Sunday 26 January 2014

The first broken bone

This has been an interesting, if painful week, it started well enough with a trip to Brighton pavilion ice rink for some ice skating with my work friends.

http://www.brightonvisitor.com/brighton-news/royal-pavilion-ice-rink-2011/



I'd been looking forward to it & it was the first time I'd been out with the guys from work. I like skating & I can skate around the rink & help others by holding there hand as they skate.

All went well for the first 55 minutes (so at least I got my money's worth!) Then a man fell down behind me & his legs took my legs out.  What I should have done was fall on my bottom which is well padded or at least more padded than my skinny wrist which is what I automatically decided to stick out to break my fall. I should have aimed myself better & fallen on my bottom sitting on him in the process.  He did check If I was alright & say sorry. I said 'of course I am' as I got up & skated to the edge holding my wrist gingerly. By this time my friends had gathered round me to check I was ok after bringing Leanne from the middle where I'd taken her then abandoned her when I fell, fortunately she stayed up. My arm was really painful but I thought I must have just sprained it & bent it funny. After persuading everyone I was ok & waiting for the initial pain & shock to pass I convinced the Marshall in the bright orange jacket that I didn't need him to remove me from their ice. There was no way I was being taken off the ice by a bright orange Marshall. After Ruth had kindly taken my gloves off for me!!! I couldn't use my left wrist/hand at all.

I skated round to the other side & stood off the ice for the last few minutes. We had our group photo taken & then Laura drove me home, fortunately Laura had picked me up that evening to go as I wouldn't have been able to drive myself home.

On getting home, I ate my dinner and then as it was swelling more & more I decided to get it looked at at the local A&E, feeling a bit like I was wasting everyone's time, I was triaged, xrayed & seen by the lovely Dr all in the space of 30mins. I've managed to get to 37 without breaking anything I announced to the Dr! To which he replied well unfortunately I have to tell you this is the first time. I'd broken the distal radius & the ulna They were also impacted, so would need to be pulled apart a bit so the break would sit neatly together to heal. I wasn't overly impressed by this prospect but he gave me two painkiller injections, haematoma blocks (I think they're called) & those & a bit of entonox meant I didn't feel a thing when they pulled & cast it.







I was picked up & brought home by my lovely helpful neighbour.




On the Sunday I was still riding on the local anaesthetic and adrenaline!! I could get about fine and went for a walk, etc. I couldn't use my fingers but quickly learnt to do essential things with just my right hand.

On Monday I came down to earth with a crash!!! It ached, it was hugely swollen, my fingers hurt, I couldn't get dressed as the pressure on my fingers of pushing my hand through a sleeve was agony. I stayed in pyjamas, layed on the sofa and put on my best sad face!!!

Tuesday I had a fracture clinic appointment. Fortunately Gary was off work so could help me get dressed.  They took another xray once my new blue cast  had been put on & the plaster technician had moulded it to try and align my bones better.  The xray showed the bone was in an acceptable position.

The Dr told me that if it healed like that it would be ok but if it moved they would operate to pin it!!!!

My poor swollen thumb



Wednesday & Thursday were do not a lot days, I watched too much daytime tv & drank a lot of cups of tea. Once I worked out I could support the mug with my cast to squeeze the tea bag out. I found not doing things very frustrating and it took a lot of effort just to sit down and not do anything!! I'm not a sitting down sort of a person. I couldn't even scrap because I couldn't hold the paper down with my fingers or support it while I used my right hand.

Friday I went on the bus to work to talk to my manager and take my Drs note in, It was good to see the people that were on shift.

Saturday, a whole week has passed and I can do a lot more with my fingers than I could even a couple of days ago, hopefully on Tuesday it will all be fine.

Good fingers crossed!!!

1 comment:

  1. Oh Lindsay, I am so sorry to read this :(. What a rotten thing to happen ... Hoping that it knits easily and strongly, and you are feeling a bit better now.

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