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What’s with all the snow this year?!

I know I shouldn’t complain because Colorado isn’t nearly as bad as the East Coast. We got about 10″ on Sunday, but had a few sunny days since then and a lot melted. But our backyard went from this at 3pm yesterday:

To this when I got up this morning:

That’s another healthy 10″. And I have to drive through it to a physical therapy session in 20 minutes.

Still, I have the good sense to be thankful that I don’t live on the East Coast. One of my brothers lives in Boston, which has recorded a record 7 feet of snow in 3 weeks. It’s all he can do to keep a path to the front door.

His mother-in-law lives a few blocks away, and it looks even worse there.

My friend Lori, who also lives in Boston sent the following photo proving that hell has frozen over:

Wishing you lots of warm woolies wherever you are!

Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and I have *always* made him a carrot cake. Because we didn’t have the necessary ingredients at home and I wanted to surprise him, I made sure to stop taking all narcotic pain meds on Monday so I’d be able to drive to the store yesterday to get what I needed.

The doctor had warned me to continue to wear my sling when in public to protect myself and let others know to give me a wide berth. Have you ever tried to push a shopping cart with one hand? I ended up pulling the cart behind me and nearly ran into someone at the end of every aisle. But I did manage to get everything I needed (plus some). The hardest part was putting it all away one piece at a time because I can’t lift more than 2 lbs with my left hand.

The cake came out fine. The hardest parts were stirring the thick batter while trying not to exert my left arm and pouring the batter into the cake pans.

I’m not ashamed to say that the process wore me out and I took a nap for nearly two hours when I was done. Fortunately, I didn’t have to cook dinner because a group of friends from Texas (some of whom I’ve never met) set up an account for me at a place in town (the organicdish.com) that prepares organic meals to people who need a little help, such as those of us who have had accidents, deaths or births in the family, or just have trouble eating healthy meals. Last night we had Moroccan Chickpea and Chicken Chli with Couscous. It was delicious!

I sure hope that there are similar companies throughout the states, because I am certainly going do something similar next time one of my friends has a crisis. I can’t tell you how comforting it’s been to know that we didn’t have to think about meals when it was a struggle to jet through each day.

And on an even happier note, my incision is healing well. Here’s a selfie I took today — just 3 days after the staples were removed and 14 days after surgery.

If I keep rubbing the area around the incision, I should be able to break up the scar tissue and end up with only a faint line. Still, I don’t think I’ll be entering any beauty pageants.

This morning I got the staples removed from my arm (12 days after surgery). The nurse practitioner who removed the staples happened to have helped in surgery so she was quite familiar with my case. Under normal circumstances, this type of surgery is performed along the back of the arm where the eventual scar is a little less visible. But in my case, she explained that the break was too high and they had to attack it from the front. Good thing I prefer 3/4-length sleeves to sleeveless shirts, because this promises to leave a fairly noticeable scar.

Now I’m going to show three images of the process. If you’re queezy, you might not want to scroll down. But keep in mind that it’s my arm, not yours, and I am making great progress.

The first photo shows my arm after the last layer of bandages was removed. The yellow strip is some type of antiseptic pad they put on top of staples.

The discoloration is a combination of bruising and the solution used to wash my arm before they made the initial slit.

The next photo reveals the staples used to hold the slit together.

I counted — there are 28 of them!

The last photo shows the staples removed (less painful than having stitches removed), resulting in an arm that can finally take a shower.

I start physical therapy on my elbow and shoulder next week, then I have another x-ray in four weeks. If all goes well (and why shouldn’t it?), I’ll then start physical therapy on the muscles between my elbow and shoulder, which have become extremely weak.

And as soon as I stop taking narcotic pain meds, I can drive again (and drink a toast to celebrate my progress)! That’s plenty of incentive for me to put up with a little discomfort.

Thank you for all of your good wishes for a successful surgery last week. The surgeon said everything went fine and that the plate and screws he inserted will be mine for life. He even showed me a couple of photos of his handiwork.

The first is a side view (I think) showing all ten (10!) screws holding the plate in place on the left. My husband said it looked like something our boys would have done if given a piece of wood and 10 nails. But I guess the surgeon wasn’t trying for symmetry.

The second image is straight on, showing the plate on top of the bone. Unfortunately, the bone isn’t perfectly aligned because there was so much scar tissue that had to be scraped away and calcium had begun to deposit on the tips of the displaced bones. (Hmm, I bet that wouldn’t have been the case if they didn’t make we wait 6 weeks for the surgery.)

The one screw that’s at an angle is supposedly holding the two pieces together as best as possible.

Anyway, I’ve learned to manage the pain (again) these last 6 days and I think that I’ll have the courage to start knitting again in a few days.

My sister has a very good friend who is a psychiatrist by training but an amazing photographer on the side. Because he does graphic abstracts and alterations of photographs, I sent him the x-rays of my broken arm (see my post on January 31) with the challenge to make them into “something beautiful”.

Here are his results:

All I can say is WOW. Who knew something so painful could be the inspiration for such beauty?

By the time you read this, I should be in a blissful drug-induced stupor and my humerus will no longer be suitable for imaginative art.

 

Being the avid knitter that I am, I cannot come to grips with the fact that my broken bones are not knitting together on their own. Here’s the x-ray that was taken in the hospital December 25, which shows three breaks–one that goes completely across the bone along with displacement, and a spiral break on the upper segment along with a splinter towards the bottom of the upper piece.

Two doctors agreed that I could get by without surgery if I work a splint for two weeks, followed by a compression brace that would hold the pieces together. It seemed like a fine idea to me.

But the x-ray taken three weeks later (Jan 15) showed that the two main pieces had moved. If you’re queasy, don’t scroll down.

The doctor adjusted the compression brace and told me to come back in two more weeks (Jan 29) for another x-ray.

Sadly, there’s not much improvement and the swelling in my forearm and hand won’t go away. A friend mentioned that the bones looked like two crossed knitting needles (I guess the problem is that there’s no yarn for them to knit with).

I’m scheduled for surgery next Thursday (Feb 5) unless there is a cancellation before then. I’ve never had surgery but I have to admit that I’m looking forward to this one. All along I’ve been able to feel the bones grind against one another and I’m taking far more pain pills and muscle relaxers than I’d like.

Positive healing thoughts are much appreciated.

Thanks for all the good wishes for a speedy recovery. Tomorrow I get another x-ray to see if the bone is properly aligned and is “knitting” back together. I love that they refer to bones as “knitting” and I’ve assumed that my case should be exceptionally quick, given the amount of knitting I’ve done throughout my life.

But, in terms of knitting with yarn, things aren’t going so well for me. A few days after I got the compression brace, I cast on some stitches to give it a go. I didn’t have much trouble casting on, but when it came to actually knitting those stitches, each one took serious effort–my left hand just didn’t want to cooperate with tensioning the yarn. I took a photo after knitting a couple of stitches, then took some pain meds and went to bed.

I’m sure that part of the problem is that my left hand has been so swollen. I think you need knuckles to knit. Fortunately, the swelling has gone down a bit.

After four weeks, I’ve managed several rows of garter stitch, followed by a couple of inches of stockinette. I then joined the stitches to see if I could knit in rounds. I can do it, but it’s slow and arduous. I even tried a few rows tensioning the yarn in my right hand (throwing, English style), without any better luck.

I have great compassion for new knitters!

There have been some amazing advances in medicine and I’m glad to be the recipient. I got rid of the enormous splint on my left arm and now have a brace that will allow me to wear “real” clothes. The idea is that I tighten the velcro bands on brace every day to force the bone back into alignment — no plaster cast, minimal time in a sling, and the brace *can* be removed so my arm can be washed.

The fleshy thing hanging down from the brace is my lower arm, but it sure doesn’t act like it belongs to me. Still, I’ll happy to have the use of my left fingers. I hope that I’ll be able to support my forearm and have my fingers available for knitting. I think I’ll start with a washcloth because I doubt that my tension will be very even — assuming I can manage to obtain tension at all! Besides, I can’t shower so I need lots of washcloths for sponge baths. Sigh.

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement–I do appreciate it. And I appreciate the flowers sent by family and friends. They certainly add a lot of beauty to the cold gray days we’ve been having.

This morning I was measured for a smaller cast, which I’ll get next week. In order to measure my arm, the doctor had to remove the upper part of the brace that I’ve been wearing since I fell last week. If you’re quezy, you might not want to scroll down to see the (blurry) photo my husband took of my exposed upper arm. The color would do Shrek proud.

Once I get the new brace, I should have full wrist and elbow mobility (within my pain tolerance limits) and I expect to try knitting again.  Until then, I’d love suggestions for good movies to watch. I’d be ever so grateful if you’d respond with titles and a sentence or two about the plot so I can choose according to my mood, which swings with the pain level.