Help, I Have An Arm Cast!

In My Humble Opinion
1

The title says it all. I’ve been walking around with a broken wrist and a splint for the past month or so. Had a consult with the hand surgeon yesterday. He threw as fit as to why nobody put a cast on me because the resulting damage to my tendons is significant. Basically I can’t flap my hand back and forth. If you think about it, that’s pretty serious :eek:

So now I’m in a cast. It stretches from mid-palm up to my elbow. My fingers and thumb are free. The cast is cut into a u-shape at the elbow so I can flex.

How do I live with this for the next four weeks? I already know not to get it wet. I had to cut myself out of a turtleneck last night because the sleeve was too narrow to get around the cast. I’m going to be borrowing my husband’s never-worn flannel shirts and I guess dig out my sweatpants. What else should I consider for clothing?

Then there’s the activities of daily living. We have housemates but they, as well as my husband, work all day, so I can’t depend on them for any kind of help at that time. There are three dogs in our household too. I’m not foolish enough to walk the more rambunctious of the three, but what about the most placid? What about driving? Housework? I was in the middle of a few cleaning projects before all this happened, so they’re all still sitting there waiting for me…

I’m not used to sudden inactivity. I was back at work within a week or so after getting my gallbladder out. I’ve worked with a cracked ankle more than once, wearing one of those slip-on splint things. There’s nothing like being forced to stop in your tracks to activate your innate stubborn streak, and that’s where I am right now. The hand surgeon chided me with “well, that’s partly the reason for the cast because it’ll FORCE you to slow down.”

Help?

2

You’ve gone through all this, the wise thing is to take the doctors advice and do less, I should think. But I think you’ll find there is still much you can do. Perhaps not heavy lifting, but still light weight things maybe.

You didn’t mention if this was your dominant hand or not, if it is that’s going to be a little harder clearly. Ultimately you’re going to have to learn how to slow down, do a little less, accept help, seek assistance when needed. It doesn’t sound like it will be permanent so it’s just an exercise of a different sort, when you think about it.

This experience could help you have more compassion for people forced into such circumstance due to long term illness or disability. Sooner or later we will all grow infirm, need to slow down, do less. Perhaps you’ll see those people with new eyes, or come to that experience with more insight and maturity ,when you’re old and grey! Maybe, when it’s over, you’ll have a new energy to take steps to work out more, play more sport, walk more, etc! Or maybe just give you a new appreciation for the blessings of health and vitality?

Ultimately the experience, while no doubt trying, will be what you choose to make of it. Find a way to be okay with this challenge for four weeks! I’m pretty sure you can do it. After all, what choice do you have? It’s almost too easy to let this make you miserable, doncha think? I really feel the attitude you start with will determine a lot, choose carefully.

As for your clothes simply take the seam open on the affected arms! Either picking out the seams or carefully cutting right at the seam. When your cast gets taken off, take your shorts to a seamstress or home sewer and they’ll be able to put them right quickly, easily, and at not much cost. Knits not so much!

I wish you Good Luck, and sympathy that you’re going through this!

3

I broke my ulna some years ago.

Basically…you have to get used to the cast, slowly, learning new ways of doing all the old familiar tasks and chores. I can’t think of any way to help you out; you just have to keep trying things, till you learn what you can do, and what you can’t do.

Showering with a garbage bag over the cast was absurd, but it worked.

You’ll probably bonk it into things – door-jambs, bookshelves, etc. – until you re-learn your bodily “silhouette” in 3-D space.

The single best thing about the whole experience was making up stories about how it happened! “I was backing up James Bond on a mission and a SPECTRE agent got me with a laser beam.” “Remember that meteor that exploded over Russia? Well, one of the fragments…”

4

I broke my left wrist about 4 1/2 years ago. Fortunately, I am right handed.

The big shirts and sweatpants are a good idea. And get some slip in shoes.

Get use to carrying objects between your wrist and torso.

5

Tough break.

6

I broke my radius-ulna (both bones in the forearm) as a 12 year old. 1 month in a cast that went past the elbow, then 1 month in one below the elbow. The second cast was great; I could do almost everything I wanted, even play touch football. Hell, I could’ve played tackle football and actually been safer with the cast than with a healthy arm outside of one.

The cool thing about having a cast is that it totally immobilizes the injury, and thereby makes it invulnerable. In movies you sometimes see a character bump into something with his cast and cringe, which always makes me chuckle. In reality, you don’t feel anything when something strikes your cast. That’s the whole point of having a cast.

Don’t go nuts trying to jam things under there to scratch an itch; if you wait a few minutes it’ll go away. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance when you need it; people will be eager to help.

I don’t know, as other have said, there’s not much to tell you. The cast sort of takes care of itself, and anything you need to learn you can only learn by trial & error. Good luck!

7

I broke my ulna at the right wrist when I was 10. My hand was canted outward and down, and the cast went halfway up my upper arm. The itching was unbearable. I disregarded doctor’s orders and used a coat hanger (looped, so no sharp points) to scratch. I think I wore the bloody thing for six weeks before they put on a below-the-elbow cast. Two things about getting the first cast off… After all that time not being able to wash, and being in warm San Diego, the smell nearly made me pass out. The other thing was how absolutely wonderful it felt as the nurse bathed it with an alcohol swab.

8

That didn’t happen to me…but it did happen to my father (both San Diegans) so I dunno what the controlling variable was. My father’s skin had gotten some kind of hideous black fungus – very Lovecraftian – and the stench was so bad, it drove the doctors and nurses right out of the room!

9

No black fungus, fortunately. I remember it being a little red and flaky.

10

Thanks everybody!

:slight_smile:

It’s kind of difficult to type with the cast, so I’ll make it brief.

It’s an ulna fracture where the end of the ulna meet the lunate (basically the “bump” on your wristbone). I have to keep my arm in a wood chopper position so I can’t turn my wrist. I’m not supposed to use a sling but sometimes I wonder if it’d help in just reminding me DON’T do that.

I hate the helpless factor. I cried last night when I had to ask my husband to please cut the meat we had for dinner. I now understand why people with casts shouldn’t wear jeans or any kind of pants with a button and/or zipper. I can’t wear most of my clothes because the sleeves are too narrow. I can’t walk my dog, do most chores, or type for very long. I can’t drive either – well, maybe I could, but I was advised strongly against it which means I’m now more or less housebound :headdesk:

I think elbows has a point: I can’t say whether or not this is temporary (the surgery verdict is the day I get the cast off), but these last couple of days has TRULY opened my eyes…and my empathy is threatening to drown me.

11

I think elbows was right in saying that you shoud view this as a challenge, because it sounds like you like a challenge. It’ll be much more difficult for you than for the posters who broke their arms as kids because their parents could do their chores for them.

Clothes-wise, don’t know how cold it is where you are, but after I broke my arm in a cold winter I ended up buying ponchos and wearing them instead of a coat.

Do you have a dishwasher? Washing up (ETA: washing the dishes) was the hardest household chore, I found.

12

I’m in the Boston area and right now the first wave of cold is hitting us :eek: Ponchos never entered my mind. Last night I wore one of my husband’s old jackets when we ran an errand. His XL gloves don’t go over the part of the cast that’s on my hand. I’m also wearing his flannel shirts because the sleeves are wide. Can’t wear any of my thermal tops or turtlenecks so I’m just layering with plain old t-shirts :shrug: Oh, and now I’m kicking myself for donating the majority of my sweatpants collection a couple of years ago :smack:

I guess I’ll be raiding Goodwill or Walmart or wherever…

We have a dishwasher, thank god. I can throw stuff into the washer if somebody brings the laundry downstairs. Yesterday I managed to steam mop the kitchen floor and (somewhat) clean the bathroom. I think I wrenched my wrist a few times doing things I normally never otherwise think about because by dinnertime everything ached and still does :frowning:

Yeah, this is going to be a challenge and I don’t generally back down. Oh god…

13

You know, you probably have a friend who has a couple of ponchos laying around from when she was pregnant and coats were basically a no-go. That friend would also be glad to help drive you around from time to time and make you a big pot of soup. You know, probably. :wink:

14

Um, I’m wondering what the problem is. I broke my wrist in high school and got a cast from my hand to a right angle at the elbow to half way up my shoulder for 12 weeks (they were over cautious at that time). Had to hang my arm out the shower every damn day.

Yes buttoning jeans is hard, yes doing normal everyday tasks is hard, but damn it’s temporary. It’s not that big a deal. Get over it.

By the way, your empathy is not threatening to drown you, it is your self pity.

15

sinjin, if you can’t add anything remotely helpful to this thread, I suggest you go troll somewhere else.

Thank you.

16

If it’s hurting, you’re doing too much. Nice start, but keep scaling back. Ignoring the pain, powering through, pushing till it gets done, none of these are your friend! Especially as success will be determined when your cast comes off! Your Dr TOLD you it was, in part to stop you from using it. Wrenching it, sounds bad, I hope you’re seriously taking that to heart.

Your ability to follow the Drs instructions could seriously impact your recovery, it sounds like. So the question becomes, hard as it is to do little, let others do for you, ask for assistance, would you rather do so for a few weeks? Or for a lifetime?

I know at least two people who’s surgery would have had a better outcome if they’d done as they were told. But they were both go getters, never ask for help, head down and push on, types. One still walks with a limp.

Your Dr can only tell you what to do. Not do it for you. That’s on you.

Please, please, take it easy. Do less, wait for help, it can all wait. None of the little tasks you feel you ‘must’ do are worth impeding full healing of your arm, in my opinion.

We all give our clothes to SallyAnn, give to the homeless shelter, help old ladies across streets, and are more than happy to reach that for you. All with big smiles on our face, and a glow in our hearts. But into everyone’s life, sooner or later, comes a circumstance that makes us a receiver instead of a giver.

And it freaks us all the f**k out! We’re often cranky and miserable after just a couple of days. Snapping at those around us and feeling just pitiful. But wait, don’t we anticipate that when WE are doing the giving, the receiver of our largess shall accept it graciously, in the spirit it was offered? I think we do. So shouldn’t we be at least able to receive, clearly needed, assistance without getting all bent about it? I think we should.

At the very least we should strive to, I feel. The lessons to be learned from ‘receiving’ should not be undervalued, as they are very powerful and important. ( sorry, let me climb down from this soapbox, sorry again! )