Still More Wraps

I made a big mistake during the week.  I googled "pin removal fractured wrist."
Advice : don't do this if you're ever in a similar situation, you'll just scare the living daylights out of yourself.

This is a video I found on YouTube :

EWWWW!

One of the pins has been giving me a bit of trouble, sticking into my skin from the inside, so I headed off for my first post-op consult with the surgeon knowing that I had to mention it, scared he would do something about it, scared he wouldn't do something about it and already stressing myself out over the impending removal of all three pins when the wrist is healed.

The bandage and partial cast were removed and Anne (who had come along to translate) and I oohed and aahed over the horror of my mis-shapen lower arm.

Those of a sensitive disposition, look away now!

It doesn't look too bad from Anne's angle, you can see the incisions are nice and neat:

But it looked fairly grim from my point of view:

You can see the extent of the swelling in my knuckles best from this angle, but unfotunately the camera focussed on the background:

The surgeon listened sympathetically to my tale of woe about being impaled by a pin from the inside out, looked carefully at my wrist and said "Yes, it's a pin"... the "And?" hanging unspoken in the air between us!

However, he assured me that the new resin cast I was about to get wouldn't press on it, and carried on preparing the cast.

First he wrapped my arm with Softban bandaging.  Anne and I exchanged glances - many's the time we've used Softban when treating wounds and sprains on horses' legs!

Then he produced a roll of.... hey wait a minute!  It was exactly the same as the resin impregnated bandages we've seen on our horses' hooves recently - PHW wraps!  Just a different colour.

Anne and I were joking about how she'd have to hold my leg up while the resin set and we were both giggling like schoolgirls, so we felt we had to explain ourselves to the surgeon and the nurse, who had been unable to keep up with our rapid-fire English.  Anne did a brief translation of our exchange, and they were both incredulous that the resin bandages would be used in that way, the surgeon immediately spotting the problem that they would cause the horses to slip - smart man!

I was told to come back in three weeks for another check, and then two weeks later the pins would be removed.  Gulp.

No, wait! I'll be admitted as a day patient, and they'll remove the pins under a light general anaesthetic!

You have no idea how relieved I was to hear that!