Wednesday 5 January 2022

The Snap recap...

      Warning, the following post has pictures of myself without clothes. For those of you whom get too excited at unclad demigods please steady yourselves and proceed with caution, or perhaps not at all.

     Well it has been over two months since that fateful day upon the fifth day of the month of November last year and I still remain frustrated at the slow progress that I have made in healing. Frustrated because if I do not work I have no sick pay to fall back on, frustrated as I feel that I have let my clients down, frustrated that plans for our home, garden & garage have been put on hold and finally frustrated at having to let G take the strain of the day to day running of our home on her own as well as having to look after this miserable old git.  As you can imagine these pressures have allowed the Black Dog to sneak in to my head upon occasion but, if truth be told the bad days have been outweighed by the good ones so it is not all gloom and doom.

     A few days after the snap I had an x-ray taken to show the extent of the damage caused by free jumping off a ladder....




     Quite a nice picture of me showing my better side I think. The x-ray clearly shows the Snap in all its glory and the fact that the two pieces of the collar bone are in pretty good alignment. The consultant that I saw was pleased with the positioning of the bone and stated that I should be healed in about six weeks. So a month and a half I thought, could have been a lot worse thinks I......it was!

     So seven weeks after first speaking with the consultant I'm due another visit. I was definitely not healed and my shoulder, although I had regained seventy five per cent movement in my shoulder and arm, it still hurt like hell and lifting any sort of weight was completely out of the question. The first thing the consultant did was to send me for another x-ray...




     Not as clear as the first one I'm afraid, possibly due to fluid build up, but if you squint at the right hand side of the x-ray you can see that the two pieces of bone are at least half their width out of line, oh joy! The consultant was understandably not as enthusiastic as he was during my first visit but, to my surprise, after much prodding, checking my movement and knitting of brows he decided to let sleeping dogs lie and leave it alone as it had knitted together of a fashion. The downsides are another six to eight weeks healing was advised, there would be a large lump of new bone around the break which may affect movement and I wasn't offered any ice cream! (I always was as a child when hospital was visited). 

    That visit was on the twenty second day of the month of December and he wants me to return upon the eighth day of this coming month of February for another check upon the Snap's status. 

     The thing is that I have to admit to have being a tad naughty of late, bourn out of frustration, the fact that since the Snap I have gained nine pounds in weight, and my own impatience to be contributing here at the 'House in the rock'.  Just before the changing of the years I was feeling quite a lot better with the movement being a tad more free and with reduced aches and pains of my collar bone but not with my excess weight and a feeling of reduced strength, Soooo I have pushing myself to start 'doing a bit'. This has included some small jobs around the house, a start on clearing some crap out of the Orc's Workshop and a bit of walking. To my credit I have been careful, working much more mindfully and far more slowly than I am accustomed to, with only the odd piece of Anglo Saxon required due to pain from the Snap (and my knackered knees, damn the extra weight).

     Buoyed by these small steps I approached one of my local clients yesterday to ask if there was any light work that they required doing (its a big site), I start this Sunday so hopefully progress will accelerate after this, fingers crossed.

     Well that's about it in the saga of the Snap for now, so I shall leave you for the present.

 Take care folks, 

John the Gardener. 

20 comments:

  1. Good luck with your next hospital visit, I hope it's positive news.

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    1. Thank you Nikki, fingers crossed though it does feel far better at this time.

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  2. Glad to hear there is some progress John. Healing is a frustrating process, made only worse by the fact that (at least for us older folks) it takes all the longer. Be kind to yourself; no use beating up on yourself for something that you could not and cannot control. They are called accidents for a reason.

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    1. Thank you TB, you are quite right about age hindering the healing process my good man. Tis hard not to beat oneself up at times as one chink in the mind's armour and the Black dog is soon biting at your heels.

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  3. Yikes to both photos. How annoying that it is out of line. Bloody bones. Do take it easy mind.

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    1. Thank you m'dear, bloody bones indeed!

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  4. How annoying it healing crooked. Walking, walking and more walking!

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    1. Thank you Dc, walking is indeed upon the agenda

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  5. I hope you now feel a renewed sense of purpose. Gently does it, Sir. X

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    1. Indeed I do Jules, it certainly raises one's spirits.

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  6. Slow but steady wins the race, or so someone said who obviously didn't have to sit on the sidelines for awhile! I think you've done a good job at being patient. I'm surprised they didn't recommend rebreaking the bone to straighten it out, but gosh, that would have made it even longer. Hopefully, light productivity will help the time go by faster.

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  7. Just take it steady and a bit more patience! (says me, who is no good at waiting for anything!)

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    1. Sue, in all fairness I think a great many of us struggle with patience (he says, head hung low).

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    2. I am afraid Sue that when it comes to resting to heal I am one of the worse, I just want to get up and get going.

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  8. I think medics are born optimists, these things always take longer than they say! If you are keeping positive at this time of year with all this going on then I think you are doing extremely well and I'm sure all your customers will understand the situation and be sympathetic. Wishing you all the best.

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  9. Thank you m'dear, the time during the 'snap' has been mostly positive but not without its downs. Getting there though, slowly but surely.

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  10. Ouch, John, is all I can say. Oh apart from MIND WHAT YOU ARE DOING 😳 Hope the healing progresses as it should.

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  11. Ouch was muttered as well as some good old Anglo Saxon once I dragged myself off the floor m’dear.
    Tis finally progressing now, just hoping that my knees follow suit!

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