Are you familiar with talk-to-text on your phone? Maybe it’s time to start learning it and I think maybe training it (I think all of the speech functions do “learn” but I could be wrong…)
I had a serious fall a year ago when scrambling, and my most serious injury was (as it happens) to the same bone as you, the ulna. It was in 20 pieces, and I was fortunate to get a good trauma surgeon who put me back together, but I was then faced with conflicting advice on how to proceed when subsequent operations were required.
As others have said, I would certainly get a second and perhaps a third opinion. It does not sound as though this is an emergency where it needs to happen immediately. Unless your doctor things it’s an emergency, I’d wait a couple of weeks to make sure you fully understand your options and the prognosis for all the possibilities. I’d also ask for the written notes from each doctor that you consult with. Surgeons are not always the best communicators, sometimes what they say doesn’t sink in, and sometimes they just forget to say things. I’ve often picked up things I wasn’t aware of from the written notes.
The question is, then, how to sort through conflicting advice and choose which doctor to go with? I faced a situation where 3 local (New Mexico) surgeons were recommending 3 different things. And (as we all know from TV shows) the best surgeons are often complete jerks, so going with the guy with the best bedside manner may not be the best plan!
What I did was this. I did a bit of research, and found out that one of the best (probably the best) orthopedic hospital in the world is the Hospital For Special Surgery in New York. Of course, my insurance would not cover treatment there, so having the operation there was out of the question. But I discovered that surgeons there charge around $350-$500 for a first appointment. Essentially, you can get a 30-45 minute consultation with one of the best specialist orthopedic surgeons in the world to review all your X-rays and notes and give you an opinion on the best surgical strategy for under $500. With use of my arm at stake, I thought this was a bargain, and I managed to get appointments within 2-3 weeks with 3 of the best arm surgeons in the world. And the information I got was extremely valuable: although they differed somewhat, essentially the options they discussed with me (and the pros and cons) were exactly in line with one of the surgeons back home, who evidently is up to date with all the latest research and procedures; whereas the other surgeons back home had been giving me very poor advice.
So I was able to choose the correct surgeon back home based on objective information rather than guesswork. Fortunately, he’s a nice guy too - but the guys giving me bad advice were nice guys as well.
Your situation may not be serious enough to warrant flying to New York and spending $1500 on three consultations as I did. But it was absolutely worth it for me. After two operations with the right surgeon, I’m now on track for recovering full use of my arm.
At amazon, you can find useful “one-handed utensils” such as the rocker knife and the Eat’n Tool.
Related ramblings:
I postponed the colonoscopy I had scheduled for a week from Monday. In addition to the logistical issues of dealing with the prep one-handed, I was concerned over the combination of constipating pain pills, and the blowout drugs - a topic that has been discussed numerous times before! :D. (and of course the risks associated with combining narcotics and procedural sedation…)
My mother-in-law said this was wise, as the image that came to mind was this. I told her it would have to be walnuts, not blueberries.
I’m leaning toward having the surgery done Tuesday. Things are not getting better, and I have recent evidence that permanent damage can happen suddenly and randomly.
Still trying to contact my primary care doc - their office phone was not working today, due (I think) to the windstorm. I do want to talk to the surgeon and get questions answered; I’ll call the whole thing off if he can’t be bothered to call back! I even gave him the perfect “inconvenient time to call” opportunity today during a mammogram. I’ll have to rag him for missing that opportunity!
Bumpdate:
I have a “second opinion” visit later this afternoon. Finally spoke with the doctor a bit ago and am comfortable that at least one part of the procedure (the kind of bone resection) isn’t out of line for my situation. The tendons that will require work and/or transfer, he won’t know 100% until he gets in there.
To add to the fun: You know those calls that begin with “I’m okay”?
Yeah, right.
My husband fell while skiing Saturday, had to be brought down on a sled. Sprained knee, they thought. Got to see a doc today, X-ray: broken top part of one of the leg bones (I assume tibia), needs CT, and possibly surgery.
March is sure coming in like a lion this year!!
Second bumpdate: Saw a second hand specialist this afternoon. Couldn’t get my X-rays from last week so he went with my description of the issue - and I assume a bone spur would be fairly hard to mistake.
He concurred that the plan sounded reasonable with what he could see and what I described. He did suggest that maybe I should be checked for something rheumatoid / autoimmune once things settle down, since there was clearly a lot of inflammation going on. Eek.
So, ta-ta ulna head. Anyone got any good hand / wrist jokes for me to tell tomorrow, to encourage them to knock me out quickly?
Oh no! I got the “I’ve really hurt myself” call from my father on Thursday. Thankfully he didn’t break his skull like he initially thought!
Healing thoughts to you and Mr. Zappa.
Joke:
Knock knock
Whose there?
Ouch!
All of the jokes that spring to mind involve masturbation. Or nose-picking. 
Best vibes your way and maybe give us an update or two once you can.
Believe me, it’s not a joke. I’ve been doing intensive physical therapy for months to get range of motion back in my badly broken arm, and reaching different orifices to triumphantly stick your fingers in them represent major landmarks in progress.
Bumpdate - Mama Zappa had her surgery today, and it went well. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it, once her fingers all work.
Good news on her surgery. How’s your leg?
Yay!! Good wishes to MZ!
To be determined. It feels fine, but x-rays showed a break. CT scan and consult in the coming days, then my turn under the scalpel. 
I laughed hysterically at this. Tried to explain the joke and wound up simply stabbing a finger into the air while tears rolled down. "Orifice … landmarks … triumphant … "
From Mama Zappa:
What kind of second hand store did you find him in? Do you mean a pawn shop, or something like a Goodwill Store?
Hands down, the best joke yet.
I’m going to forward this to my OTU, you know! 
Bumpdate from me:
I’m three weeks out from surgery. The first few days were pretty rough. They splinted the arm but for some insane reason the splint was lying along the top of the arm. What that meant was if the arm moved at all there was absolutely no support where they had cut the bone. They had given me a regional block at the beginning of surgery so that didn’t hurt at all at first, but when that wore off any attempt to move caused severe pain even with narcotics on board. It was bad enough that when I went for my two day post op follow-up, I went wearing the same night shirt I put on the night after the surgery – I could not change clothes. They re-splinted it with the splint part in a different location and some extra padding, and life got a fair bit better.
I still needed narcotic painkillers for a while which was a surprise; even after my gallbladder surgery I only used them for about 48 hours. This time I was on them for about 10 days with all the unpleasant digestive side effects that entails.
Of course, I wasn’t allowed to shower. A week after the surgery I had my son drop me off one at a nearby hair salon and had them wash my hair. A couple days later, I got my cast, and I said to the doctor “yay I can finally shower!”, And he said “oh no, you can’t get that cast wet!”. I pointed out that I knew there were such things as cast covers. Really, how clueless! Although I have to admit, it was pretty damn painful getting the cast cover on, so I’m only having a real shower about once a week. Yuck!
Meanwhile, of course,Typo Knig was dealing with his knee issues. I think he already said here that he found that he broke it, which of course happened just as I was finding out I needed surgery. Two days after my surgery he finally got his CT scan, and based on that the orthopedist said he needed to be on crutches, not just a cane. So that made his life extra special just then. He finally got to see the orthopedist a week after my surgery, and was scheduled for surgery that Friday, 10 days after my surgery. We had our son drop us off at the surgery center since I still can’t drive, we walked into the front office, and the receptionist saw us both and said “Which one of you is the patient?”
His surgery went pretty well, and his pain level isn’t even really that bad, but he is still in a knee brace and in just enough discomfort that he can’t sleep well. Getting up and down stairs is of course quite an adventure. He goes back to work this Friday.
I’m actually still out of work on disability. That’s partly because the doctor, in an effort to be very generous, did the paperwork saying that I’d be out for a full six weeks. Since I work from home and don’t need to drive, that’s a bit of overkill. However I was a bit surprised to find out how difficult it is to type with one hand in a cast. I had been trying to force myself to type one-handed before the surgery but I was letting myself use my right index finger, and in reality I can’t do that. So between that, and the fact that my husband has been out of commission, I haven’t pushed to go back early.
Fortunately, it occurred to me that a voice to text tool would be just the thing. So I looked around on my company’s intranet, and found their accommodations page, where you can request work tools and so forth to help you deal with any kind of disability. And sure enough they had such software available, I put in a request, it was approved early this week, and I’m finally able to “type”. I’m not sure this is any faster than typing one-handed, but it’s a great deal less painful.And this means I can go back to work next week.
I’m finding there a lot of things that are more difficult to do one-handed that hadn’t occurred to me beforehand. Stupid little things like opening up a sweetener packet, going upstairs is even hard: since I can’t use the hand rail on that side all the work is being done by my knees, and I’m winding up way more winded than I’d expected. And because I can’t scrub my hands together well, I still have adhesive marks from the bandage they put on after the IV :mad:
Will your insurance pay for home health care to come in? If they do, they will help you bathe and do hairwashing. And some housekeeping things.
Interesting question. We never really needed any kind of skilled care so I suspect insurance wouldn’t of covered anything. We were fortunate in that we have a friend who rents our basement, as well as two young adult kids who could help with most of the logistics (admittedly in the case of the kids, with a bit of an attitude). All in all, we are managing, though it’s funny the things we have to ask for help in doing. For example, I can get dressed just fine, but I can’t take off my shirt without help.
The biggest problem right now for both of us is a severe lack of sleep. My husband’s sleep has been badly disrupted by this whole thing, and of course he wakes me up. The poor guy is on his fourth night of trying a different sleep aid each night. The most he’s gotten any night this week is about 3 1/2 hours. Hopefully tonight’s medication works – tonight, it’s Ambien. I’ll let you know if he does anything regrettable!