Sunday’s child

Sunday’s child.

According to the rhyme “And the child that is born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe, and good and gay”. I was born on a Sunday but not many people would describe me as any of those. Despite this, the Sunday after The Bike Shed Show I went in for the operation on my elbow.

Before

Tuesday 22nd May 2018 I well and truly smashed up my right elbow after having done the same to my left one a couple of years previously. I was at Prevail skatepark in Poole at the time and fell awkwardly (I always do) and landed backwards. I snapped the Olecranon off the Ulna and also had a smaller fracture chipping a lump of bone off. Sunday 27th and I was called back for the operation.  Tension band wiring is the method they use to secure it all. The smaller fracture will just knit with some immobilisation They think. I’ve had this wiring before on the right elbow a couple of years earlier and wasn’t entirely happy with it. This is because there tends to be prominent “hooks” on the pins for the wire to loop around. These are not always buried deeply enough to avoid giving some discomfort. Particularly putting your elbows down on a table or if you are clumsy, when you bang your elbow into something. You can feel the impact travel right up your arm from a light knock. Not pleasant. I had the ones on the other elbow removed after a year because of this discomfort. Nil by mouth from 02:00am Sunday morning and report to the ward at 07:30am to be ready for the op. I know from before it’s a long hungry wait before theatre so I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was though looking forward to the loose bits of elbow being secured together after a 4 day wait. There I was at 07:30am, bonny, blithe and good, at least waiting to be admitted. Slight hiccup with paperwork so I wasn’t actually officially ready and on the ward till 08:30am.

During

I was gearing myself up for a long wait but I was taken aback when at 09:30am they came and whisked me down to theatre. It was a complete waste of time taking the book and iPad that I had intended to occupy myself with. I was “switched off” by the anaesthetist at 09:45am, which is always a weird experience. Must’ve all gone to plan though as I was coming around again before 11:00am. They fed me a packed lunch and I was back home to watch the Monaco GP in the afternoon. Despite being back in the real world by lunchtime I was high as a kite for the rest of the day. Due I’m sure to the Anaesthetic and morphine I’d been dosed up on. It was at least two days after before I felt back to normal.

After

First day post op was most uncomfortable day yet despite everything being back in its rightful place. This must’ve been a combination of being cut about and morphine slowly wearing off. Not great having 40 minutes sleep that entire night but there you go. It’s 4 days post op now and although still uncomfortable it’s settling down ok. Thing is the theatre team never do a good plaster cast. It always seems like a rush job and mine is uncomfortable and it itches like a bastard inside. A few warm muggy days hasn’t helped. Two weeks before the stitches are removed and presumably the cast comes off and the physio starts. Not looking forward to that. There’s reason they call them physioterrorists. Haven’t seen X-Rays of this elbow post op yet but here’s what the other one looked after tension band wiring. Plain to see the “hooks” and how they easy they are to clout on something. Signed off from work until 31 July so I have time to get my spannermonkey arm back working again.

Holes

As an aside you can still see the screw holes in the bone from where I broke that mid forearm in 1980. I would’ve thought they’d healed over by now but obviously not.

Bugger, bugger and more bugger

After a 3 week wait for fracture clinic appointment, more X-Rays (I’m sure I must glow in the dark by now) there’s a little bad news. The broken chip has moved since the op and needs to be repositioned. This means another operation, arm cut open again, wire or plate inserted and another 2 weeks for stitches to come out. Rehab and physio obviously delayed. Not so good. On the plus side though I’ve put in a request for all my X-Rays they have on file to be sent to me on a disk. Not that it’ll make me heal any quicker but at least I’ll have pics. Since GDPR they are now free too. Yay!