You know you're in a bad way when nurses wince and shudder when they see your arm. An uber ride to the hospital this morning, still really painful but not as bad as before thanks to Tramadol and Diazepam. Felt sorry for the driver who was pretty freaked out by my yelping, and gave him a good tip to make up for it.
I was sent round to the waiting area for the consultant, expecting to wait as I was 30 minutes early. A man came out to as I was checking in with the secretary and said "You must be Melissa, come through". I guess if you're a shoulder specialist and see that you have an appointment with someone with a broken shoulder and this turns up it's probably not a huge stretch to figure out who your next appointment is:
Mr Shoulder asks a bunch of questions about how it happened, and then walks me round to x-ray in another part of the hospital. He walks fast. I attempt to scurry along in his wake. As I'm waiting in radiology my mother arrives, and then I go through for x-rays. It's probably also not a good sign when the radiologist goes "Wow that's some fracture" when she takes the first x-ray.
Back we go to the consultant area, and then back in to Mr Shoulder. He is not terribly pleased with the positioning of the fracture and shows us the x-ray, where I appear to have developed what I call the "hook". This is different to the x-rays taken straight after the accident, where it just looked (to me) like a normal humerus with a line through it. Now it looked more like this (not mine obviously, as it's right, but closest I could find since I don't have mine):
The hook (a shifted edge of the humeral head) is also what is causing much of the pain - every time the muscles spasm they clench around the sharp edges of bone and get all sliced up. Nice. That's why the bruising keeps getting worse every day.
He then comes round the desk and crouches down next to my chair. He says "May I?" And then proceeds to take the sling off. This is like taking away my security blanket and I'm appalled. He moves my elbow around a little, and points out the skin in my inner elbow is getting "manky" (nice!) because it's been permanently bent for nearly two weeks and I need to start moving my arm a little.
He then fits the sling again, and gets it into a much better position than before, which actually relieves some of the pain. I mention that I damaged the rotator cuff on that shoulder in 2012, which he seems to find much more concerning than I thought. He refers me for a CT scan, as the concern is that the rotator cuff may have twisted the head of the humerus into a different alignment to the rest of the humerus, and if so, it will mean surgery to align them with plates and pins.
Back home, still slightly in shock that my arm has been moved, removed from the sling, and yet didn't drop off. It was very reassuring though to meet someone who not only seemed to know exactly what he was talking about, but seemed so positive about the options and prospects for treating it. I don't ever entirely forgive him for calling my elbow "manky".
I was sent round to the waiting area for the consultant, expecting to wait as I was 30 minutes early. A man came out to as I was checking in with the secretary and said "You must be Melissa, come through". I guess if you're a shoulder specialist and see that you have an appointment with someone with a broken shoulder and this turns up it's probably not a huge stretch to figure out who your next appointment is:
Mr Shoulder asks a bunch of questions about how it happened, and then walks me round to x-ray in another part of the hospital. He walks fast. I attempt to scurry along in his wake. As I'm waiting in radiology my mother arrives, and then I go through for x-rays. It's probably also not a good sign when the radiologist goes "Wow that's some fracture" when she takes the first x-ray.
Back we go to the consultant area, and then back in to Mr Shoulder. He is not terribly pleased with the positioning of the fracture and shows us the x-ray, where I appear to have developed what I call the "hook". This is different to the x-rays taken straight after the accident, where it just looked (to me) like a normal humerus with a line through it. Now it looked more like this (not mine obviously, as it's right, but closest I could find since I don't have mine):
The hook (a shifted edge of the humeral head) is also what is causing much of the pain - every time the muscles spasm they clench around the sharp edges of bone and get all sliced up. Nice. That's why the bruising keeps getting worse every day.
He then comes round the desk and crouches down next to my chair. He says "May I?" And then proceeds to take the sling off. This is like taking away my security blanket and I'm appalled. He moves my elbow around a little, and points out the skin in my inner elbow is getting "manky" (nice!) because it's been permanently bent for nearly two weeks and I need to start moving my arm a little.
He then fits the sling again, and gets it into a much better position than before, which actually relieves some of the pain. I mention that I damaged the rotator cuff on that shoulder in 2012, which he seems to find much more concerning than I thought. He refers me for a CT scan, as the concern is that the rotator cuff may have twisted the head of the humerus into a different alignment to the rest of the humerus, and if so, it will mean surgery to align them with plates and pins.
Back home, still slightly in shock that my arm has been moved, removed from the sling, and yet didn't drop off. It was very reassuring though to meet someone who not only seemed to know exactly what he was talking about, but seemed so positive about the options and prospects for treating it. I don't ever entirely forgive him for calling my elbow "manky".
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