The One-Armed Man

Not literally, thank goodness. But it has taken two days to write this post. It’s slow going.

Last Friday I had surgery performed on my right arm. The bicep needed to be reattached after the accident with the cardiac arrest patient I wrote about in the previous post. Consequently my arm is immobilized in a splint and a sling, at least until I see the surgeon next week for follow-up. Whether or not he will keep my arm immobile for any period of time after this, or he’ll allow me to go into a mobile brace, is anyone’s guess. Personally, and for what I believe are obvious reasons, I would really like to be able to go into a mobile brace, or at least have my hand freed up. part of the issue I have with the splint is that it is pushing on a bone in my wrist in a rather uncomfortable way. It doesn’t hurt, but it isn’t comfortable, either. And I think at least going to a mobile brace would alleviate some of that.

However, I simply don’t see that happening, at least for a couple of more weeks.

In the meantime, doing all of the activities of daily living with one hand is extremely challenging. I at least am able to move my right shoulder around; that is incredibly helpful when sleeping. And I figured out a way to get onto my right side without causing trouble, which is a great thing in itself. But everything else is simply a hassle.

The worst part of this was when the nerve block placed in my shoulder wore off, the pain I had in my forearm where all of the work was done was without exception the worst pain I have ever experienced. I simply wanted to curl up and die as at the time I thought I would be better off. Martha, bless her, was able to talk me through it and settle me down. Within about an hour I could think clearly again and it didn’t hurt as much. The pain medication I’d been advised to load up on in the afternoon and evening prior to the block wearing off finally kicked in and did its job. It was finally close to midnight when I was able to try to go to sleep, and the operative word is try; I didn’t have a great first night post-surgery. It was finally Sunday night when I could get what could be considered “restful” sleep.

Since I can’t work for the foreseeable future, at least I can concentrate on studies. So I’m doing that; it keeps my mind busy. Otherwise I’d probably go a little crazy. And I’ll wait and see what the follow-up next week brings.

Stay tuned.