Broken Wrist, Day 15

The cast was getting really annoying. I've not been able to drive, ride my bike or even put my hand in my pocket. Typing is slow and awkward, sleeping is uncomfortable, and the occasional waves of claustrophobia are really unpleasant. It's been weeks since I've had a shower without wearing a plastic bag.

So a huge relief, then, when I went back to the orthopedic surgeon this morning and they took the thing off. A HUGE relief. I'd been fantasizing about the moment for oh-so-long, and even dreamed about it just the other night.

Somewhat less of a relief, though, was finding my wrist still swollen when the cast came off. Still painful, too, and still with a pretty limited range of movement. X-rays followed, and within 20 minutes I had a cast again:

MRIs will follow, and after that who knows. I'm trying not to pay too much attention to what I read on the internet about scaphoid fractures although inevitably I've found the page which seems to cover the worst-case end result: "complete wrist fusion". I love the euphemism "non-union" meaning "broken", too. Reminds me of a place I worked a few jobs ago where HR used the term "deselection" to mean laying people off.

In other news, Wendy and I had a great time on vacation and I've started to upload some of the photos. Here's one taken on the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam: