previously, on Broken Arm...

So, I went back to the ortho doc's office on Wed before Thanksgiving. I got x-rays of my arm taken, and then sat down with the P.A. to get the low-down. The first thing she says to me after looking over the x-rays...

So, Brian, have you... sustained a fall recently?

Umm. No.

Oh! That's good!

And then she moved on. I was knocked a bit off balance by the question, and everything that it implied about my x-rays and arm, and I just filed it away and let her continue. She explained that she would prescribe occupational therapy for me, and set up a follow-up appointment for January sometime, to see how it works out. I recovered enough of my head by that time to ask her the important question...

Can I go back to playing volleyball?

She asked me again about how/when my arm still hurts, thought about it, then added an order to my occupational therapy scrip to make or fit me for a protective splint that I can wear when playing volleyball. At the time, I thought that was a Good Thing, but now, a week and change later, I'm thinking that I will wait until that January doctor's visit before I step back on the court to play, protective splint or no. I mean, you know the way I play.

Me being me, I took a couple of digital snaps of the x-rays on the monitor while I was waiting for the P.A. I don't have the experience and know-how, medically, to know what I was looking at when looking at the pictures, but I know I didn't like them. The new bone growth looked to be happening on the outside surface of the broken bone, and not filling up the gap, where the break occurred. I mean, I really thought, visibly, there's still space between the two pieces.



Anyhow, I shared my pictures of the pictures with a non-ortho doc acquaintance who explained that it could be that soft tissue is filling that gap, physically slowing down the healing of the bone. Stupid soft tissue. I never trusted it.

Occupational therapy will teach me some exercises that will help increase circulation to the injured area, which should stimulate the healing. If, however, the soft tissue persists in interfering, well, Other Stuff will hafta happen.

Let us not speak of Other Stuff now.

Bottom line. I won't be playing any volleyball until I get some kind of verdict from the doctor in January. Dagnabbit.

I hate that I hafta keep pushing off my return date, bleah. But it's been over four months and the injury still bothers me, and well, the you recall the doc's first question to me? Not exactly the most optimistic sign.

*sigh*

Back to the movies for me.

Keep on keepin on~