Follow-up on the arm…

Posted by Rashmi Tambe on Feb 1, 2009 in Alaska, Motorcycling | 0 comments

I went to the hospital yesterday for a follow-up visit and xrays. After a near two hour wait (yay hospitals), the surgeon’s assistant came in and said that I would need to be in a cast for two more months. When I refused to accept this, she came back with the surgeon who checked my wrist and said that they’d put me in a removable splint, which I could take off for washing my hand, but I have to have it on at all other times, including while sleeping. I will still need to have this one for two more months though, because that’s the healing time the scaphoid needs. :| I cannot lift anything heavier than a fork during this period.

The surgeon was very cool and we went through my xrays and CT scans together where he explained all the breaks, and the diagnoses they made. The metal plates in my forearm are nearly 5″ long, one of which is sub-cutaneous and I can feel it through my skin. He said that they would take the plate our if it really bothered me, but it’d have to be in 18 months, which apparently is the actual time it takes for the bone to be fully healed. He asked me to work on range of motion withint he limits of the splint over the next few weeks.

I’m going to go see him again in a month, after which he said that they would start “weaning me off of the splint”.