 4 major fractures at the Humeral Head, with multiple cracks between these fractures.
It turns out that I am quite lucky. With the fractures, the Periosteum remained intact and held everything in place. The x-rays showed only ~1/8th inch of displacement total. The analogy that the Doc used was Safety Glass... after doing some research, I'd say that the characteristics of Laminated Glass are more descriptive of what happened to my bone. Everything is a bit crunched up inside, and the periosteum is essentially holding the pieces in place.
Doctors orders? keep the sling on for another couple weeks, do some isometric muscle exercises, and take it easy. I have another appointment on the 4th of November to go back for X-Rays to see how everything is progressing.
After the Ortho visit, I actually went to work the next 2 days. The primary reason, was to get out of the house. I am not one who likes to be cooped up for days at a time. Another reason was, I actually missed work? Go figure... really, I think I missed the people vs. the actual work, but you know.
Anyway, it is interesting to see how a recovery like this affects a person. Outside of the actual energy required to sit at a computer desk, stand in the aisles of cubicle city and talk, etc., recovery uses a lot of energy. After 2 days of being "at the job", I was beat. I worked from home on Friday, and was amazed at how much of a workout the previous days had been. Recuperation of muscles, especially once I start PT is going to be a major pain :-(
Well, thats all I have time for right now. Will likely update after the new X-Rays on Thursday.
L8R's, Joe
