One Down...

I finished my first session of physical therapy on Friday. For range of motion I average about 7 degrees in thumb movement, and only about 27 degrees in wrist movement. This is of course extremely low.

For instance as a comparative test, I had to put several tiny pegs into several tiny holes while being timed, then remove them and put them back into their tiny container. I was able to place and remove all the pegs with my right hand in 16 seconds. It took me 42 seconds to do the same tasks with my left hand. I felt pretty handicapped. At home I had just adjusted to doing everything with my right hand or compromising and using my middle and index finger with the left hand rather than thumb and index finger. I guess since I adjusted over the last 6 weeks I didn't really notice how bad it really really was.

My therapist is worried that I didn't start soon enough and may not regain a full range of motion back, but she thinks she can at least eliminate the pain and give me some more function of the hand. I couldn't have started earlier, though, I was immobilized in a cast/brace earlier. So... yeah.

So what's on the schedule? Well, every day I have to do these little hand motion exercises 10x. Then another exercise that's more focused on just the thumb another 10x. Throughout the day, not all at once. Then on Tuesdays and Fridays I go into the hospital's physical rehab center and do those exercises plus electroshock and dry-whirlpool therapy. Which, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

Each session is anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, and yes, pretty boring. I'm stuck trying to idol chit chat with a stranger (though considering I'll see her so much it'll probably be less awkward in a month) while my hand gets electrocuted, or sits in a dry whirl-pool doing finger motions. She is an animal person, though, so at least we have a topic to start out with.

The Verdict

Things went pretty well at the doctor's office today. My cast was removed and the results of my MRI were revealed to me. The fracture is pretty much healed now, thankfully. After the scare of it getting worse last time, I was very concerned about it not healing at all. The ligaments are weak and inflamed, but not seriously. So there should be no permanent damage to my wrist, though it still hurts remarkably bad.

I've been put into physical therapy for 30 days, probably starting tomorrow, and on an anti-inflammatory regimen for that whole 30 days of therapy. The goal is to alleviate some of the pain through electrical shock therapy, motion therapy, and probably water therapy -- to increase circulation and heal the damaged nerves. Supposedly that is the cause of my lingering pain. I'm optimistic.

At the moment I can't even move my thumb, at all, and it is a little purple in the nail bed. I'm going to get so owned in Soul Caliber 4 by the time I can finally play it. All of my friends will have had weeks of practice!

The Color Purple

I went to dinner yesterday after my MRI and had some chocolate mousse for dessert. I was so full from the actual meal and margarita I had that I didn't think I'd be able to finish the mousse. So the flirty waiter tries to guilt me into eating it all. He's like, "But... I made this dessert especially for you! I'll be here until 1am, so you've got plenty of time to finish it up." All I can think is... lol.

He goes to get our check and I hurry up and scoop my mousse into one of our boxes to take home with me. When he comes back he thinks I ate all the dessert and is like, "Ha! Hive five!" So I high five him, then he runs off and returns moments later with a bright purple balloon tied to a pink ribbon, "It matches your shirt!" he exclaims as he hands it to me.

I'm laughing pretty hard by now, not only because of the situation but because he got me a purple balloon to match my shirt, but what he was actually looking at was my bra... my shirt was black, the bra was purple. I couldn't bring myself to correct him though. It seemed like that would probably embarrass him quite a bit. So we just said our goodbyes, made a hasty exit, and laughed about it in the car.

2 Hours of Boring

Went in for my MRI today. Had a lot of set backs both prior to leaving and after I finally arrived. Worst of which was the fact that my thumb kept cramping/twitching during the MRI causing the technician to have to start over from the god damned beginning. So I laid there for 35 minutes only to start again from scratch, each scan takes 5 minutes a piece. What's normally a 40 minute process took an hour and 30 minutes.

Finally got out of there and they even remembered to send me home with my films so that I may take them to my radiologist next week. Hopefully they'll find nothing wrong outside of the radius fracture we already know of. We'll see. I'm so tired... yawn.

Good & Bad News

My doctor's appointment was this afternoon. I had another set of X-rays done which revealed the good news: my scaphoid is okay. No surgery! This also revealed the bad news: what they suspected was a hairline occult fracture of the radius 2 weeks ago, which should've been significantly better by this time, has revealed itself to be in fact worse now. I have no idea how, I have kept the brace on as told... 24/7 except when showering.

Figures though.

I go for an MRI on the 31st to check for damage to the soft tissue since the injury still hurts so damned badly and there is weakness in the thumb unassociated with the fracture. So, I'll have to keep you posted on the results of that test after it's done and reviewed. For now we're continuing treatment via brace rather than cast, I really don't want to wear another cast allllll summer.

Bloodscalp Innari Is Not Me

It has come to my attention that some girl who's a friend of a friend has been posing as me in World of Warcraft -- a game which I have not played in months -- linking sexually deprived men to my myspace page trying to convince them that she is me. Is she that desperate for e-attention?

To make matters worse, she is using my likeness not only to con decent man-folk into giving her virtual money and items in game, but she is using my likeness to con decent man-folk into paying for her subscription, sending her money, and sending her real world items.

So I'll just make this clear here and now: Inari, Innari, or any variation thereof from Bloodscalp is not me, never was me, and never will be me.

Also just for the record boys and girls, I do not use Inari as my ingame name in MMORPGs for obvious reasons. So anyone claiming to be me by that handle is probably either an unattractive girl insecure about her looks, a man, or both.

Testing, Testing 1-2-3

So I had another doctor's appointment concerning my scaphoid this week, they think there may be something wrong outside of the bone damage.

Good news is I got a choice this time between a cast or a 24/7 splint. Naturally I lept at the opportunity to shower normally and took the splint. I have to wear it nonstop, except when showering, for the next 2 weeks until I go back to the doctor's. If I don't keep it elevated and stationary they'll punish me by making me wear a cast for the 2 weeks instead.

If the pain is no better at all in 2 weeks I'll have to get an MRI and/or a bonescan to determine the extent of damage and the possibility that soft tissue was also damaged in the fall. The way my doctor spoke wasn't very comforting. Sounded like she might suspect something went wrong the first time I broke my scaphoid making this injury worse than normal.

Let's hope not. I don't do surgery well. Every time I have had to go under the knife I had the worst possible post-surgery outcomes. For example when I had surgery on my throat I suffered unforeseen side effects from the muscle removal and had to relearn how to speak. With my luck if they need to do surgery on my hand to repair it they'll wind up amputating it.

I'll keep you posted.