Really weird morning today. First off, I got Jen's cold so I've got that going on in addition to the arm thing. Annoying, but not a big deal. More interestingly, I finally had my appointment with the orthopedic specialist today. As you may recall this has been an ongoing saga over the last few weeks.
The appointment started out kind of weird - the doctor took off the temporary cast and almost immediately told me that the biggest problem is that I have stiffness in my elbow because I've been wearing the cast for the last ten days. He said that there was no reason for me to be immobilized and that the cast may have already caused me permanent stiffness in my elbow. He showed me the x-ray, saying that really all I need is some physical therapy and to go back to just taking it easy on the arm.
At first I was really relieved and happy, but as I waited for the x-ray tech I started to think about the fact that I had worn the temporary cast because *his office had told me to*. For the last week and a half I haven't been able to do some pretty routine things like tie my shoe or do the dishes because I was supposed to not take the cast off. Frustrating.
After the x-rays the doctor confirmed that everything is healing well and far from not requiring surgery I'll just need a little occupational therapy and to wait until about the middle of July before I go back to canoeing or lifting heavy objects. The best news is that I can start jogging again and I'm now typing with two hands, so look out frequent contacts. You're about to get an eyeful.
Related and kind of funny, while I had the cast on my friend Chris let me borrow this rubber thing that you can put on your arm to take a shower while you wear a cast:
The glove is incredibly affective, and also works great for:
- An endless list of proctology jokes
- Impersonating both the stay puff marshmallow man and the Michelin man
- Smurf slaughters
- Challenges to gigantic duels
