...so this is where I left off with the last blog post.
I was now in Columbia at University Hospital in the ER. They are giving me some pain meds before they get started. The CD from Ransom would not do what they needed, so they took more x-rays. They had a portable unit so I didn't have to go anywhere...yay. Did ya notice they cut the other sleeve off?
They wanted to try to get the bones put back in place as much as possible. So they brought out the Chinese Finger Lock thing...no joke! Now this might hurt to read but this is what they did. After making sure I had good pain meds and after numbing the heck out of my wrist, they hooked my fingers up in this thing. Oh here is something very cool...they had to take lots of pictures of the wrist so they knew where to insert the needle for the numbing meds. The bones were not where they should be and he didn't want to hurt me or mess something up. I got to watch all the pictures he took, and watch the x-rays as he maneuvered the needle in me. The Doc was pulling and squeezing on the forearm while Brian was pulling it down below the elbow. Thank goodness for drugs! None of this hurt! Whew!
They did as much as they could for the moment. At 4:00 that morning they sent us home saying that we would get a call to schedule surgery. By this time I was still in denial...it just was not registering that it was as serious as it was.
I got the call and they scheduled me for the morning of November 5th....had to be there at 5:00 a.m.
Here I am getting ready to go in.
What is an ER visit without a self portrait?
Brian took a picture of Laramie giving one of his toothy half smiles. He is silly!
I slept on this couch for 2 1/2 months...this day was November 8th and Brian said it was the first time I was able to truly relax. I know this picture isn't pretty, but it is part of the journey. Yep, I am out like a light! I had my stuffed horse, lots of reading material that I never read because I couldn't look at the words for too long, and I had a purring cat to keep me company. :-)
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They gave me a nerve block before the surgery. First they ultrasounded my arm pit to find out where they needed to do their thing - then they gave me a shot. I think.... They were also giving me my night-night medicine so this part is fuzzy. I did get to see the picture of the ultrasound on the screen and that was cool. Anyways, my whole arm was dead! When I woke up and moved, the arm just fell over! I could feel nothing and I couldn't control it. And when I went to the bathroom....it fell right off my lap and just hung down. I had to physically pick it up. It was very comical! They told me it would be very painful when the block started to wear off...that was no joke! They told me to take the good meds the second I felt a tingle in the fingers. I felt one and started on the meds. You know what? Too late! Here is my advice to anybody with a nerve block - take the good meds the minute you get home (or at the hospital if they let you) so you can get ahead of the pain. They said taking it after the first tingle would get me ahead of it, but it didn't. I don't think I have ever hurt so much....and there was nothing Brian could do to help. Well, I guess he could have bonked me on the head with something to knock me out a few hours. Ha ha! The first couple days I didn't rest very well.
When they took me to the recovery room to meet up with Brian and my Mom, Brian described the surgery to me. He told me they had to put a plate in my arm that was about 10" long, and I had two pins, one which was sticking out the side (covered by the new splint). He said I was a case of 'show-and-tell' for the Docs because they don't see things like this a lot. I did not believe him! Not one bit! I started laughing and said "They did not!" and he kept insisting they did, that it was much worse than they thought. I still thought he was messing with me so I asked my Mom if he was feeding me a line. She looked so sad and said "Honey, he is telling you the truth." Now that was a moment I knew I was in shock. My ears started ringing and I wanted to cry but couldn't. So I asked him to explain it to me again now that he had my attention. If it would have been a clean break in the bone or a fracture, I would have had the normal 4-6 week healing process to go through. But they are saying 2-3 months? Yep, I was in shock! It is a freaking wrist! I fell off a horse and I tried to do the right thing by tucking and rolling, not reaching out. A couple of the bones were shoved directions they should not go, a couple bone ends were gone (you could see the stuff floating around the x-ray picture), the wrist bones were tweaked, and there was talk about ligament damage. I did find out at the 2nd surgery that they repaired one of the ligaments during the first surgery. They just tacked it to one of the pins that was in my wrist bones. I thought "Hmmm, very cool!" I also have cadaver bone in me. I named him Bob. I was looking for a more unique name, but Bob kept coming to me. So now I really think I have Bob's bone, and he helped me to grow new bone so I can get the ends of the broken bones to heal properly. Am I a weirdo?
So much for me thinking I would be back to work on Thursday....
Funny thing about my cut up turtleneck...I have worn the heck out of it! Hey, it isn't broke...it still works just fine.
I took a week off work, then went back for 1/2 days for a couple weeks. I should have taken two weeks off but that isn't how I operate...plus we were short handed. I had to feel like I was worth something. I was feeling very worthless...like I couldn't do anything for myself.
I was now in a place where I needed help...all of this has been so humbling! Everyone has been great! But Brian is my biggest hero through all this. He took on all the chores, he had his kid stuff, extra stuff going on at work, and making sure I had everything I needed.....it was very stressful for him. I think the hardest part was him trying to get it through my head how bad things really were, and I NEEDED to take it easy. I was banned from the barn lot because they didn't want me to get bumped by the horses, fall down, run into something, etc. The integrity of the 'fix' in my wrist still was not good, so I had to stay where it was 'safe.' That kinda pissed me off! But I followed the rules. I needed to get better as quick as I could.
This was going to be a long haul for me....and I was still in denial. I just was not understanding all of it.
Until later....Karen and Tripp who is looking forward to time off! Oh wait, he always looks forward to time off! Ha!
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