Hand Cast Removed

How am I doing? What is the prognosis upon removal of the cast on my hand?

Fortunately, the fracture along my 5^th metacarpal has healed. That means I do not need any further treatment. All I need to do is some simple hand exercises and physiotherapy to recover the full range of functions of my hand, including my wrist. Simple enough, isn’t it?

After being in a cast for exactly 23 days, my hand, particularly my 4^th and 5^th fingers have forgotten some of the motions they have been doing for fifty over years.

There appears to be some venous congestion and tightness. I could not bend and close my fingers tightly to form a clenched fist over the middle of my palm. So there you have me, not only trying to bend my fingers to form a tight fist, but clenching my teeth as I bear with the pain to work those lazy muscles, tendons and ligaments. For the first 20 hrs, the pain was practically unbearable, but fearing the worst, I persevere and finally could see some progress. The full strength and scope of movement has yet to materialize but

I am now confident, that all will be well and soon too.

For the past 23 days I have been cradling my right casted hand like a baby and being very respectful of my left hand. My left hand had stood and still stands in good stead of my right hand, although I could not lift something heavy or that which require enormous dexterity.

I have even been able to write a few legible words and am thankful that my dear left hand has served me well in my hour of need.

Humpty Dumpty had a ……..

Lo and behold, if only I had not hesitated and not turned my back again to feed my dear plants with more water, I could have avoided all this trouble. But alas, the morning rays were screaming, “a very hot day it will be”.

How does it feel to be like a deck of cards tumbling down? It happened so fast that I do not actually remember the sequence of events. Just oh no, and next, I found both knees in the drain, (my garden drains) and my right palm beside the drain. It did not seem to hurt much, and then the pain reared its ugly head warning me not to take it lightly.

With ice packs, Ketoprofen pain relieve gel and two panadols, everything seemed fine and inflammation subsided.

                                                                                                        

However, the two doctors advised otherwise when the inflammation returned with more vengeance and seemed to be more extensive.

My reply then was, “What’s the fuss about, it is just something minor.”

So off to the hospital we went. After seeing the doctors, the prognosis is : A spiral crack on the metacarpal at the base of my little finger. I was informed that I may need either a plaster cast or a wire and a cast. That got me worried, if they need to wire it, I had to be warded. Fortunately, the fracture has not displaced the alignment of the metacarpal and managed to evade the wire but not the cast.

Moral of the day, ‘BE CAREFUL’. Then all these troubles and hassles could have been avoided.

That was a week ago, I still have another two weeks before the cast is removed.

The positive thing is I get to train and manage around on my left hand, an intensive course at that though. Most certainly hope the training will last me a lifetime, as I am not signing up for a sequel. The thing is, your muscles cannot be in high gear mode on such short notice even if it’s only for minor chores. That means I will have to be less ambitious with my training targets.:-(

The heightened use of my left hand has also provided me an opportunity to better understand what stroke victims have to go through to regain function of their limbs.

It is indeed a test of my patience and an alert alarm, a wake up call for my mounting carelessness of late.