And I couldn’t be happier. I had another follow-up appointment with the doctor on Monday. According to him my x-rays look good, so we’re scheduling the surgery to remove my fixator as soon as possible. With luck I’ll have it off before Thanksgiving. It’s been an interesting experience having this device attached to my arm.
I’ve kind of gone full circle on the whole thing. At first it was extremely painful, then it was just sort of there, and now it’s gone back to painful. Initially I couldn’t stand to look at it, then it was okay, and now I’m absolutely disgusted again. It was painful, then it was felt okay, and now back to painful. In the beginning I couldn’t wait to get it off, then I got used to it, and now I’m counting down the days to a surgery that hasn’t even been scheduled yet.
So what’s it like? At first, very painful and not a bit pleasant. Imagine you got your belly button pierced with a sixteen-penny nail. And then they left the nail in. So sort of like the world’s biggest piercing (Gill and I keep joking that we’re going to show these pictures to our kids when they want to get something pierced). In order to install this thing they first cut four deep incisions into my arm, one for each pin. Then they screwed in these long steel rods, two into the humerus and two into the ulna.
Now, for the first week after surgery everything was okay because my arm was still wrapped up in bandages and secured in the splint. But at the first post-surgical visit when they removed the splint and bandages things were very, very raw. Gill had to had to change the dressing on the pin sites every day for the first few weeks while they drained. It was both disgusting for her and painful for me, and it even put her off eating meat for a while.
But eventually things stabilized so they were less touchy, less painful, and less disgusting. I was able to move my arm around a lot more, and things were progressing well with physical therapy. I mean my arm was incredibly stiff, mostly due to the restrictions of the fixator, but it was just annoying. Heavy, spiky, and I couldn’t wear shirts with sleeves, but it was just something I had to wait out. This is when I finally got the strength to venture out of the apartment many weeks after surgery.
A couple weeks ago though my arm really started to ache. The pins were more sensitive again, and they started oozing a lot more. And
It’s been a real conversation starter ever since I started going to the store by myself again (I can still only lift about three pounds, but that’s enough to get take-out or ingredients for a single meal). I usually get two or three comments or questions from adults every time I head out. I’ve had lots of people ask “What the hell happened to you?” and “Does it hurt?”. A teller at the bank went “Dude, that’s pretty cool,” to which I should have replied “No, no it’s not.” It’s not like this is an extreme piercing I chose, it’s something that happened to me. I even had a lady come up to me at the supermarket and recommend her orthopedic doctor and physical therapist. But mostly, it’s people who want to know what happened. I don’t mind though.
Kids, on the other hand, are always curious. I always see young kids staring at me when I head out, but only one has ever asked me about it. Last weekend, while I waited to get popcorn at the movie theater, this little boy no more than 4 looked at my arm, pointed, and asked “What’s that?” So I explained that I’d had an accident, and that the doctors had put this on my arm to help it get better, and I told him that when he was old enough to ride a bicycle he should be sure to wear a helmet and elbow pads at all times. “Okay! I hope you feel better!” So cute.
Apparently when they take the fixator off I can keep it if I want. Now, I can totally understand not re-using the pins; after all, they have been embedded in my flesh for two and a half months. But the armature and hinges and joints? Those parts have never touched my body. I can’t understand why they can’t just run it through an autoclave and re-use it.
Well no, I understand that they want to be clean and hygienic. But I half suspect that it’s also a way to charge more for the surgery.