Wristy is Tighty & Still Healing

Having my wrist cast removed after 6 long weeks made for a very happy day. No clunky half-pound weight to carry around. However, with freedom comes challenges, including Righty looks like a prosthetic hand and sometimes like a toddler’s chubby wrist and hand. A stranger. Not mine. Prosthy has swelling and is stiff and doesn’t work well; she is weak and awkward. And her skin is raw, vulnerable, and ever flaking and peeling. The day the cast came off it looked like there was a thick and shiny layer of dried Elmer's glue spread over the lower hand and wrist, begging to be peeled off or exfoliated, but ever so cautiously. Because the skin underneath was still raw. Like a bad sunburn.

Every day, to increase hand and grip strength, I stretch my arm and hand and then squeeze a ball. It is painful to do. But it is worth it because I am then able to utilize Righty more, to pick up my water thermos and drink from it. Woot, woot! Or hold a utensil to eat with Righty, but not very well or comfortably. The fingers pretty much work, but Wristy is still tight and creaky, like the "Wizard of Oz" Tin Woodsman.

Each morning when I awake around 5:30, Righty has returned back to a stiff state. It feels like all of the improvement from the previous day has vanished. It is again a tight and foreign, fake hand. A few minutes of work and stretching bring oils and life back into Righty and Wristy. Early morning weather has been unusually chilly enough to walk and briefly expose my wrist to refrigerator-like cool. I then warm it in a glove. I alternate and briefly expose it again to the chill, etc. trying to reduce the swelling faster (I'm a dreamer). It is actually supposed to be 3 months before the swelling is completely down.

Keyboarding is the thing that is not going well, because Wristy’s pivoting or twisting motion has not yet returned, but optimistically it will. I am praying, a lot; because I type, a lot. The doctor said the bone slipped ever so slightly when it was healing, and that could hinder motion. It is the doctor's job prognosis-wise to share the worst-case-scenario and scare the wits out of their patients. But my bone doctor also said that, hopefully, use and therapy will help its flexibility to return properly, without surgery to insert a small plate (and wear yet another cast). Everybody is different, so results are unpredictable. For a time, Lefty will still need to cover computer typing, pretty much solo; she's been a trooper.

It is not the lighting, nor is it an illusion
Different skin tone & swollen...
It's not hard to spot Prosthy 

And so it is with close or family relationships that have been in an uncomfortable and fixed cast-like state. Flexible turns to tight. Awkward. Raw. Vulnerable. Sometimes even unpredictable enough to feel scary.

Prosthy immediately after cast removal
Not dried Elmer's glue; just skin ready to flake