Rehab...

I'm back at home now and have set out on a journey along a road called rehab. It's a long road that will take me many weeks if not years to traverse. When I was in hospital I had been given a few exercise to do within the confines of my bed which I have described in a previous blog entry and mostly for my leg, the result being that my leg has near full range of motion but virtually no strength. The strength exercises will come once I've been given the go-ahead to do them but first my body will need to learn to walk properly again. 6 weeks is a long time to be bed-bound resulting in a lot of muscle wastage so I will have a lot of work to do once the 6 weeks are up.

Last week when I first saw my x-rays I also had the half cast on my arm removed. As she was cutting the cast off I was a little nervous thinking that I will have a noodle for an arm and it's going to hurt whenever my arm is moved but I was pleasantly surprised that my arm was quite normal. Yes it was/is very weak and hurt with any quick sudden movements, it was also very stiff with only a few inches of movement but over the next few days it did loosen up a little to allow me to pat myself on the head and stretching it out the other way nearly open it out fully but not quite.

A few days ago on Tuesday 18th January I had another follow up hospital appointment with more x-rays where it was spotted that along with the now fixed multiple breaks along my Ulna bone there was a hairline crack at the very end of my Radius bone and that answers the question as to why it is so painful to rotate my arm. It is decided to let it heal naturally, no more surgery.

The next day Wednesday 19th, I have my first rehab clinic at Halton hospital where I'm assessed for my arm. Joe who is dealing with my case is happy with the range of motion I have already but there is scope for more just as long as I get started right now on the prescribed exercises she gives me. She explains that my limited rotation is due to this hairline crack at the very end of my radius. The end of the radius rotates in a channel in the ulna and she explained that in the healing process the body over calcifies and produces more new bone than needed in other words the new bone overflows the break and gets in the way of rotation - it's catching on my ulna as it rotates. The only way to limit this is to keep rotating my lower arm and this should wear the soft new bone away so that rotation is possible but I need to do it now or else i will lose some rotation. Joe gives me a few exercises to do and sends me on my way so it's all up to me now to keep up with the exercises.

So that's where I'm up to right now.

What amazes me about this broken bone business is just how quickly I was out of plaster. I had envisioned my leg and arm being held prisoner by a ton of the stuff for months to come however the only evidence of a broken bone on my leg is a 7 inch zipper like scar and a lot of swelling and bruising that is diminishing day by day, no plaster and no immobilisation of any sort and I was out of plaster in under 2 weeks with my arm and only a 5 inch scar and bruising as evidence of trauma. Amazing stuff...