Week 8 ~ Little miracles happen everyday…or in my case, waiting 57 days

I can lift my arm.  Well, kinda.  This morning I noticed while brushing my teeth in a sling that I could lift my arm without any support.  It was a miracle!  Then I took a seat and I couldn’t do it anymore.  God pulled a prank on me.

It was the day I’d been anxiously waiting for.  Since my accident I’ve pondered what raising my arm would feel like and how it would happen.  Would I just suddenly wake up one morning and realize it?  (Which you could argue sorta did happen.)  It’s a strange and frustrating feeling when you no longer have control of one of your limbs.  You can try with all your might, stare at it, yell at it, but it just won’t move.      

But, later in the day I realized that my little miracle did last.  Like a magic act, it takes a lot of concentration and effort, but I can raise my arm.  It feels very foreign and eerie when doing so as I can hear and feel bones and muscles moving.  But, it’s great progress and reassures me that I am healing as I have been googling about humerus fractures and non-unions recently.  We all heal differently, right?  Now, I’m just unsure how much I should push it.  Do I try and lift my arm whenever I can?  Will that strengthen it?  Or will it get better on its own and require less effort as time goes on?

Week 7 ~ I can shower

Since the day I exchanged my arm cast for an arm brace, a bit of normalcy has returned back into my life.  It’s now easier to put on shirts; I can wear shirts that actually fit me; and I’m not bumping into door ways or having to walk sideways amongst crowds to avoid getting my arm crashed into.

But, the biggest change has been that I can now shower.  After 7 whole weeks/49 days/1176 hours, I finally had my first shower. 

It was glorious.  Showering was one of those little things I took for granted that I now truly appreciate.  However, for the broken-armed, it does take some planning and preparation if you plan on showering alone without assistance.  Slipping is probably the biggest concern.  So I suggest purchasing a slip-free bath mat.  If you’re wondering how I support my arm in the shower, I created a makeshift cuff & collar sling out of garbage bags and duct tape.

Bone medicine

"How to Speed Fracture Healing" by Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD 

Is there anything I can take to speed the healing?  Maybe.  According to this article by Susan E. Brown, there are nutritional steps and other ways that can accelerate fracture healing.  Now, I assumed that increasing my calcium through milk or calcium tablets would be helpful, but I was told by medical staff that it wouldn’t.  They said there’s nothing you can take for bone growth, and with regards to calcium intake, this article would agree in that sense…but, there are other things you can do to help.  Taking important vitamins, exercising, and increasing protein through supplements might actually be beneficial and speed up your fracture healing.  While I don’t think I would necessarily try everything laid out in this article as you do have to be critical about everything you read.  However, her arguments are convincing and it wouldn't hurt taking at least some of her advice.

Week 6 ~ More than meets the eye

So it’s now been 6 weeks since my break.  Time flies by fast…and I hope it flies by faster so more healing can happen.

Here’s the latest x-ray:

 

Now to the untrained eye it looks exactly the same as two weeks ago.  But, as my ortho pointed out there is some healing occurring:

Thank God because I initially saw it and was disappointed with the lack of alignment, but apparently tissue will start forming to create a small hump over the crack.  There’s also a lot of healing going on that is not visible in an x-ray.

Happily I was taken out of the U-slab plaster cast I’ve been dragging around since day one and put into a brace.  While being put in a brace is no fun either, being out of my cast felt like such a milestone. 

It was a moment to soak in - I spent almost 40 days in that arm tomb.  The weight of the cast was so heavy it gave me lower back pain and shoulder fatigue.  As well, I had to suffer through massive amounts of medical tape on my back, shoulder, and chest in order to secure it to my body.  The medical tape irritated my skin, gave me hives, and left me with a sticky residue that would take days to clean off.

When I came out of the cast I expected to see (and smell) the worst…..but it was nothing like that at all.  Despite losing some definition, the arm looked to be in OK shape.  It was slightly swollen and mushy feeling.  Because the cast was pretty hollow and didn't get it wet or sweaty, there was no foul smell or skin discolouration.  

It’s interesting to note that my ortho would have left me in the cast for another three weeks if I hadn’t mentioned that it’s been 6 weeks since my accident and have been wearing a plaster cast.  I assume all hospital fracture clinics are similar in that all doctors are all simply in/out the door.  All they care about is the progress on the x-ray.  I had to get the nurse to chase him down to ask about my cast.  Apparently, I was told that unless you say something, the ortho would just keep you in there…That’s comforting.