Sulkyblue's Blog

Things have moved on quite a long way from my last post, I really meant to update sooner, but I never seemed to have the magic combination of enthusiasm, positivity and ability to type.

The great news is that the arm is feeling pretty good and is much more mobile. At the most basic level things are really good, the arm can support its own weight for short times and the elbow works pretty well between about 70 and 120 degrees. Bigger movements and carrying light items is also possible, but it feels like I'm pushing things so it aches after a while. The arm will not straighten to more than about 150 degrees or close up to less than 70 degrees, but those limits seems to be improving each day, given that as little as 2 weeks ago I couldn't even hold my lower arm unsupported I'm really really pleased with the progress.

I'm spending more time with the brace off. I took it off for the first time a few weeks ago when the lure of a shower overcame my terror and was surprised to find an arm that was almost completely normal except for some minor residual swelling. I was kind of disappointed to not have a spectacular bruise to be honest, I felt almost cheated. At first I was putting the brace straight back on, but now I'm often leaving it off for hours at a time. It still feels good to have the brace on for support and I'm scared of not wearing it at night, but it's also nice to have it off and get some air to the skin underneath which really itches! I'm also wearing the sling less often, first just when moving from my spot on the sofa, and now that I can comfortably support the arm's own weight I'm not wearing it to wander around the house either. I still wear both the brace and sling when out and about, but more for security (and attention seeking) than anything else.

This is all great news considering I had another pretty miserable hospital visit last week. I went in feeling pretty positive at the new movement and strength expecting a pat on the back and congratulations for being such a good patient. Then in response to my chirpy "so how are the x-rays looking?" the doctor (the fourth different one in as many visits) did the plumber sucking air through teeth thing and responded "not good, not good at all". Firstly the two pieces of bone are still at a 15degree angle, but apparently they only really worry if it's more than 20degrees, it will either straighten itself out or have very little effect even if it doesn't. The big problem was that as far as he could see on the really crappy quality x-rays the two bits of the bone were not actually touching each other. The bone callus thing (basically a big blob of cartilage that will gradually form bone) was forming well but he didn't like the lack of contact in the original bone. He then started manipulating the arm about though and was surprised at how strong the bond seemed and how nothing he did hurt (he literally gripped either side of the break and tried to bend, which freaked me out, but was unsuccessful and didn't hurt). After a lot of hmming and hrring he decided to take my case to a review the next day where they'd decide if it was fine or if I needed 'urgent' surgery. Go home and wait to see if the phone rings tomorrow.

Well obviously I didn't get called in for surgery and this just forms another instalment in my rant about doctors and hospitals. His bedside manner wasn't so much bad as completely non-existent. He evaded all my questions about what the surgery would involve and what the options would be. When I asked asked "so the surgery is fairly standard, it's not a big thing?" he responded "no no, it's really quite serious", at which point I turned to the nurse and said something half joking about his bedside manner and she gave a nervous giggle. He didn't suggest more x-rays or give me any confidence he had the faintest clue he'd ever seen a fracture outside of a textbook. He refused to call me the next day unless they decided to go the surgery route, despite me asking that he called just to let me know what had been discussed.

After that I was feeling a bit uncertain for a while, wondering if I should go and nag for a second opinion or even shell out for someone private to look at the x-rays. But it turned out I was mostly too lazy, and seeing as the strength and mobility in the arm are improving almost daily I decided not to bother. I've even managed to sleep through the night a couple of times which has been a massive relief after nearly 6 weeks of waking up at 3am every night. I'm still a bit like a small child in that I tire easily and things ache a lot after a day of activity, but then I wasn't exactly running marathons before I broke my arm.

So minor blip of useless doctor aside, things are pretty good and in theory at my next appointment in a couple of weeks time I should lose the brace altogether. I really have very little excuse to not get on with doing things like finding a job and whatnot.