Cast off!

Much as I enjoy the title, this is not going to be a nautical post. Sorry.

To update: after almost 3 weeks in a cast, and much shuffling from doctor to doctor, there seems to be a concensus that there is, in fact, no fracture (whoo!). There are, however, some pulled ligaments, some partially torn ligaments (nothing bad enough to require surgery), and some deep bruising. There are 8 little bones in the wrist and I have some sort of damage to the ligaments around all of them, and the ligaments between the base of my radius and ulna, plus some in the thumb (if I understood correctly what was going on). Basically, a full month after my injury my arm does not feel any better.

I started physio this week and am making some good progress on increasing the range of motion in my injured hand. I just need to stop doing things like falling in the parking lot. Yes, I fell again. I landed mostly on my knees trying to avoid hurting my wrist but it was either that or eat gravel. I opted for further injuring the wrist. I absolutely cannot wait for this winter to be over. Stop snowing already! (It doesn't help that we came home the other night to find that two and a half feet of snow had blown off the roof onto our balcony (which is how we enter our place). Stupid snow!)

I'm slowly discovering all of the things that I can't do without the cast: grating cheese is near to impossible, pants have suddenly become more problematic, as has scraping the car and carrying groceries. There are things that I just still can't do without a lot of pain: turning keys, using doorknobs, my stupid hair, hooking a bra, writing, and getting out of the bath, to name a few. But I'm delighting in things that I can do now that I couldn't in the cast: showering without assistance, buttons, wearing my winter coat, putting on deodorant. I'm becoming more skilled with Lefty too; on Tuesday I ate with chopsticks left-handed without dropping anything on my shirt (go me!)

It's been a frustrating experience but it makes me appreciate all the more that I have a hand including a thumb, even though it's injured. There are just so many things that are impossible with only one. Get better soon Righty, I miss you.