Hah! The weekend before last, I took the train to New York City for a long planned girls weekend. On the train back, a slightly older couple was sitting across the aisle from me. The husband looked at my arm in the sling, and asked what I had done to it. I explained, and he asked “well how on earth do you pick your nose?”. I pointed out that I still had one good arm 
And a bumpdate: I got the cast off 30 days after the surgery. They immediately sent me down the hall to the OT to have a splint made; the instruction being that I’m to wear the splint 24/7 for a month and then at night for month after that.
The OT told me that having a splint made was “gonna suck”. She wasn’t kidding! I had to hold my arm up, unsupported except for the elbow resting on the table, at an angle just off vertical, while she molded the splint. For the second time in my adult life, I was in tears from pain. If I’d known I was getting the cast off that day and how painful the splinting would be, I’d’ve done some heavy-duty drugs beforehand.
So the splint covers the bottom half of the arm and is held on with soft fabric straps. I also wear an elastic sleeve under the splint. I’m allowed to take it off for showering and I’m allowed to leave it off while sitting around not doing anything that might involve the arm. And I was told not only did I not need the sling anymore, I was not supposed to use it at all.
She started me on several exercises to improve range of motion. pronating (tilting it so the thumb is down and the pinky is up) is pretty good, supination (tilting it to the thumb is up and the pinky is down) is a lot harder and more painful, and I have nowhere near the same range I have in my left hand. That’s gradually improving, but I have a long way to go. I still have fairly limited motion in the fingers, some of the exercises involve straightening them and attempting to lift each one separately. I also have fairly random bursts of really severe pain in one or two places in the hand and wrist; enough to make me catch my breath and often swear. Supposedly, that’s largely due to the scarring, and should improve with the exercises. The OT told me that when think the field enough that I’m allowed to make a fist, I’ll see a lot more progress in finger strength and agility.
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Typo Knig** is almost 5 weeks out from surgery. Last week, he was given the go-ahead for “partial weight-bearing”, which means putting a little weight on the foot but still using both crutches. Hopefully within two weeks he’ll be able to go to one crutch or a cane. That will make a huge difference in his mobility; stairs will be much easier, and he’ll be able to carry things. He was also told he could leave off the knee brace.
He’s been very fortunate pain wise, he only takes ibuprofen occasionally. He’s also doing physical therapy, and is finding that it’s making a big difference in his range of motion.
He’s also sleeping much better. The doctor gave him a prescription for Ambien and said that a lot of men need to take two of the tablets. So he was doing that because a single tablet didn’t work. Unfortunately, that meant that he ran out of it after just over two weeks, and neither the insurance company nor the pharmacy would approve a refill at that point, because of the way the original scrip was written. So he went cold turkey – and surprisingly, he didn’t have the kind of rebound you sometimes have after stopping a sleep aid. I’m sure that getting rid of the knee brace that same day was a big help.
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Cartooniverse**, come on over - our guest is gone now. Of course, we have lots of stairs, so that may not be the best thing for you!
