5Q5A: Recuperating

This is for the rest of you who were wondering what happened 11 days ago, so I can settle rumours and not be troubled with having to explain it a thousand times over. Seeing that I’m limited to only typing with one hand, I’m keeping it as a shortened summary in 5Q5A format. It’s also early Sunday morning, at around 3:00 AM. I’ve taken to taken to writing at this hour because I am short of pain-killers to deal with the consequences of the subject in the lines below, and I’m trying to distract myself, and to to divert my energy somewhere else besides attending to pain.

Q1. So what the <bleep> happened anyway?!

A1. While doing a task at work involving moving a load of stuff somehow my bicep tendon became detached, and tore away completely, from the bone in my left arm. I can’t surmise how the interplay between the physical motion I made and the anatomical malfunction worked out for such a freakish thing to happen; it just did.

Q2. How was it all going in terms of pain when it happened?

A2. Surprisingly, when the incident initially happened, considering the nature of the injury, pain wasn’t a real issue. I felt a sharp snap in the crook of my arm, but whatever I sensed immediately after that didn’t register instantly as what I’d recognize as “pain”. I was probably going into shock as I was doing some self-assessing, and realizing what probably happened within the minutes after it occurred. I managed to drive myself to the hospital alone. It occurred at some time between 8:30 and 9:00 AM, and I didn’t get out of the hospital until sometime after 5:00 PM. The idiots back then gave me neither pain killers, nor a sling for my injured arm. Throughout the rest of that day, my pain rating on a scale from 1 to 10 ranked about a three. The morning after though, it was a different story.  

Q3. What course of treatment did you have?

A3. The treatment itself is a matter of simply reattaching the tendon with orthopaedic surgery, but the process was made complicated by the fact that: a.) I had to get a medication out of my system first before they could operate on me, and b.) I was fraught with several delays to get into an operation room, because I became a lower priority in terms of urgency status, and bumped a few times because the timing was such that I was put in triage with a mix of more serious accidents that required more immediate attention. During that time, a hematoma was forming in my arm, putting me in more risk and danger of serious things associated with clotting disorders, like more embolisms, heart attack/stroke, nerve damage, necrosis of tissues/gangrene, and death. Apparently, by the time I had surgery, after nearly a week since the incident, the hematoma that was taken out of me prior to the tendon reattachment was the size of a grapefruit. The procedure itself went well, according to the attending surgeon. I waited just a little over a week to get into surgery, and my recovery started really only four days ago.

Q4. Greatest impediments thus far?

A4. I lost even more range of motion since the surgery. I am not supposed to risk flexing my arm at all for a long time. My greatest challenges are washing and dressing. Amazingly, I’ve managed to find a trick to put in my contact lens. I can’t tie my shoe laces. I tried one afternoon; it took me twenty minutes for tying laces of just one shoe with one hand. The knots were too loose though, and they fell apart soon after. So, I’m dependant on sandals and slip-ons for a while. I’m lucky that I’ve cached away a lot of my leftovers as frozen food: that will make kitchen work easier and economical. It’s too much of a hassle to fumble around cooking right now. Walking the dog when I’m rendered this way is like trying to control a wild bull, but we’re figuring out ways to deal with it. I also can’t drive for the time being. It was a challenge to enter, exit, and steer my vehicle when I had a fuller range of motion just before surgery. Now, I need at least couple weeks of healing before I can do it safely. The rest of the time I’m sure will be a learning experience about new ways of dealing with pain, and trying not to be a victim of my own frustration and boredom with all these new limits placed upon me.

Q5. What are you thankful for?

A5. If I was destined to have such an injury, I’m thankful it was at the end of summer, and maybe I’ll get to heal up before the more severe part of winter arrives. I’m grateful it didn’t occur on my right arm, or else I’d be seriously screwed. I’m thankful for my brothers and mother for availing themselves to help me get some things tidied up, put in order, and made more accessable, and for giving me rides to appointments and doing errands while I’m forced to convalesce. Thanks to the people who helped out to walk the dog. Thanks for the get well wishes from all my other friends and family.