I arrived at my appointment a full 30 minutes early, but they took me right back to the saw! I was not nervous at all about the whirring saw coming close to my arm, the excitement and anticipation of freedom made me welcome the blade. A long cut was made on either side of the cast.
Next came the spreader tool that pried the cast apart at each cut. A quick snip with the scissors through the cottony padding inside, and my arm was set free! I was thrilled to have my arm cleaned for the first time in a month.
After that, I headed to X-ray and then to wait in the doctor's office. He reported back to me that I have made progress healing, but I am not 100% yet. That was to be expected because this injury takes 4-8 weeks to heal and it has only been 4 weeks. He wanted to re-cast me, but must have seen the anguish in my face at the thought of even another day in the cast. He said that if I promised to wear a splint, we could go that route. I agreed and was sent upstairs to the therapy room. There, they molded plastic around my arm and fastened it together with some lovely green velcro. While I am not pleased to still have something holding me back, the splint is MUCH better than a cast. I am able to hold a pen and bend my elbow. I am also able to take the splint off to get to an itch or to shower without a plastic bag.
The rest of the day was spent running errands, visiting an art museum, and grocery shopping. As we were almost home, the sun was setting and it was just too pretty to pass. Enjoy!
5 comments:
the arm looks like a real pain inthe.... well, arm :) lovely photos of the sunset, thank you
Ranger green, environmental green velco - lovely! So glad your skin can breath again, Amy. The sunsets were beautiful. In the bottom photo, what are the white things, all in line? They look almost like a row of domed tents with pink lights inside (really the reflection of the beautiful sky).
It certainly is a pain in the arm, gladly its becoming just a dull ache though.
Your "green" comment is very much like the comment that the therapist made when I chose the color. I told her that it would match my green uniform as well. She said that if my uniform is green then I should get bright pink instead, but then quickly realized that I am not really a "pink" kind of a girl (unless its a sunset).
The white things are round bales of hay wrapped in plastic. We stopped on the side of the road by the large dairy farm near the park.
Amy- Im sure you watched with interest when they fabricated the splint. Its nice that any areas causing skin breakdown can be be heated up with a blow dryer and given a nudge to loosen....
do you get to do some AROM exercises yet?---Jen
Congratulations on getting your cast off!
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