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Sun Aug 06, 2006 9:20 pm  |
just an apology to those of you i haven't responded to.... i got back in the states on the 1st of august and proceeded to break my elbow in three places on the 2nd. it was a "perfect storm" sort of accident and clearly a fluke. needed 5+ hours of surgery and some fourteen screws, assorted plates, and titanium doo-dads to put me back together. my arm is swollen and bruised and i have fifteen lovely frankenstein staples holding the bits in that i'm sure will drive me mad once the pain goes away. if any one has tips and tricks for scarring, i'd love to hear about it as i'm sure i'll start obsessing at some point. right now, i'm just glad that i got a great surgeon and think i may just use my scar as an excuse to whip out the x-ray -- which is just way too cool. i am now a bionic woman.
anyways, will be on computer only sporadically for the next couple of weeks. i think i'm almost out of room in my mailbox which is why i've gone 'public' rather than PMing everyone. |
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Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:04 pm |
Ohhhhhh nooo ! What an awful thing to have happen !!! Major ouchies too I'm sure - just banging your elbow hurts like hell...
Try to take it easy. Here's hoping you'll heal quickly and soon be as good as new... |
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Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:19 pm |
I hope you'll get better soon. Put our names on the plate / cast so you know we're thinking about you!!!  |
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53, DermaQuest, NCN Products, PMD, Dermarolling |
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Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:51 pm |
| We need a "hug" emoticon, but in lieu of that ... |
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SKIN: combination, reactive to climate changes and extremely fair. "Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself." --Roseanne |
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:59 am |
I am really sorry to hear what happened. Will catch up with you when you get yourself sorted out and are really back on your feet again.  |
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Skin: Over 60, ex combination now sensitive, Cellcosmet |
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:52 am |
| Oh no, poor you ! Hope it starts to feel better soon. |
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:19 am |
| WOW! You poor girl! What were you doing when you broke it? How long do they think your recovery period will be? I hope you feel better soon!!! |
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27, sensitive/reactive/acne prone skin, dark brown hair, blue eyes, possibly the palest woman alive... |
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:46 am |
| that sounds awful! (((hugs))) hope you are feeling better soon. |
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:47 am |
| Get well soon, la vie en rose!!! Warm thoughts. |
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:39 am |
| la vie en rose - I'm so sorry to hear about your broken elbow. My older Sister fell and broke her elbow 2 years ago and ended up with 2 titanium rods in it, so I know from her experience how awful that can be! I wish you a very speedy recovery and hope your back with us full time very soon. |
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51 years old/brunette/normal- oily medium skin. |
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:00 pm |
Ouch - that must be a hell of a pain !!! poor you! was it sport or leisure ? i hope you have somebody around to take care of you.
fast recovery & take care,
lin |
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Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:01 pm |
| get better soon! xoxo |
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Mabsy
Moderator
 
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 9644
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 2:08 am |
Oh no!!!! That sounds so incredibly painful! I hope you'll have a recovery that is as quick as possible. Terrible bad luck...
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:37 am |
Ouch! I hope you feel better soon!  |
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:40 pm |
Wow, that's an impressive list of injuries!
Get well soon and try arnica internally for brusing and copper peptides for any scarring.
Liz  |
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my new jewellery website:www.gentle-medusa.com |
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:02 pm |
| That is awful to hear! I do hope that you recover real soon and don't forget to drink camomile tea and eat papaya. Camomile calm infamation and papaya heals any bruises. |
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:04 pm |
| You poor thing!! To reduce the scarring, try aloe fresh from the plant. Juice from the cut leaves is great not just for burns, but also any kind of skin wound. |
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:39 pm |
Your poor thing! Over 5 hours of surgery! 
No wonder you haven't been on-line much. That sounds like quite a spectacular accident.
Hope it heals well and isn't too painful. |
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:20 pm |
thank you everybody! guess i really needed the hugs and . they made me cry.... not that that's so hard to do as i'm pre-menstrual and in a great deal of pain (and i have a *very* high threshold). my arm currently resembles a robotic blood sausage and my fingers petrify even me. my doctor (who is supposedly one of the best) is something of a smiling ruthless sadist perfectionist. he keeps on obsessing about the largest screw he had to put in that i'll be able to feel the head of when i bend my arm. in the meanwhile, he's making me bend, bend, bend, and twist and straighten to the point of excrutiating pain. he says that's a good thing  seems the elbow is one of the most difficult joints to work with and they will not cast it as they need to try for maximum flexibilty as quickly as possible otherwise it atrophies.... he's making me stay in the states an extra week as well as the incision is taking longer to heal because i'm constantly moving and flexing it....
has anyone had staples put in before instead of stiches? just how painful are they to remove? a nurse said i have 15 but, if the lines in the x-rays are anything to go by, i have 20+. i will post a cell phone pic of the x-ray BTW if my friend can help me transfer it. it is truly an amazing sight. huge amount of hardwear for such a little space.
anyways, thank you again. you all made me feel a lot better. truly! i'm with my folks and family here, but, well, i miss paris, my boyfriend, and you've all become kind of family too.
oh, and how i did it.... family bonding moment. one nephew on skateboard, one on a razor, me on my new landrollers (inline skates), my brother walking beside me. i'd been doing fine until i tried to avoid two large mounds of dog droppings on the sidewalk. fell backwards instead of forward and landed on one arm (the other side had a mound there) which had a wristguard on it. protected my wrist, but all the force of the fall was taken by my naturally hyper-extended elbow. it was one of those quick, whipping, "perfect storm" sort of falls. one time you get away with bruises and scrapes, the next you break your back. considering the force of the fall, i was very lucky.... it just sucks because i really loved the skates and won't be able to do any outdoor exercise for quite some time. initial healing time is expected to about 12 weeks. the good news is, my nephews got to go to the X games here as my parents cancelled a weekend trip and were able to take them.  kids! |
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Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:53 pm |
oh god, I am not sure whether to post here or PM you... sorry to say that staples are gonna hurt. A lot. When my dad had his skin graft in June, they used staples - and that was his HEAD . I almost keeled over when I walked in and saw it. My mum had them in her leg (calf) last year and she whispered to me "I am not going to tell him how much they hurt to take out".  I was with him the day he went back and the second the nurse mentioned removing the staples, I off out the room like a bolt of lightening. Try taking some mega pain killers before you go..
As for the bending and stretching of the elbow, your doc is spot on. When I was in my 20s I fell down some stairs at work and I had a stress fracture (doc said usually only little old ladies get it. ) of the elbow and a wrist fracture (well it was the wishbone shaped bone that usually snaps, but mine just stretched open and never gave way. ewww). The doc said "buy a pressure bandage, put it on and after 2 weeks go to physio". Well, it was so painful I could not even get the bandage on myself (had to go to another doc for that) and just to be sure I popped into my regular physio lady the next day. She started the EXCRUCIATING process of icing and bending and icing and bending the elbow immediately. (OMG I can SO empathize with your pain.. so much so it makes me cringe). She said if I had waited 2 weeks to start, I would never have been able to straigten my arm again. Thanks to her it is 99% the same as the other arm (though when I straigten it too hard I get a sharp pain in my elbow). My physio went for 8 weeks and I was off work for 6 (could not type, so could not work. thank god for compo) |
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SKIN: combination, reactive to climate changes and extremely fair. "Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself." --Roseanne |
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Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:49 am |
After tiger_tim's horrid tales of staple removal...here is my experience; I had about 7 of them in my scalp and I do not recall them hurting at all when they took them out! I wonder if the size of the staples matters? Mine were not that big since it was just a cut to my scalp that they were repairing.
About the bending and stretching, I totally agree with tiger and your doctor. The quality of your rehabilatation program will determine how well you can use your arm in the future and how many problems you have years from now. I had several broken bones and my doctor who was supposed to be the best did not stress stretching the areas that were broken and now years later I am having a hard time with flexability in some of those areas. I am working on it by doing yoga and it is helping but I wish I had done more about stretching after I broke the bones! |
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Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:00 am |
thank you for the warning!  good to keep it in the archives here in case, god forbid, anyone else has to go through it. fore-warned is fore-armed. i will ring my own wash cloth to bite down on!
the incision is covering about two-thirds of my arm as they needed to remove muscles and tendons to get at the bones during surgery. he was nice enough to reattatch them before closing. he took off the ace bandages yesterday to try and toughen the skin and i'm turning white if anybody bumps me. this will be fun....
what kind of scars do the staples leave? will i be frankenstein??? a big scar may be preferable if i end up getting wanded at the airport . amazing, aye? just for being a prima donna and not wanting to get my new skates dirty! (of course it didn't help to have to two little boys yelling and screaming about yucky stuff in my way, split second reactions being what they are.
i'm lucky in some ways, naturally a southpaw, i only write (forced to as a kid), apply make-up, cut things, and mouse with my right hand. (i've always only typed with my left.) my swollen right hand currently has a stigmata-like bruise from mousing (freaked my mum out). have any of you thought how many things we use both hands for? my goal is to be able to put my long hair up properly by the end of the week. and my face is looking like crap (try giving your skin TLC with only one hand)-- necessitating a huge order from EDS. think i'll have to give in and get the Cellcosmet you and bushy have been raving about and maybe some Valmont. i am trying very very hard to ignore the device that katee is raving about. sigh (bad katee!). what should be at the top of my list? |
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Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:12 am |
| my staples are pretty deep and big. after five days, the wound is still seeping (gross) as i'm working it so hard. seems that fractures bleed alot and i had three complete ones.... thanks for the encouragement about stretching. i really do want complete function back so i will just keep on pushing through the pain. have been going for walks with a one pound weight trying to hope gravity will help straighten it. i'm grateful that before this happened my muscles were strong and very flexible. ugh, off to put on contacts and my bra -- a truly difficult procedure |
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Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:04 am |
| la vie en rose wrote: |
| have been going for walks with a one pound weight trying to hope gravity will help straighten it. |
You have no idea the image in my mind.
Better carry one in the other hand too.. you might end up with one arm longer than the other  (yes, as you can see I turn to humor for the worst situations)
| la vie en rose wrote: |
| ugh, off to put on contacts and my bra -- a truly difficult procedure |
My sympathies, darling. When I did my arm (right one and I am right handed) I could do nothing. The idot I was married to at the time would get up in the morning, make his breakfast and lunch and go to work.. leaving me at home to fend for myself food wise. His idea of being compassionate was to drive me to my cousins hair salon a week after the accident to get my hair washed.
The social worker from Workers Comp. never came to visit till after FOUR weeks and she goes "are you coping OK?". My sunken eyes, darkened from weeks of not eating ( cue violin ) looked intensly at her and I said "well, I am NOW, but you could've been here when it happened and I could not even pick up a knife!"
But in all seriousness.. it sounds like a horrific experience that I certainly never hope to go through. Do send me your addy so I can forward the goodies I have here for you.
Maybe you should order some luxurious bath goods (can you get in and out of a bath?!) from EDS for a treat! |
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SKIN: combination, reactive to climate changes and extremely fair. "Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself." --Roseanne |
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Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:28 am |
| Hiya La vie en rose. How are you doing? Sending you lots of good vibes from Boston. |
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