10 days in...

So I'm now ten days into the injury. Still in the two casts - one on the left wrist and another (at least it is removable) on the right hand. All the cuts and bruises are getting much better, but I am still a long way from riding out on the road again.

I've been back to the hospital for a therapy session for my little finger (broken). I have very little movement and it will take a few weeks of stretches to get the range of motion back - at least most of the previous range of motion. The wrist is another matter - I have a fracture of the scaphoid bone (a common fracture) which is non-displaced (hurray) and at the waist of the scaphoid (hmmmm). The best place for a fracture to occur is at the distal location where the blood supply is most effective. The worst place is the proximal location (poor blood supply) and the waist falls somewhere inbetween. The level of blood supply defines, to a large extent, the efficacy of the healing and the likelihood of avascular necrosis (a bone degeneration which causes arthritis). Essentially I am going to need to keep the cast on for at least another 5 weeks and then take it from there. I am slowly becoming resigned to loosing fitness and, even worse, not being able to enjoy cycling in the sunshine until sometime in August, all being well.

Cycling in the sunshine, not turbo-ing in the sunshine. I tried a turbo session today, perhaps unwisely opting to do a similar session to that I did a month ago. Aerobic capacity training, a one hour session, not crazy power levels or interval lengths but still quite intense. Boy did I suffer! Full sunshine, no cooling breeze, heart rate way, way north of normal, supporting myself on the cast on my one almost-good hand. I managed to complete the one hour session, but I was clock-watching after 20 minutes, and at 55 minutes felt that I was exercising in a furnace with a bass drum thumping in my ears. My god, at this rate I may have to take up jogging again just for some relief!

One of the trickiest issues about having a cast (or casts in my case, with one being removable) is showering. Washing with one hand is simple enough, trying to avoid getting the other hand wet isn't. So I asked a nurse friend to get me a cover for showering that goes over the arm to keep it waterproof. Ha! It has obviously been in a cupboard in the hospital for years, and has now finally seen the light of day. Take a look at the box - there's something really dodgy about it:

If the picture on the front is a little weird, check out the dude on the back:

I never thought the wearing of a hyperbaric arm chamber could be so stylish. He's fully clothed in the first picture though - what's he doing, planning a walk in the rain? He's hardly dressed for a shower. Maybe he's a bovine vet? Bloody hell, roll on August!