Valeria Out Loud

🙃 I laugh at my own jokes.

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well on this Wednesday. I just walked in the door from getting my nails done… Oh yeah, I treated myself to getting my nails done! With my splint and all!

Figured I’d catch you up with my latest and greatest on my wrist. I went to the doctor yesterday, this was my first post operation appointment with the doctor. So you know, I got really dressed up. 😆 Anyways, so, the nurse removed my post-op splint before the doctor came in.

Finally! Some freedom!

I finally saw my scar for the first time. I will spare your eyes from seeing it. By God, it looked horrific, like Frankenstein sewed me up. It had clear stitches sticking out and glue over it all, so it was shiny and odd feeling. I had no time to really look at it before an X-ray tech swept me away for some …well, x-rays.

I am going to share this picture though, it is pretty fascinating.

It’s weird, I know I have metal in my arm, and I have been sharing the still of my x-ray with everyone and everyone has an opinion. But. I haven’t actually let this sink in yet. I am not sure I can handle thinking about metal in my body. I may just, I don’t know, disassociate myself from the thought for life 😆.

Ok so. Right from getting the x-rays I had a little talk with the doctor. For those wondering, yes, as long as my body doesn’t reject this metal, it is in my body for the rest of my life. But I don’t feel anything, like I don’t feel there’s metal there. I don’t know if that’s going to change over time or what, but at the moment, I feel nothing. He then walked me over to occupational therapy, which is in the same suite. And I had my first therapy appointment!

Boy, do things happen fast.

As soon as I walked in, I was seen by a therapist who gave me an evaluation. This basically entails a lot of questions about when and how you injured yourself, when surgery was, what your hobbies are, what you do for work, your lifestyle, etc. then they check your injury and mobility. She was highly impressed with my mobility. The fact that I could use all five digits and palm of my hand, she stated I was ahead of the curve for someone who’s had this type of surgery. Even though everybody recovers at their own speed. I actually needed to hear that from her; it made me feel good.

After the evaluation, she walked me through what I can and cannot do, and my at home exercises that I have to do three times a day. So basically, I have to stretch my wrist and forearm. And for those of you that know about physical therapy or stretches, the exercises I have to do are wrist flexion and extensions, radial and ulnar deviation, forearm supination and pronation.

For the rest of us, here’s an explanation. The wrist flexion and extension is resting your forearm on a hard surface with your palm down and bending your wrist up and down. Half of the set with fingers relaxed and the other half in a gentle fist. The radial and ulnar deviation is resting your forearm on a hard surface with your palm touching then moving just the wrist from side to side without moving the rest of your arm.The forearm supination and pronation is an exercise where you keep your elbow firmly by your side, bent at 90°. In your hand you are holding a spoon or spatula as a visual aid, and you’re trying to get the object parallel to the floor so you have to move your wrist up and down.

The flexion and extension, and, the forearm supination and pronation are hard for me to do. Mind you they’re all difficult for most in this situation, but I was shocked at how hard. It’s really like learning to do some thing all over again.

After learning my exercises, I was measured for a new splint. This one is removable (and ugly) but it makes life a little bit easier. I’m able to remove it to shower or to give a massage. I have to say out of everything I’ve gone through, which actually has been a lot, I think that the splint is the worst part of everything. Not this one per se.

The second I got to the emergency room, when I initially broke my arm, they reset it and put it in a giant splint that weighed at least 6 to 8 pounds. Then after that, I have surgery and put in another splint that initially felt great because it was way lighter than the old one but as time went on that splint felt like it weighed 50 pounds! 😂

OK that’s enough complaining.

This is life, right? It comes at you fast. With no notification. And you have to think on your feet. I thank God every day that I was given strength, so I can put myself in a very sage place when there’s an emergency. It’s almost like I’m at my clearest when there is high stress.

This has been hard. I have this weird knack of making things look really easy, but I can assure you this is not easy.

But, I’m gonna repeat to you what I’ve been repeating to myself every day… I am not giving up! I can’t let the devastation, the sadness, the loss of doing a lot of things on my own, get to me. I have a wonderful support system with a husband who has been really doing so much for me, and, my two children who comfort me anytime they’re with me that I can’t ask for more, so I can’t do anything less than thrive and learn from the situation. Try my best. And recover.

So, on the horizon, I have an appointment with the surgeon in four weeks. And meanwhile, starting Friday, I will have weeks and weeks- or months and months, of physical therapy. And I am going to take it as serious as possible so I can get back to normal, or whatever normal is on the other side of this. And I look forward to it. I’m here for it.

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That’s my update for now. I go back to work on Friday. Which I’m sure will be a day of getting me back online. Then I’m on vacation till end of April. I will try my best to put up a post when I come back from vacation. Which, will be interesting, and full of challenges, but my family will help make it as easy for me as possible. I just need a vacation, with lots of heat and sunshine, so I am looking forward to this. Can’t wait to update you!

Thank you for reading today, guys! I really do appreciate everyone taking the time out of their day to check it out. 

till next time! xoxo