I spent most of thursday afternoon at the hospital checking in with my orthopedic surgeon, getting lots of x-rays, doing an hour of hand/wrist therapy, scar tissue massage and scheduling a CT Scan for next month.
My worse off wrist is looking good. There appears to be some signs that my bone graft/bone raplacment is starting to grow and fill in the cracks. So, it's looking like I may not lose my scaphoid and that it's trying to repair itself, but that is what the CT is for in four weeks. And, nothing is certain until it heals all the way.
The radius looks great. It's also showing signs of regrowth and the plates and screws appear to not be hindering any movement. I had my external pin removed. Dear god did that not feel good. If any of you haven't experienced this, it's creepy. They just yank it out with a pair of pliars. They swore to me that 99% of the pins slide right out with no problems. I was apparaently part of that other 1%. It took four full force yanks to get it out. Probably because it was through 4 bones. But anyways, yuck!
I was also fortunate enough to get taken out of my full arm cast and be put into a forarm cast. My ligaments and muscles look to be healing nicely and I can now rotate my forarm. All my digets are fully mobile, accept my thumb as it's a direct link to the scaphoid and will not be ready for movement for another 2-4 months, depending on how well it fuses and if there are complications.
My other hand is also doing great. The fracture in the pisiform (the last bone in the proximal row of carpal bones at the base of the hand) is now just a shadow on my x-rays. Three weeks ago you could still see space between the two pieces of bone. So that is good news and I'm cleared to wear my brace just when I'm out in public or working.
So, things are looking good. The thing I'm most stoked about, and I know this is silly, is that for the first time in two months I can take a real shower without being wrapped in plastic and trying to keep my arm dry. My doctors made me a special thermoplast cast that is removable, and now with my pin gone, I can take my arm out of my cast to shower!!!! It's the little things these days.
I also wanted to say thanks to everyone here for the kind words and message you have sent over the last two months. It really makes a huge difference.
My worse off wrist is looking good. There appears to be some signs that my bone graft/bone raplacment is starting to grow and fill in the cracks. So, it's looking like I may not lose my scaphoid and that it's trying to repair itself, but that is what the CT is for in four weeks. And, nothing is certain until it heals all the way.
The radius looks great. It's also showing signs of regrowth and the plates and screws appear to not be hindering any movement. I had my external pin removed. Dear god did that not feel good. If any of you haven't experienced this, it's creepy. They just yank it out with a pair of pliars. They swore to me that 99% of the pins slide right out with no problems. I was apparaently part of that other 1%. It took four full force yanks to get it out. Probably because it was through 4 bones. But anyways, yuck!
I was also fortunate enough to get taken out of my full arm cast and be put into a forarm cast. My ligaments and muscles look to be healing nicely and I can now rotate my forarm. All my digets are fully mobile, accept my thumb as it's a direct link to the scaphoid and will not be ready for movement for another 2-4 months, depending on how well it fuses and if there are complications.
My other hand is also doing great. The fracture in the pisiform (the last bone in the proximal row of carpal bones at the base of the hand) is now just a shadow on my x-rays. Three weeks ago you could still see space between the two pieces of bone. So that is good news and I'm cleared to wear my brace just when I'm out in public or working.
So, things are looking good. The thing I'm most stoked about, and I know this is silly, is that for the first time in two months I can take a real shower without being wrapped in plastic and trying to keep my arm dry. My doctors made me a special thermoplast cast that is removable, and now with my pin gone, I can take my arm out of my cast to shower!!!! It's the little things these days.
I also wanted to say thanks to everyone here for the kind words and message you have sent over the last two months. It really makes a huge difference.
