Thursday, March 26, 2009

It's Easy Being Green

I got a new cast today. It is, as the subject line suggests, green (at the request of Her Booness).

Boo had decorated the pink cast with kitties, sunshine, a flamingo and family portraits. I made sure to take pictures, because I was pretty sure the cast would be too unsanitary to keep around. As it turns out, though, the unsanitary inner layers of gauze and stockinette could be peeled away and discarded, allowing me to preserve the fiberglass part. If I can find my camera cable, I'll try to post the pictures.

They did more x-rays, and everything still seems to be in place. The doctor says I'll be in this cast for three more weeks, then in a splint for two weeks, then I'll have one more surgery to take the pins out. The pin removal is apparently miles simpler and less painful than the first surgery, and I should be ready for physical therapy within a couple of weeks. Physical therapy should take six months to a year, so in the shortest-case scenario I'll be finishing up my recovery a little over a year after I first fell. Next time, I'm landing on my head.

I actually had to have two casts put on today. The first time, I felt like the bottom of the cast was too tight, and they had to wait for the fiberglass to harden at bit, then cut off the cast they'd just put on and start over. I felt silly, especially since I could stick my whole finger between my arm and the bottom of the cast and run it all the way around, but I couldn't convince myself that it wasn't cutting off my circulation. My doctor was very patient and kind about it, when in all likelihood it was just me panicking because I (apparently) have an aversion to anything on my body that feels too tight. He made sure he didn't pull the bandage at all when he was wrapping the second cast, and it feels fine. Probably the danger now will be it falling off.

I'm still dropping back on the painkillers, although today has been a "take lots" day because of all the moving around between casts. My pinkie continues to be very sore, and the doctor was a bit surprised when I mentioned it, because apparently it's not a typical symptom. It doesn't impair me much, and I can even type with it now, but I have to be careful when I'm gripping or when I'm rubbing lotion on my hands. I'm not too worried about it, considering all the rearrangement that's gone on inside my hand.

Onward and upward. :) I feel that I can do everything that's really important (well, okay, almost everything :)). I certainly can find plenty of ways to be occupied and happy. The good things are getting better, and the bad things are diminishing. Can't ask for more than that.

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Note to Self

Note to self:

If you haven't driven in a month, and therefore haven't drunk your regular post-school-delivery regimen of coffee, it's entirely possible that when you do test your cast-impaired driving ability by going to the coffee shop and drinking a large coffee at four in the afternoon, you will find yourself writing journal posts at 5:45am.

Just FYI.

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Monday, March 16, 2009

Five Things

Five Ways In Which My Life Has Improved A Lot:

1. I can type using up to nine fingers with minimal discomfort (for some reason my pinkie is taking a while to get back in the game). Only short periods right now, but considering that on Friday I couldn't even press the keys, this is pretty darn stellar.

2. I can open bottles, cans and other food packaging. This means that my husband no longer has to leave a cooler of sandwiches and a certain number of pre-opened bottles of water for me when he goes to work.

3. I can go up and down the stairs as I darn well please. Free access to the kitchen is good.

4. I can take a shower almost all by myself, instead of having to have the assisstance of my entire family. If I could just figure out how to open and squirt out the shampoo with one hand (okay, and wrap my own right arm in plastic), I'd be golden.

5. I am taking about half the amount of pain medication I was taking last week. It might *sound* fun to spend six weeks stoned on various members of the -codone family, but the reality is that I can't wait to get off the stuff. Obviously, I'm choosing to continue to take it because, well, pain sucks, but I feel that the pain is also approaching the point where I can see the end of it.

In short:

:)

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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Belated Update

Sorry for not updating lately. I fell and tore a ligament in my wrist about four months ago, and ended up having surgery on it ten days ago. I've been updating my Livejournal, but forgot to include this one in the updates. If you want to read the details (including my recent post about my exciting pink cast) you can find them here:

http://jinjifore.livejournal.com/tag/wrist+injury

Take Care!

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