I finished the snowboarding season last Saturday with a "snap". Of my left arm. My husband, stepson and I drove up to Boyne Highlands the night before (upper-lower-Michigan). This was going to be our last hurrah. My husband and I had visited their sister resort Boyne last year with similar results.
It was my second run of the day. My husband and stepson took a different route down the hill so I was all alone when I fell. I wasn't going very fast, having just come from a small trail onto a larger open space. I feel backward with my left arm extended behind me. I actually heard the 'snap'. I sat on the slope for a few minutes, cradling my arm, trying to figure out how I was going to get to the bottom. There was still quite a bit of hill left to travel.
Snowboarding it would have been the fastest way and I had a fleeting thought that things couldn't get much worse if I fell again. Instead, I released my boots from the bindings, grabbed my board and walked down. Crying into my goggles the whole way.
I spotted my husband and stepson going up on the lift so I dropped my board and dramatically pointed to my left arm. I kept looking around me for a ski patrol but it wasn't until I was at the bottom near the lift line that I finally spotted two of them. I called out "Ski Patrol" but they kept moving away from me. I tried again and finally caught the attention of one of them.
They snapped out of their skis as I was telling them I think I broke my arm. Soon I had several Ski Patrol around me and they braced my arm while we waited for my husband to come down the hill. I got a quick ride on a snowmobile to the Ski Patrol office while my husband made contact with my stepson to tell him we were going to the emergency room and to get our Jeep from the lodge parking lot. Deep breathing is not just for childbirth anymore!
Every year the Boyne resorts have what is known as "Krazy Days" around St. Patrick's Day. According to the ER docs/nurses, I was the first casualty of 2007's annual festivities. It was only 11 o'clock in the morning.
When I got into the exam room I had a whole team of people descend upon me. Cutting off the sling and split, sliding me out of my coat, two shirts and bra in what seemed like one fell swoop.
Soon I was sitting there in a hospital gown with a guy inserting an IV in my right arm so they could give me some painkillers. Yeah me! Once the happy drugs started flowing my pain went from a solid 10 to a solid 8.
Then came the x-rays. The verdict? I broke the radial head at my elbow. It is quite painful to try to rotate my hand face up/face down. I also am not able to bend or flex it completely without tremendous amount of pain. So the good looking ER doc half casted me from knuckles to above my elbow and told me to follow up with an orthopaedic surgeon in the next few days.
After stopping to fill a script for more pain killers and lunch, we returned to the resort. I ate, took drugs and lay down for the rest of the day. My husband caught up with his son and they finished the day snowboarding. The next day the two of them bought a four hour pass and headed for the hills while I headed for bed. I was completely miserable and the pain killers were doing very little to help.
On Tuesday I saw my primary care physician to get a referral to an orthopaedic dude. I sat in the overheated room forever before the she-doc came in. The first thing she did was unwrap my arm and start pushing in places that really hurt. She said she wanted a few more x-rays so I sat there, arm unwrapped, completely miserable for another eternity.
Finally someone took me down for more x-rays then returned me to the hot room. My husband was sitting in the waiting room this whole time because he thought it would be a simple "get the referral and go" appointment.
Forever later the nurses aid, not a nurse, mind you, a nurses aid, came in and said they were making my referral appointment up front and to check out. She handed me the x-rays (so now I was holding two complete sets of x-rays) and told me to go up front. Nobody bothered to re-wrap my broken arm before shooing me out of the office. She did, at the last second, give me a bag to carry everything in.
When I summoned my husband from the waiting room he started laughing because here I was holding two sets of x-rays, a plastic bag, a half cast and miles of ACE bandages. All we could do was shake our heads and laugh. The first thing we did when we got in the Jeep was wrap everything back up again. The soonest I could get into the Orthopaedic guy was Thursday. Yippee. The PCP did give me more pain killers though.
So yesterday my husband drives me to the Ortho guy. We get led back to a large room with floor to ceiling walls between each table in front of or behind you. You can see the other patient on your left or right. So we sat and waited while the little girl next to us got her wrist cast hacked off. The ortho guy did MORE x-rays and came to the same conclusion as the ER doc up north that I broke the radial head.
And, oh, by the way, this is not a type of fracture we cast. It's best if you use your arm and do some exercises. My husband and I looked at each other, yet again, and laughed. I have a broken arm BUT they don't cast it. Geez. So, once again, I left a doctors office with a broken and completely naked left arm. The first thing my husband and I did when we got in the Jeep was re-splint it.
On the upside, I did take my splint off when we got home from the Ortho doctor and I have been icing it and using it as much as I can stand it. Which isn't much.
It was my second run of the day. My husband and stepson took a different route down the hill so I was all alone when I fell. I wasn't going very fast, having just come from a small trail onto a larger open space. I feel backward with my left arm extended behind me. I actually heard the 'snap'. I sat on the slope for a few minutes, cradling my arm, trying to figure out how I was going to get to the bottom. There was still quite a bit of hill left to travel.
Snowboarding it would have been the fastest way and I had a fleeting thought that things couldn't get much worse if I fell again. Instead, I released my boots from the bindings, grabbed my board and walked down. Crying into my goggles the whole way.
I spotted my husband and stepson going up on the lift so I dropped my board and dramatically pointed to my left arm. I kept looking around me for a ski patrol but it wasn't until I was at the bottom near the lift line that I finally spotted two of them. I called out "Ski Patrol" but they kept moving away from me. I tried again and finally caught the attention of one of them.
They snapped out of their skis as I was telling them I think I broke my arm. Soon I had several Ski Patrol around me and they braced my arm while we waited for my husband to come down the hill. I got a quick ride on a snowmobile to the Ski Patrol office while my husband made contact with my stepson to tell him we were going to the emergency room and to get our Jeep from the lodge parking lot. Deep breathing is not just for childbirth anymore!
Every year the Boyne resorts have what is known as "Krazy Days" around St. Patrick's Day. According to the ER docs/nurses, I was the first casualty of 2007's annual festivities. It was only 11 o'clock in the morning.
When I got into the exam room I had a whole team of people descend upon me. Cutting off the sling and split, sliding me out of my coat, two shirts and bra in what seemed like one fell swoop.
Soon I was sitting there in a hospital gown with a guy inserting an IV in my right arm so they could give me some painkillers. Yeah me! Once the happy drugs started flowing my pain went from a solid 10 to a solid 8.
Then came the x-rays. The verdict? I broke the radial head at my elbow. It is quite painful to try to rotate my hand face up/face down. I also am not able to bend or flex it completely without tremendous amount of pain. So the good looking ER doc half casted me from knuckles to above my elbow and told me to follow up with an orthopaedic surgeon in the next few days.
After stopping to fill a script for more pain killers and lunch, we returned to the resort. I ate, took drugs and lay down for the rest of the day. My husband caught up with his son and they finished the day snowboarding. The next day the two of them bought a four hour pass and headed for the hills while I headed for bed. I was completely miserable and the pain killers were doing very little to help.
On Tuesday I saw my primary care physician to get a referral to an orthopaedic dude. I sat in the overheated room forever before the she-doc came in. The first thing she did was unwrap my arm and start pushing in places that really hurt. She said she wanted a few more x-rays so I sat there, arm unwrapped, completely miserable for another eternity.
Finally someone took me down for more x-rays then returned me to the hot room. My husband was sitting in the waiting room this whole time because he thought it would be a simple "get the referral and go" appointment.
Forever later the nurses aid, not a nurse, mind you, a nurses aid, came in and said they were making my referral appointment up front and to check out. She handed me the x-rays (so now I was holding two complete sets of x-rays) and told me to go up front. Nobody bothered to re-wrap my broken arm before shooing me out of the office. She did, at the last second, give me a bag to carry everything in.
When I summoned my husband from the waiting room he started laughing because here I was holding two sets of x-rays, a plastic bag, a half cast and miles of ACE bandages. All we could do was shake our heads and laugh. The first thing we did when we got in the Jeep was wrap everything back up again. The soonest I could get into the Orthopaedic guy was Thursday. Yippee. The PCP did give me more pain killers though.
So yesterday my husband drives me to the Ortho guy. We get led back to a large room with floor to ceiling walls between each table in front of or behind you. You can see the other patient on your left or right. So we sat and waited while the little girl next to us got her wrist cast hacked off. The ortho guy did MORE x-rays and came to the same conclusion as the ER doc up north that I broke the radial head.
And, oh, by the way, this is not a type of fracture we cast. It's best if you use your arm and do some exercises. My husband and I looked at each other, yet again, and laughed. I have a broken arm BUT they don't cast it. Geez. So, once again, I left a doctors office with a broken and completely naked left arm. The first thing my husband and I did when we got in the Jeep was re-splint it.
On the upside, I did take my splint off when we got home from the Ortho doctor and I have been icing it and using it as much as I can stand it. Which isn't much.
1 comment:
Ouchie!!! I though toe breaks were one of the few breaks that they don't cast.... I don't get how the bone is supposed to set properly if your constantly jarring and moving it around. Then again, I am not a doc, so what the heck do I know. I hope they gave you the good stuff! Feel better soon.
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