“Carpal fracture, closed.”

Sorry for the lack of writing lately. I have been writing stuff, but doing so with a single hand is laborious and generally not too fun (owed before they’re stale: Portland trip recap, NYC trip recap). I’ve got a few drafts in the works, but I couldn’t not tell the world that I’m back in action. After six weeks with my friend, the short arm spica [cast], we parted ways, an x-ray was performed, and the quoted line above is the result. No more cast, the healing is complete, but the fun has really just begun. I’ve little to no range of motion with the thumb, my wrist doesn’t move up or down, and my hand and arm are weak as hell. I’ve attempted doing some of my favorite things, though, and while far from ideal, I’ve already been atop the leaderboard in Battlefield 3, and I managed to use the front brake of my bike (the left one) to slow myself enough to stop at my house (we live on a big hill).

It’s been a lot of suck over the past six weeks. It’s true what they say about not knowing how useful/great something is until you’re without it. Life without a thumb? Hard as hell. I wrote the following in the first week following the injury and planned to add to it, but nothing ever came to mind after the initial draft since my abilities only grew.

Life, Single-handed - Volume 1 (of 1)
 Tell your wife you love her.
 Hold your toothbrush in your teeth to apply paste.
 Hold jars and bottles between your feet to twist off caps.
 Don't get in a fight.
 Have a dishwasher.
 Don't have a job that requires you to take screenshots on an iPad.
 Any sort of cable tie works great for starting your mower.
 Find someone to wash the armpit of your good arm.
 Tell your wife you love her.
 Have plenty of shoes that slip on.
 Always put the casted arm in first.
 If you're handy with chopsticks, use them.
 Don't order the steak.
 Have a second bed.
 Tell your wife you love her.

Some of those items evolved, but I’ll leave the initial list intact. To answer the questions and comments that I received numerous times every day:

  • No, it doesn’t smell. Casts can be waterproof now. It’s an uncovered [by insurance] upgrade. It was $36 for a short arm cast and increases with the size of your cast. I showered and washed it every day. I also had it replaced due to my original cast being too loose after three weeks (swelling went down and muscle atrophy occurred). I think that’s a magic number; both casts (had them for roughly equally amounts of time) began to ripen a bit after three weeks.
  • No, it’s not heavy.
  • No, it wouldn’t be great in a fight. Ever break a bone? Until about a month after the fracture, my wrist felt like painful jello. Punching someone/something would’ve likely ended up in surgery [for me].
  • Yes, there was a ton of dead skin that I’ve rubbed off.
  • Yes, my arm is emaciated.
  • No, my arm hair is all still there and doesn’t look funny.
  • No, I’m not pale where the cast was; probably still have a better tan than you.

I think that about covers it all. A lot of painful PT (that is mostly just natural activity) ahead. My running schedule has been unaffected save for the six weeks where I didn’t really run (had a 4-mile trail race that went pretty well last week [only lost to a single female and she was in the olympics last year… not my usual gauge of a quality race, but a fun one] and a 5k tomorrow), my biking schedule had a whole bunch cancelled including three of the rides I was most looking forward to (“hometown” races), but I hope to get back outside and maybe racing again in a few weeks (with a brace [yes, it matches my bike]). I did end up cancelling all off-road racing for the year as it seemed the right thing to do, and I may also reduce my road racing a bit in order to fit in my tri stuff as there’s less risk of contact there.

I’ll probably throw another update up in six weeks or so. That’s when I have my final checkup with the doc and supposedly I should be near 100% by then.