Myke's 'blob.

After a terrible weekend, I suddenly had two 'not-so-bad' days, where my hand almost looked normal, aside from the dent where my scaphoid should be, and it almost didn't hurt... I went for my regular physio appointment today, and while he (Matt, the PT) seemed quite encouraged by the reduction of edema (thanks Celebrex??), but as he palpated my wrist for 10 minutes, things just went into spasm and it got puffy again. Fail.
Matt was visibly frustrated, and I hurt. Basically he/we can't start working on strength (or anything) while things are this angry... he's at the end of what he can do for now. Further down the road though, he suggested I talk to an Occupational Therapist about getting a functional wrist brace as opposed to the cast/splint I have now, so I could at least use my damn hand without damaging it further.
Still feels like my thumb is going to fall off.

An hour later, at my doctor's, I relayed all of this, and my epic frustration at the whole situation... and how my right wrist is now getting somewhat pained from over-use too.

Her orders/advice:
- stop the physio - it's not helping
- continue with the Celebrex
- take time off work ("We can write a note for your employer...?" "Me?" "Oh. Hmm.")
- pester the MRI clinic (I'm now on the cancellation-shortlist, they could call with 30 minutes notice at any time...)
- get a TENS machine
- maintain immobilization, since that's the only thing that helps
- sit tight for your MRI and keep your chin up

I'm pretty dejected about it all, things are supposed to get better with time, not worse... right? (Want to count how many stupid fights/arguments I've had with people in the past week? This isn't me. I don't like it.) Now I'm getting to the state where I wonder what the next piece of bad news is.

Taking time off work isn't really a viable option for someone who's self-employed. Before all this happened I'd been getting into job-hunting mode since mWare consulting hasn't been bringing in enough money. D'you know anyone who needs a high-powered network-geek/UNIX-sysadmin that can't type very much/fast/accurately? I seriously need to get some consistent income going on. Soon. Even just a little.

Having my own TENS machine will be nice; vastly better than popping pain killers. It's also the only part of the PT that I actually found brought any tangible relief. They're cheap enough to buy so I'll pick one up in the next week.


Making things even more fun, I just learned that I'll likely be losing my insurance coverage in a month or two because the company I partially owned and was getting my coverage through, has been sold off. The new owners are going to move the corporate policy over to their existing one - and I'll probably get dropped in the process. I'm going to try and negotiate something since they'll still need me for a few things though.

Otherwise, the MRI countdown continues...

My Anticipation Widgets

Oh yeah - I ordered a new laptop. I'm also going to try and get a Magic Mouse ASAP, since I'm trying to further improve my computer setup. I'd still love to have an external multi-touchpad like what's in the Apple laptops - for my desktop. (Any suggestions?) But we'll see how I fare with the all-touch-sensitive-surface'd Magic Mouse.

Open vs. Clenched, shows limited Scaphoid/Lunate movement, where there should be more

OsirisX is also cool.

Click here to see all 5 films

_{PS: I've broken a few fingers on my left hand before - can you spot the fractures? I can't.}

Was late for my appointment at clinic yesterday because I got a call from the Montfort hospital to book my MRI: Sunday November 29th.

The doc prescribed me a 2 weeks of Celebrex to help with the edema and showed me my X-Rays... it's pretty neat to see (though I'm still waiting to get my copy from the Imaging place...) but she pointed out what she was looking for in terms of how the scaphoid and lunate bones should be shifting positions for the various angles of X-Rays and movements, and they're not... Which isn't quite conclusive of scapholunate ligament tear(s), complete or not, but it's very good indicator that surgery is required. (The TFCC damage isn't visible on X-Rays.)

Which led me to my next question... what are the next steps, how quickly are things going to progress?
- 2 months for MRI results
- 6+ month wait for surgeon referral (there's 2.5 wrist surgeons in Ottawa, and they're terribly busy)
- 2-4+ months wait for OR/Surgery
- 2-4+ months of recovery/rehab

Oh. I guess skiing next year is probably still out of the question too. "Probably."

Fail.

Started Physio this morning, but the guy couldn't do much of an assessment because of the swelling and muscle spasm. Some ultrasound, electromagnet-thing and my favorite: TENS.

And let me tell you - Celebrex is not nice to the GI

Note the lack of definition of the knuckles/veins/bones on the left.

The other day my hand ballooned for no particularly good or new reason, so I called the sports-doctor's today and booked an appointment, after they asked if I'd fallen on it or something traumatic had happened... Sigh.
While I had them on the phone, I asked if I could start physio, since I was told not to start until they were sure there were no breaks. They'd done their own read of the films, and determined that there weren't any fractures, so I'm good to start physio.
(I won't get copies of the X-rays until the Imaging Clinic has completed their report, which should be any day this week.)

And while it hurts 'n stuff, I still rocked Nuit Blanche: (write-up on that coming soon!)

Comparisons to Megaman would be appropriate. And welcome.

I did get alot of stares, but lots of positive comments & compliments too.

One girl called out to me, said I was her hero and that I was awesome. I shot back a 'Thanks!', but then she pulls up her sleeve to show her short-arm cast. Immediately I interrogate about type of injury and projected recovery time... turns out I should've tried breaking my radius instead: 2-3 weeks with a cast and that's it... I could've done that 2.5 times by now!

Night comes early in October.

I just had an awesome photo opportunity that only lasted a split second. I'm en-route to Toronto for Nuit Blanche on Via train 49 and I went to the back of the train and peeked out the dusty back window.
The first time I did this, I just saw the ghostly glow of red signals we'd just passed, thru the filth, in the fog/rain.
Then a few minutes later I looked again and the world was very bright. Unbeknownst to me, another train was approaching (opposite to our direction) with it's multi-kilowatt headlight beam casting fast moving shadows, destroying unique images as fast as it created more. WHAM! It finally passes me.

It's dark again.