It has been forever!! i have a few draft posts that are in various states of completion, but for now, I'm going to allow them to hibernate or percolate, depending upon my next few weeks. Yes, I took a break, but had every intention of getting back to regular blogging in January. There were quite a few distractions that prevented it.
Fast forward to last week, the 20th of February... a day I will regret for a long, long, long time. I had an appointment that I was looking forward to keeping, that Thursday morning. The weather, here in the NY metro area, has been riddled with deep snowfall, mixed precipitation, some rain, re-freezes etc. I was being attentive to the icy coating on the sidewalk, so I avoided it, by walking on what appeared to be a bone dry, pristine driveway. Boy, was I wrong. I slipped, fell and broke my LEFT WRIST in 3 places. Of course I didn't know that, at the time. All I knew was that it was deformed and my hand was in the shape of a weird claw that I couldn't open. The first thing I did was to pull my wedding ring off, because I've seen too many TV scenes in which the rings on swelling fingers have to be cut off and seriously endanger the health of the finger in question. Ugh.
I wasn't the only one who fell that day. The ER waiting room held no less than 25, but probably more than 30 people waiting to be seen. One did not have an obvious injury from falling on ice that morning but the rest were cradling arms, wrists, shoulder, had extended leg or head injuries.
The ER glut resulted in a 4/4.5 hour visit. When I left it, my wrist had been X-rayed, diagnosed as being triple fractured, numbed, reset, splint casted extremely tightly and X-rayed again after the resetting and splint casting. I was sent home with a sling, a prescription for a narcotic pain reliever and was told that if the bones shift, I will need surgery and if they remain aligned as they were in the post-compression X-ray, I would not need surgery.
This past Tuesday, I had a series of follow up X-rays and saw the orthopedic hand/wrist specialist on Wednesday. So far, so good. The bones are still aligned. More X-rays will be taken Wednesday and I will see the orthopedist on Friday.
My left arm is at a 45ยบ angle because the splint cast goes over and around my elbow and covers everything to just short of where my fingers begin. As uncomfortable as I am, I will gladly trade all this misery for the full use of my wrist and hand when this is all over. That, remains to be seen. Of late, I have taken to "fingering" scales in the air, just to keep my fingers moving (such as they can move) and "sight reading" fingering and playing by ear in my mind. I don't know how far into occupational therapy, I will be able to tax the wrist to the extent that playing requires.
I will follow this post with a reply to an email question I received. I may not be blogging much more before I graduate to a short cast, which may be as soon as this or next Friday.
Sorry for the ultra-extended interruption. Stay tuned for updates.
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