Update on broken arm and classes...

Hi everyone!


Winter semester is done at UofM… and I am healing well. I just checked my grades and I got an A in Gen Chem lab and an A in everything else (all blowoffs). Unfortunately I had to take an “I” in Gen Chem lecture. I wasn’t allowed to have a person from Accessibility office write the answers to my exams…


The head of the chemistry dept set that rule… I actually offered to let HIM write the answers to my exams! Lol! He said his concern was… get this… that if I told him to the answer was “B” and he hesitated, then I might second guess my answer! Lol. I told him that is rediculous! Lol. But he still stood by his decision. Thank you Dr. Robert Stack!


So… on my persnal medical side, I got my cast off a week ago. My hand looks dead still and is pretty much useless. It hurts A LOT still, but nothing a bottle of wine or some wonderful pain drugs won’t help! Lol. I am hoping to start writing and preparing to complete my chem class next week. YEA!



  • shanwith8 Said:
Hi everyone!

Winter semester is done at UofM... and I am healing well. I just checked my grades and I got an A in Gen Chem lab and an A in everything else (all blowoffs). Unfortunately I had to take an "I" in Gen Chem lecture. I wasn't allowed to have a person from Accessibility office write the answers to my exams...

The head of the chemistry dept set that rule... I actually offered to let HIM write the answers to my exams! Lol! He said his concern was... get this... that if I told him to the answer was "B" and he hesitated, then I might second guess my answer! Lol. I told him that is rediculous! Lol. But he still stood by his decision. Thank you Dr. Robert Stack!

So... on my persnal medical side, I got my cast off a week ago. My hand looks dead still and is pretty much useless. It hurts A LOT still, but nothing a bottle of wine or some wonderful pain drugs won't help! Lol. I am hoping to start writing and preparing to complete my chem class next week. YEA!



Sorry you had so much trouble with your department head.. do you think you'll still make the conference this year? I promise to ply you with drinks at the meet-N-greet

I broke both arms when I was little (at the same time, yes), and I well remember that shrunken white appearance and general uselessness. I suggest getting one of the soft pink rubber balls that is palm size (perfect squishy-ness) and squeezing thruout the day as physical therapy. That made a big difference in restoring my strength and function


Kate

Last March, I got into a donorcycle accident and broke both of my arms (well, technically, my left thumb and the head of my right radius, but both needed surgery and left was in a thumb spika cast for five weeks and right had external fixation for six weeks). Thumb spika should have been two weeks, but I made the mistake of telling him I was putting serious thought into pursuing surgery and heard “we take care of our own, I’m not going to risk you re-injuring it” sigh.


Anyway, I’d say I’m at about 95% left hand and 90% right (still a few issues with completely bending my thumb without some pre-stretching) and a bit of residual pain is just added to the rest I’ve dealt with for 20 years, so I don’t even really count it. I had a definite advantage of being in relatively decent shape (weight lifting within the previous few months) so I didn’t lose too much strength (though I definitely lost some). I skipped PT-I was out of motor insurance and on self-pay by this point.


Lots of stretching and starting out with very light weights (an old aerobics set my ex left behind, nothing humbles ya like struggling with 5 pound weights!) After about three months, I returned to some maki-wara type work (basically punching rather hard objects, remnant of my Hapkido days a few years ago-I’ve gone from tapping a wall while walking past dropping me to the floor to being able to punch cinder blocks repeatedly at about 75% strength). Returned to weight lifting about five weeks ago and am surpassing previous lifetime maxes-I was able to push 300 pounds with something other than my legs for the first time in my life on Wednesday (shoulder press in this case).


I’ve also made it a point to spend specific time working on building my forearm and grip strength. My training partner hits the tanner at the end of the workout, so I spend the 15 minutes he’s doing that working out everything below my elbow. The ones I’ve found best have been the Farmer’s Carry (grab basically the heaviest dumb bell you can and walk about 30-40 feet with it-I started at 55 pounds five weeks ago, up to 90 last week). I also do one I basically invented-grab about a 40 pound dumb bell and sit down, elbow resting on inner thigh, and basically dangle the weight straight down. Then I start curling my wrist, swinging the weight around, basically anything to activate the most muscle fibers I can. Do that till your arm gets tired and switch arms. Alternate until you’re glad someone else is driving because you can’t turn the wheel. I also noticed an annoying weakness in that I can’t really hold objects balancing on my spread left hand (ie: holding a magazine open). Started spending some time holding a 10 pound weight on my spread left hand-have gone from about 30 seconds to now doing it long enough I’m eyeing the 25 pound plates because it’s boring.


I guess what I’m really saying is: it’s a semi-slow process, but put in the work for a good year and you can very likely achieve full recovery, or even come out in many ways better.

Oh NightGod… I am ashamed now to whine about my injury! But then I am a girl, who lives in a house with 5 whiney daughtes, so some of it wears off on me! LOL


Thanks for the pep talk (said with complete sarcasm as I suck down 800mg ibuprofen again)


Jk. Lol!


Thanks also Kate! I will have to find a silicon ball or whatever due to latex allergy.


Rich, not sure about the conference. Money is draining outta my pockets faster than a seive due to the added medical expenses. I really want to be there! as for my Lovely dept head, word on the street is he came from Stanford, and used to serve on an ADCOM. So…whatever! :


My doc told me to expect a yr recovery. I have two friends that broke their right arms also just before I did so I use them for reference.


It still hurts a lot for writing. How long before you could do any serious amount of writing? I covered both sides of about 50 pages for exam 1 in my chem class.

Just a thought. When I had a wrist injury last year my brother got me some Pilot fountain pens (you have to order them online), and they really helped because you have to press so lightly. But a gel pen is still easier than pencil or regular pens.


Kate

No need to feel ashamed about whining, arm injuries SUCK. As for writing, for the most part I’m OK, but if there’s a ton of notes in an hour+ lecture I notice it about 45 mins in. I’ll start using a lot of abbreviations or just flat out stop writing occasionally. I really should go back to using my laptop to take notes, but had some issues in stats and chem with symbols and the like and just haven’t gotten into the habit again. Typing I can go for hours without noticing and I type faster than I write, so it really would make more sense for me to go that route.


Squeeze balls and hand exercise equipment of all types is a great idea. I got one of the Weider hand strengtheners from a local sports store-the best part is it’s adjustable from somewhere just above naturally closing your hand to pretty damn hard so you can grow with it. I used it a lot when I was driving around or watching TV-easy to mindlessly squeeze it and before you know it you’ve gotten 30 minutes in.


I’m the type of guy who gets pissed off when I’m in pain, though, so I just channeled it all into getting better. As long as it wasn’t “something is being damaged” pain I just worked through it. I understand that’s not normal, LOL.