just got back from my five-weeks-after-surgery followup appointment. my wrist is healing awesome — yes, like a hundred million hot dogs!

i got examined first by a resident, who seemed mildly surprised at first that i was out of my brace and okay with the world in general, not particularly in pain or anything. he explained a little bit more about the treatment i got — apparently, the plate and bolt that i have in my arm are brand-new stuff, like within the past couple of years, and Dr. Mass (my attending surgeon) treated me totally aggressively, which is why i never had a cast at all. apparently patients with this hardware recover really quickly, because the bones are held in place so effectively by the hardware. and if i had seen a different surgeon i probably still would have been stuck in a cast for four weeks, even if i did have the hardware installed.

am so, so glad i came back to chicago for my surgery rather than having it done in atlanta. go Dr. Mass! you so rock! sabrina likes not having been stuck in a cast! oh my god, i can’t even imagine what a complete pain in the ass that would have been all this time. i mean, seriously, with some obvious exceptions — i can’t support much weight with my right hand, i still don’t have my back and forth flexibility back 100%, only about halfway there, etc. — i’m basically back to normal for everyday stuff now. and the pain that i do have is basically in the “annoying ache” category, which tylenol can take care of. and i’m only six weeks out from the break, so this is pretty amazing really.

the funny part was getting to see my x-rays. the bolt that they installed (holding the scaphoid together, since it was kinda smashed up) is pretty much as advertised. the “plate,” otoh, is — as i just described it to someone at work — a barbie-sized lawn rake with movable tines. the handle of the “rake” is attached to my radius (i think), and then the “tines” are stuck in various places holding it all together. it bears, in fact, very little resemblance to a plate. or anything flat, really.

i suppose that “carpal lawn rake” doesn’t sell very well in the medical journals, though.