Frankensarah: The Whole Story

Okay, since I can only type with one hand I figure it's a good idea to get the whole story of how I broke my wrists down in one place so I don't have to keep writing it in emails and facebook updates. So here's what happened:

I went to my personal training appt on 3/12 like usual. We were concentrating on legs and my trainer had me jumping up on a box about 18" high - an exercise we've done many times before. I was getting tired because we were about 45 minutes into the hour session. I jumped up, lost my balance, fell backwards and the reflexes kicked in. This would probably be a good place to mention for those of you who haven't noticed that I have twiggy, ridiculously weak wrists that aren't meant to hold up anything. I struggle with push ups and yoga poses because they depend too much on my spindly little wrists. So when I tried to brace my fall, I ended up instead curled up on the floor with both wrists in extraordinary pain.

At first I thought only the right wrist was injured and even that one only sprained. I hadn't heard a pop or snap, I could still move my fingers... and I was supposed to be on my way to the airport less than 2 hours later. I called my doctor but he couldn't get me in until 3:30 which seemed like an eternity. Trainer did everything he could to make me feel comfortable, helped me call the doctor and my mom, and apologized about a hundred times even though the whole thing was a legitimate accident and totally not his fault.

My mom got me home around 2:30 and I was still planning to leave for my flight to Reno. But we couldn't get me dressed because it hurt so badly to just get my arms through my shirt, so I finally gave in and agreed to see a doctor. By the time we got to the office my left wrist had started to swell pretty badly as well, so I asked the doctor to order x-rays for both. It wasn't until the radiologist called around 6 that I found out that BOTH wrists were fractured. You've. Got. To. Be. Kidding.

Did I cry when I fell? No. I whined and whimpered, but did not cry. Did I cry when my mom started me thinking about not being able to put my own hair in a ponytail, or drive, or button my pants, or put on my own makeup, or write a to do list or grade papers myself? Yes. Seriously. Dependence makes me cry.

The good news: The splint I got at my first doctor will hold me over the weekend. I can get a splint for my left wrist at CVS. I can see the orthopedic Dr on Monday.

So Monday I get back from the lake excited to get casted at my ortho appointment. Only instead the doctor looks at the x-rays, points out the regular fracture in my left wrist and then the severely worse fracture, impaction, and general crushing of the little bones in my right hand and announces (with absolutely no nuance or sense of how devastating this is) that I'll just have to have surgery on my right wrist. And soon. Like this same week. Which means more time off work. And I'm a sub so I don't exactly have sick days. And I need at least 5 days recovery. And that's when I really started to cry and made the doctor go out to the waiting room to get my mom. Honestly.

Surgery scheduled for early Friday morning. Some procedure I didn't ask questions about because I was so overwhelmed. Back to work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Can't unlock my own classroom door, write on the board, pass out papers, open a three-ring binder or put a paperclip on anything. Thank God high schoolers are moderately self-sufficient. Things are challenging but I can function.

Friday morning = surgery at 7 am. Apparently instead of a hard cast I get a metal plate attached to the big bone and 10 metal screws into the smaller wrist bone and 7 of the 10 little hand bones. Not nervous about surgery - just want to be on the other side of this whole thing and on the mend.

9:10 am wake up from surgery in the recovery room. PAINPAINPAINPAINPAIN!!!!! Holy hell! This is what they are talking about when they ask you to rate your pain from 1 to 10. This is 10. I could curse. 10! 10!!

Recovery update: Vicodin is a beautiful thing. So is sleep. And Mom (who goes above and beyond to not only take care of the things I need help with but tries to do it the way I would do it for myself). So is the Twilight DVD release coming at exactly the right time. So recovery is coming along. I should be back to work Wednesday. That same day I'm also supposed to be able to unwrap my right wrist and start working on mobility and rotation again. Within 2 weeks I'm supposed to be able to make a fist! At least 3 more weeks in a splint for my left wrist, probably 6 for my right. I'm on my way!