Last Thursday the 15th, I had finished sawing for the day and was ready to relax when PatD called telling me that she had probably broken her arm or wrist. I was 236 miles from home so a 3 hour & 22 minute drive followed. A grandson carried her to the ER where she was X-Rayed and a cast was placed on her arm.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_3084~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663895907)
Today she had an appointment with an Orthopedic Dr. who made an X-Ray. The large bone is broken immediately below the wrist, and thankfully it is a clean break and will not require any surgery, etc.
The cast was replaced with a removable "splint" and she has a return appointment in two weeks.
I have Bushhogging to do tomorrow and Saturday and my plan is to resume sawing Tuesday the 27th.
This past week I have been doing "wommin" stuff. ::)
Well medically speaking, I am confused. Maybe Doc has time to weigh in on that x-ray. You say there is a clean break in the Ulna proximal to the wrist that is not displaced, but I don't see it in the photo.
It all matters not, she is in a good place and it just needs to heal as is, this is great news. I wish her a speedy and painless recovery. That's what matters. You should stick with doing the wimmin stuff until she tells you otherwise.
The break is not a straight line but I see it as a sorta upside down curve like a weak question mark. The main thing to me was that it will not require anything other than letting it heal.
OWWTCH !!! That looks worse than MM's toes..Looks to be the right hand. Gonna be frustrating having to do everything one-handed. :(
You better slowdown a little Magicman and take care of your wife. Be careful you don't get jacked up yourself
Quote from: Magicman on September 22, 2022, 10:48:07 PM
......... The main thing to me was that it will not require anything other than letting it heal.
Indeed, that is the best part of it.
Ms PatD get well soon.
Jim Rogers
Ouch, that had to hurt. How did she break it?
Falling is bad. Falling with a break is worse. Falling with a break that is clean and does not require surgery is better. I hope Pat heals quickly. If you are doing her chores, she probably hopes the same too!
It is in the larger radius bone near the end by all the smaller bones. so the bigger long bone near the end by the hand. It is not clean but it is non-displaced and I assume not angulated. so hold it in place, and do not fall on it again till healed.
Ouch! Take care and heal up quickly, PatD. And don't do it again. ;)
Wishing Miss Pat a speedy healing and you good luck with your apron on.
yes, I think he has a nice leather apron! :) could put a pink bow on it. 8)
Ouch! No surgery or hard cast is about as good as it gets with broken bones. I hope she heals quickly.
Quote from: doc henderson on September 23, 2022, 04:15:07 PM
yes, I think he has a nice leather apron! :) could put a pink bow on it. 8)
Now there is an image!
Quote from: doc henderson on September 23, 2022, 01:14:03 PMIt is not clean but it is non-displaced and I assume not angulated.
doc, he mentioned something about the far right lower side, and he could have said a bit displaced or angulated. ?? Whatever it was he said would not be a problem. This is the same Surgeon that fixed my rotator cuff.
What happened? No I did not say but while I was sawing in the sand box, she was dog sitting a Great Granddaughter's Border Collie. They were out for a pee break and the dog was on a leash. A squirrel came down a tree and the dog took off jerking PatD down head first. It upset the dog which immediately came back and started administering medical attention. Grandson Ben was the only person available to take her to the ER. When I got there ~3½ hours later it looked like a family reunion.
"It looked like a family reunion." Isn't that awesome? smiley_clapping smiley_clapping smiley_clapping
I hope she gets better soon.
Brenda has 2 broken ribs.
I just heard her get into bed. :o :(
Good luck with the wimmen stuff, a few years ago Kay tripped on a curb going for an eye appointment and broke her elbow so I did a bunch of cooking and laundry for a while. Tell Pat we are thinking of her and hope for a speedy recovery.
Monday morning after my Dr. app't, I will have to change the bed, wash clothes, and clean/scrub the toilets. That plus fill my empty Diesel jugs.
I will leave on my 236 mile trip to the sand box sawing job at early afternoon.
I'm sorry
I just seen this
Mrs Pat have a speedy recovery
How is she doing?
Thanks for asking Peter and she is making a slow but gradual improvement. She had the splint off last evening and I watched her make a slow examination. It will be a long time before she regains any substantial use of the arm.
Thanks for the update, MM. We're all sending healing vibes. :)
Good to know, thanks, Slow and easy. smiley_thumbsup
MM, how is Mrs Pat doing now? I've just got to health & safety after a long time, so many things going on.
Hope everything is ok with you also.
Thanks for asking. Her recovery is gonna take much longer than either of us expected. Her next app't with the orthopedic Dr. is Thursday.
I think you'll find that she has an accelerated recovery from this point on. Fracture was in excellent position and they heal pretty quickly. Has she had a bone density test?
Looks like doctorb's prediction is holding true because PatD is making very good improvement. I am watching her do stuff with her right hand that would have been very painful/impossible a week ago. :)
Good, 8)
PatD is now 10 months past the accident. She made progress from the initial trauma but not from the "out of whack" condition with here wrist. The large "Radius" bone was actually compressed which caused the small "Ulna"bone to be too long which is causing the long term issues.
She met with the Surgeon yesterday who told her that she would never improve and be pain free unless action was taken. The decision was made to surgically shorten the Ulna which should re-align her wrist. That will be done on the 21st.
happy birthday. glad there is a solution for Mrs. Pat, but sorry it involves a surgery. She is strong.!
Hoping all goes well.
hoping for the best of outcomes Lynn
Good luck to her and hope she heals well from the surgery.
PatD's surgery appointment is 7:00 tomorrow morning.
God Bless and Good Luck!
Hope the surgery goes well! Best Wishes!
Thanks Guys. She is understandably nervous and I will give an update as soon as possible.
Prayers from here for PatD, Magic!
Give her a hug from me.
Get well soon.
Jim Rogers
Thank You all for the well wishes. PatD's surgery went very well and we are back at home. The surgery lasted about an hour and her Ulna (small arm bone) was shortened about 3/8 inch. I will be the official "cook and bottle washer" for a while.
I am hopeful that I can saw at least a half day each day next week.
I am glad she did well, now the real test... your cooking. :snowball: food3
I partially passed that test this afternoon. I got bread & crackers and I went to the Deli and got chicken salad and pimento cheese spread. ;D
Yeah um, well, my best to Miss Pat, but Lynn, you may have to step that up just a bit. ;D
I hope all goes well.
Thanks Ray and others. She is doing well.
Her arm is sore this morning and she is maintaining the 4 hour pain pill schedule as directed. She has full movement of all of her fingers without any discoloration and very little swelling.
Lynn, take care of that special lady! Praying recovery continues to go as planned.
Forearm bones don't race to healing, but her arm will improve greatly over the next 4 weeks. Best of luck with her recovery.
She did not like hearing "4 weeks" but that is something that she needed to know. We all want to "take an aspirin" and be well the next morning. ::) Her followup appointment with the surgeon is Thursday.
We are on a 4 hour schedule with her pain med so we are using the alarm at night for the midnight & 4:00 doses. She had one episode of pain last night, probably caused by a sleep position. She has good pain free movement of her fingers which are a bit more swollen than yesterday but not puffy swollen. She is keeping it elevated.
Best wishes and Don't skip the stool softener and liquids!
Yup to both.
Lynn, I think Don meant for Ms. Pat! 8) :) :) :)
Magic-
Forearm fractures (which is basically what she now has) are usually stabilized with plate and screws. These bones are hard cortical bones that don't heal quickly. The confounding element here is that the plates and screws stabilize the fracture quite well, so that, in a few weeks, it FEELS healed to the patient. It's not. Expect to still see the osteotomy (fracture) on X-ray at the 6 week mark. That's normal. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to prevent the patient from doing something strenuous that might alter the fixation. Patients generally feel like they can do most normal things after a few weeks. So avoid lifting gallon milk jugs from the fridge until the osteotomy is healed.
Best wishes for Pat, and isn't it great to have some caring Docs on here to give advice!
Thanks Gary and yes, it is awesome hearing from doctorb with real time information. She had been given the milk jug illustration, but it is nice actually reading it and also the why. Thank You Bobby.
Hoping that the healing continues well with less pain.
Sorry to hear about Ms. Pat's arm. We're praying for a complete and speedy recovery.
Thanks Ron and Wes.
I'll be sawing for at least a half day tomorrow depending upon the heat. I'll have household stuff to do when I get home so I did change the bed today and got the sheets washed & dried. I'll have clothes washing to do tomorrow evening.
I made a deli run today for a "to go" plate lunch so I am doing well in the food department. ;D
PatD got what we consider a "good report" at her follow-up surgical visit today. The X-Ray clearly shows the Ulna now being shorter than the Radius and not in direct contact with the Lunate as it previously was.
That sounds good!!!
Im so sorry to not pipe in here. The last 2 weeks ive either been in a backhoe or under one and completely missed this. Heal quick Mis Pat. Tammy and I love you!!
I understand. She knows that she has an extended recovery time ahead.
I am trying to finish the sawing job that I am on so we can take a bit of a trip, but the logs are multiplying plus it is too HOT to make much productivity..
A friend should be rolling in right about now. I built 3 sets of stairs up into that cabin, she stepped off the smallest, a 2 step , Friday evening. She had stepped into Bill's oversize slippers to grab the laundry, slipped on a step and badly broke her ankle in 2 places. They should be up in Maine with 2 other couples right now but she is down hard for at least 6 weeks. Its usually the little dumb stuff that gets us. More and more I have to remind myself to slow down and stay focused on the moment.
Wishing a speedy recovery from the swamp from Linda and I
Thank You Pete, and all. I am trying to finish the sawing job that I am on but it keeps growing. Two more jobs came in today. We need to be traveling and enjoying, and now I am dealing with a health issue. :-X
PatD had a followup visit with the surgeon today and he said that her arm is healing nicely. She is to exercise her wrist and fingers and she still needs to wear the arm splint. She is scheduled to return in one month.
Super news!
Quote from: Magicman on August 24, 2023, 03:39:03 PMShe is to exercise her wrist and fingers and she still needs to wear the arm splint.
Lynn.
Maybe you need to buy her a milk cow or a herd of milk goats. She can get her therapy and you can get fresh milk. ;)
Do you think she would appreciate all our attempts to help with her therapy?
I hope she continues to recover quickly and completely.
She'll come through, it's just not as easy as it is at 30. I remember my grandmother, she'd jokingly raise that right hand in a fist, bring it close to your nose and say, 'smell your master'. That was her way in telling you that you better behave. :D
PatD had a followup visit today with the Surgeon. He was pleased with her progress and will now allow her to do whatever she wants to do as long as it does not hurt. She does not need to wear the splint except at her discretion.
He did explain that an accidental break would heal faster than a sawed off and rejoined bone. The brain knows what to do with a broken bone, but it is not prepared to deal with a sawed and rejoined bone. It just takes more time.
She does not go back for two months.
Great news.
That is great news. You guys have been on my mind lately. I'm glad to hear she's doing so much better.
Good news it is.
Good news indeed!! We think of you both often here, and hope you are well!!!
John
Thank You John, and tell Kate Hello from us.
It's hard to believe that it has been exactly 9 years since we were at your place: LINK (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=76518.msg1186097#msg1186097)
I hope she gets back to 100% with the arm, Good luck!!
Thank You Guys for the Well Wishes. :)
have to change the title to her fixed arm! ;) :)
Well done!