To Crush A Radius: Part 2

I still had to get the dogs taken care of in the morning, so I went over with Andy, to tell him what to do.

I called my hand surgeon’s office just after 8, and he actually happened to have a 9:20 cancellation, so we headed over to see him. My surgeon is Dr. In Sok Yi, with Peak Orthopedics, and he had already done two previous surgeries on my right hand. My husband and I love him.

They had to redo the xrays, and once again, the tech went, “wow, you really broke it.”

I went back to the exam room to wait for Dr. Yi, and I took a look at the xray as I waited. Wow. They weren’t wrong. It was BROKEN. Andy couldn’t see it, because if you’re not super familiar with what a hand xray should look like, the break just looked like metacarpals. But wow, even with it set, I had parts of my radius in odd places.

Dr. Yi came in, and was super impressed with how thoroughly I had broken my radius. He said yes, I needed surgery, and this week. Obviously, the last thing we want is time for the bones to start healing, because then he’d just have to break what had remodled.

I was told to go home, and wait to hear when my surgery would be, because it could be as early as the next day, or as late as Friday. Dr. Yi doesn’t usually do urgent surgeries anymore, but if an established patient needs one, he’ll fit it in.

We stopped to grab breakfast to go at our favorite place, Snooze, where I saw my favorite server, Andrea. She gave me a hug and then asked what happened to my hand. I said I crushed my wrist. Her reaction was, “This is unacceptable!” She worked her usual magic, and when we opened our bag, we found she had gotten us a second cannoli pancake. Andrea is the best.

Dr. Yi’s scheduler called me a couple hours after we left, and said my surgery would be the next day, Tuesday, at 5:45pm, and check-in time would be at 4:15. I was so glad my surgery was going to be the next day. My elbow was immobilized, and all I wanted to do was stretch it out.

I spent the rest of the day getting ready for surgery, railing against the utter ineffectiveness of Vicodin, and updating people on my situation.

I felt horrible, because I had just started my job as a swim instructor, and already had taken two weeks for Europe, and now I have to take a couple months. They have been amazingly understanding and supportive despite the incredible inconvenience it poses them. I got really lucky with that job.

I was lucky because Andy was off for President’s Day, so he could help me out and take me where I needed to go.

The surgery is fascinating, and that story will be told in part 3! But I think for next time, back to Europe!