Getting-the-cast-off Day

We’re about to walk over to UW Hospital to get my cast taken off. Yay! With a little confusion about how it’s all supposed to work. Judging from the app, I’m supposed to go to orthopedics, then to x-ray to get x-rayed, I think in the cast, then to see the Physicians Assistant. Everything’s 30 minutes apart, so I’m not sure exactly when the cast actually comes off, plus last night I got a message in the app that the PA is asking me to schedule more x-rays out of the cast. But, since the PA is UW-Health, and I’m Group Health/Medicare, when I tried to schedule I got a message that I need to back out and schedule with GHC, whose radiology clinics are not at UW Hospital. Which is fine if these x-rays are supposed to be in a couple of days, but really stupid if they’re today. So I’m just going to show up and ask.

The overleaf is the last picture of cast intact, still in pajamas.

Mark’s coming with me, so I said I’d buy him a coffee at Ancora after. And, speaking of stupid, maybe we should stop in at Penzey’s where they’re giving you free vanilla with a $10 purchase, use the code DUMB, because tariffs are dumb.

Slightly more than 24 hours later: Now I can tell you that getting the cast off was super disappointing. I naively expected that the cast would come off – which happened first, yesterday, BTW, then the x-rays – and my wrist and hand would emerge looking all back to normal. Not so. After six weeks in the cast my wrist and hand are scaly, yellow, and puffy. And sore. And weak. And not as dexterous as I want them to be. I can’t completely make a fist, for one thing.

But it seems to be getting better fairly quickly. I have a brace to wear when I’m sleeping, and walking around and might fall,  or working where I’m lifting heavy stuff. But the rest of the time I’m supposed to not wear the brace to help my hand regain its strength and flexibility. We took brace out for coffee after the doctoring, then at home I took a long shower without a bag over my arm and washed my hair – that was mostly satisfying. Brushing my hair was a little more painful when I switched to my left hand than I would have liked, but the rest was ok. Last night I was sad because I couldn’t cup my hands full of water to rinse my mouth after brushing my teeth. It felt like I couldn’t raise my cupped hands high enough to get to my mouth. But this morning I realized that I could bend down a little lower and get the water into my mouth.

This morning I stuck with my one-handed hair, messy bun in the clamp. It felt like my left hand would get too sore braiding, but I think I’ll try again tomorrow. I slept with the brace on and felt great, no pain, through all my AM chores, cat litter, emptying dishwasher, making coffee (actually tea today), etc. I squeezed the toothpaste tube with my left hand for the first time since I broke my wrist.

Now we’re heading to Denver to see the kids out there. They’re very adept at the cocooned lifestyle, ordering out & getting delivery, plus they have a smart house that turns the lights on & off and starts the dishwasher, so I’ll definitely be doing less work around the house which should be good for my recovery.

The airport water bottle filler is a two-hander, and my left hand is not strong enough to push the button, but it is strong enough to hold the water bottle. So progress.

Cast had a few adventures since I last wrote – here’re a few pictures of that.

We made it to the Jeremy Frey basket show, but didn’t have time to go get better info on the pieces in the Africa show that I took pics of on our two-day trip. So I will have to post those later after we go back.

 

And Jasper came over Saturday so Al & Emma could clean.