Strapped Up

Over three years ago, I slipped on the dancefloor in the Cafe Mamba nightclub and landed heavily on my left wrist. For the first (and thus far only) time in my life I broke a bone. The pain was so intense, so much a surprise to me, that I went into a mild state of shock and a far greater state of denial. Had it not been for my friends who caught up with me as I was walking home, I don't know what condition my wrist would have been in by the time it got treated.

As it was they called a taxi, and my mate Derek Adams accompanied me to the hospital and waited with me for several hours before I was seen too by a doctor. X-Rays were taken and I found out that I'd broken a couple small bones in my wrist, behind my thumb. Weirdly, the impact with the floor hadn't broken my bones, they had been snapped by my other bones crunching them, as the breaks were on the other side of my wrist to the side that hit the floor.

So I was plastered up and sent home, and told to return in a week to have a new cast fitted, as the one I was put in that night was temporary, designed to allow the break to swell and then subside again. The new cast wasn't plaster, it was fibreglass. When it was drying, the doctor twisted my wrist slightly and held it thus until the cast had turned solid and would hold the wrist in that pose for the next five weeks while it healed.

I thought the posed wrist felt wrong then, but I didn't say anything. I figured the doc knew what he was doing. After all he likely set bones dozens of times each week right?

Three years on I'm not so sure that my silence was such a good idea. My wrist healed up sure enough but not fully. I can hold my right hand out with the palm upward, with the palm flat. I cannot do that with the left one any longer. From time to time the wrist aches. For no reason at all, it will throb. As far as I know there is no cause for this. It happens no more often when it is cold than when I am in the warm. And the throbbing can last days. At times a constant tingle, at other times bad enough that I have cause to grit my teeth to bear it.

It started up again today. At times like this I am thankful that I kept the wrist support the hospital gave me to wear for a few weeks after the cast came off. Reinforced with a metal bar, and secured by four velcro straps, it can very effectively immobilise my left wrist. Typically a day or two spent with the wrist strapped up like this causes the pain to stop. I've had it on most of today, and I'll likely wear it at work tomorrow. I wonder how many will notice?