Sliced in half!

Golden Gardens Park

A quick update:
The cast was really bothering me and I knew I would end up utterly exhausted if I had to live with it until the post-op appointment in two-and-a-half weeks. So we called the hospital on our way to the city yesterday morning and left a message. Since we hadn't heard back by the time my daily cancer treatment was over and it seemed silly to drive home only to come back later, we decided to go straight there.
I explained to the receptionist how the weight and bulk were starting to hurt my shoulder and I couldn't even use a sling because the thickest part was located under my armpit and pressing painfully against my chest whenever I tried to hold my arm against my body. She called a nurse.
A few minutes later we were ushered into the cast room.
There we waited and waited. Medical staff came and went, all very kind and understanding but in the absence of my surgeon, nobody seemed to be in a position to decide what to do.
A young nurse finally said she would fit me with a sling and make sure I knew how to use it. I pointed out that I had been using a sling from the day I broke my wrist to the day of the surgery and that a new one wouldn't solve the bulge problem. She seemed at a loss for ideas.
I then mused aloud that the post-op cast-maker had most likely been a man since the necessity of leaving room for a breast had clearly not entered his mind (I had still been under sedation and never saw who did it). The nurse murmured that she didn't know about that, but by that time all the female patients in the room were chuckling, nodding and sharing their opinions of men (rather disparaging, I am sorry to report, although they took great pain to exclude my husband whom they all agreed seemed very helpful), and the staff knew surrender was the only option.
The surgeon was contacted and next thing I knew someone was slicing below my elbow with what looked like a crazed pizza cutter. Oh! The relief...

Fremont Canal Park

I am including these two pictures of Seattle parks because I feel very lucky to be receiving medical care in a city where there are so many places to rest both one's mind and a broken wrist...

Repaired!

Remember the open drawbridge in my last post? Well, I am happy to report that my wrist no longer looks like it, but rather like the stone bridge I once photographed in Southwestern France. Even stonier. They put a humongous cast on it, so heavy that I feel like I am wearing a statue's hollow arm. I can barely drag it along (I wish I could set it on an arm-level wheeled platform and push it in front of me). The good news is that because  it keeps my arm up in a permanent salute, it does wonders to minimize swelling.
The surgeon didn't have to do a bone graft but he put in two plates, including a very long one which will need to be surgically removed after two or three months. If they left it in, I wouldn't be able to bend my wrist again. Ever.
I broached the subject of typing: yes, probably after they put in the permanent cast sometimes in early August. Photography? Sure, if I can operate the camera with one hand. Mixing dough? The surgeon laughed. He probably thought I was trying to be funny. When he saw I was serious, he said no way. Then he asked how much my camera weighed. His mouth formed an "O" when he heard. He said: rule of thumb, nothing heavier than a cup of coffee!
This summer is definitely marching to a different drummer...

Breaking news...

I broke my left wrist during a hike in the mountains last Sunday. From what the surgeon said during the pre-op visit, the break goes through the joint and looks pretty nasty. He even had me sign a consent form allowing him to harvest bone elsewhere on my body in case I require a bone graft! Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. I have the x-rays but I don't want to look at them. I prefer to think of the bones in my wrist snapping serenely back into place like the bridge that spans the ship canal in Seattle. That's the image I will hold firmly in my mind as I go under.

A cast isn't what I had in my mind for this summer, especially with several kids, grandkids and friends expected for nice long visits over the next few weeks. Plus it means I won't be able to go back to bread-baking anytime soon. Bummer! I had just built a new levain and was looking forward to putting it to the test. If I still had ten fingers at my disposal, I would probably expand on the theme of life not being a long and quiet river but I find that pecking at the keyboard with one hand is not conducive to flights of inspiration. So you will be spared my disgruntled grumblings! That's the silver lining...

Seriously though I am doing fine and I am already looking forward to having two arms again in a few weeks, probably by mid-September. The cast that will replace the post-op one next month might even allow me to use my fingers. Too bad the one I have on now doesn't or I'd keep them tightly crossed!