Anyone ever seen a cast cutter? The PA approached me with what looked like a small skillsaw and I started thinking "you've got to be kidding me!" He started approaching my cast with it and right before I jumped out of my chair to run for my life he demonstrated that the blade would cut a cast but you could stick your finger in it and it does not cut skin. I felt a little better about the situation after that.
My right wrist is a piece a work. It is fractured in multiple places and there are screws, pins and plates holding it in place. The joint space is not great so there will be some long-term loss in flexibility and the possibility for arthritis later in life, which is common with any injury of this type. So back to the good news, they removed the external fixator today...double yay! This is gross, but they first remove the stabilizing bar from the posts, then they remove the posts from the body. The posts are literally screwed into bone, so watching the PA slowly back them out was not an experience I want to repeat anytime soon. I kid you not and have my dad as my witness, the PA had momentarily considered removing the posts with vice-grips as he could not find the correct tool in his office. He let out a big sigh and asked "do you mind if I run down to surgery and locate the right tool for the job? It might take me 10 minutes or so since they have to be sanitized." My response? "Please." LOL. My right wrist is simply in a splint now, not even a cast! I haven't really tried hard to move my wrist yet, I am waiting for some of the pain to subside. Unlike my left wrist, there will be rehabilitation required before I am able to do much of anything with it. But aside from some loss in mobility, this wrist will be back in working condition relatively soon. It feels incredible to have both casts removed!
Much like the right wrist, the pelvis is a piece of work too. You've seen the radiographs (posted below), but it is healing nicely. As of today I can start to bear weight on that leg. Bone-wise, things are healing nicely and faster than normal, so things are going really well in that department. The rehabilitation on the fractures will go relatively quickly, the nerve issues will take substantially more time.
Until today I had no idea where I stood recovery-wise. All things considered, my recovery is moving along pretty well. I expect that in the next 4-5 days that the wrist pain will subside and I can stop taking that nasty morphine and a host of other pill-based pain killers. Unfortunately the nerve pain is still higher than I like, so the nerve-related doses are going up, but those meds are tame compared to what I have been taking. When the wrist heals a little more I can start using crutches rather a walker and a wheelchair. When the nerve pain subsides and I become more mobile I can start thinking about going back to work...may this serve as adequate notice to my co-workers that, like it or not, I am coming back at some point!
Did they use sheet rock screws or lag bolts into the bone?
ReplyDeleteI had a funny thought when you were talking vise-grips.....i recalled our standard argument while working on domestic junk. Usually I say something like:
"hand me a size up from what you just gave me."
You say, "What do you have?"
I say, "9/16's"
you usually say, "what's bigger than 9/16's? 1/2" ????"
Beer usually impairs your knowledge of the fractional system even further!
Good times, hope to have you back up here wrenching real soon.
Andy
You will appreciate this build:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=759603
Andy
Good news Ken. I bet you feel like a new man not having casts. I know what you mean about the vise grips. I had a pin removed from my hand with a pair of Klein linesman pliers. I was very surprised when the doc pull those out of a drawer.
ReplyDeleteYour right wrist looks like it's shored up pretty good. At first glance it looked it you had a bunch of bailing wire in there. Had you come to me to have it fixed there would be wire and vise grips. Looks like you made the better choice.
I've got the new Car and Driver here for you. Pretty interesting stuff.
Those cast cutters are pretty cool, and your x-rays are very impressive! I'm glad you are feeling somewhat better, and I hope you'll be able to go off those major pain killers really soon.
ReplyDeleteWe've been doing some rock climbing and boulder hopping at work this week, and the warning now is not, "Be careful" it's, "Don't pull a Ken." (These are people who know you - not random strangers. It hasn't become popular vernacular. Yet) :-)
"Don't pull a Ken," that is hilarious and I'm sure my friends use that phrase frequently when I'm not around. This is not the first stupid thing I have done, although this is my first experience where I'm not quite sure how it happened. One second I was hiking and the next I was flying out of the canyon under a helicopter. At least I arrived at the trauma unit in style! Be careful rock climbing, I am told many insurance companies are refusing to pay for all or part of any air rescue bill associated with that activity. You saw how much that cost.
ReplyDeleteMike, my wrist is pretty much held together with the medical equivalent of bailing wire, they just upgraded from mild steel to titanium. I wonder if my resale value will go up with all of the recent upgrades.
Andy, I still have trouble with the U.S. tool fractions. I recognize that owners of domestic cars have to work on them a lot, so those fractions become second nature. I occasionally open the hood on the 4Runner to make sure the engine is still there, so even if it used non-metric bolts I still wouldn't have those increments memorized. :)
Fractions? Adjustable wrenches all the way. I used to work with a guy that called them master wrenches.
ReplyDeleteI'll fess up. "Pulling a Ken" or NOT pulling one for that matter was added to my vocabulary about a month ago. I don't use it often but the visions of walkers, wheel chairs and hot nurses pop up in my head.
If in fact your resale value has gone up you better watch yourself. You don't want to wake up one morning with stuff missing (the equivilent of finding your car up on blocks).
Someone could turn Ken in under the "Cash for Clunkers" program. AF
ReplyDeleteKen that's good news about your wrists. Your radiographs are amazing! I see a paper clip, bailing wire, and even an OBD1 code reader tool in there.
ReplyDeleteChris
Makes me wonder if they just stuffed surplus office junk into my wrist. I know I would if I were a doctor. (That's probably why I am not a doctor.)
ReplyDeleteKen,
ReplyDeleteThe thought of backing those screws out with a pair of vice-grips is pretty scary stuff. It could have been worse though; he might have come after you with a pneumatic impact wrench (imagine a stubborn lug nut). Chuck A. said they used a drill motor to remove the screws in his arm.
I recommend that you try 12 oz. curls to improve the range of motion in your wrist. Think of it; anesthesia and physical therapy all rolled up in an aluminum can.
Take care,
Dave