amy palamountain

Its been ten months since I broke my Scaphoid, but I am only at the starting line on the race to recovery. A group of us decided to hit the mountain for a weekend in July 2010. It was my first time snow boarding, and I was having a great time. Really starting to get the nack of it. I was boarding down at reasonable speed, turned a corner straight onto a wide steep area of ice. Picking up speed too quickly I panicd and dug my heals in. I smashed the end of my Scaphoid on the way down (see the pretty bright spot on the right? that’s apparently the break)

Prof. Allan Thurston. He explained to me that there are three ligaments which serve the purpose of unifying the movement of the Scaphoid and the Lunate bones during normal wrist movement. He predicted that the that the top and the middle ligament were probably damaged. We proceeded with arranging a diagnostic Arthroscopy of my wrist.

I was out for 15 minutes under General. It was quite an interesting experience, I was fairly nervous and jittery The nurses were lovely and gave me warmed blankets. It calms you quite a bit really. I went in to the operating room. Moved onto the table, and then everyone got to work around me. I remember the nurse saying “you will feel it coming over you now, like a drink” and it did. It got dark from the left hand side and I tasted something funny “I have a funny taste in my mouth” and then I was gone.

Just like that. Woke up like nothing happened in recovery room. I felt great to. I was so happy and foggy, I couldn’t stop saying “Thank you”. I think it was enjoyable only because I was out for 15 minutes – not enough time to start feeling bad.

Prof came to see me and said he went right in over the joint. He expected there to be obstruction but there was not. His guess was correct at least two of my ligaments were completely severed. He wouldn’t discuss as I was still high as a kite on the anesthetic, but said we would need to do something about it. If we don’t it will follow a very predictable and chronic degeneration pattern, causing my right hand to be essentially a dead weight at the end of my arm. No more programming, no more picking things up, no more right hand.

Next week I see him to discuss the options. I have done a lot of research and know that K wires and a reconstruction are pretty likely. It sounds similar to a knee reconstruction. I will keep blogging about my recovery, it will be a good motivator for me to keep track of my progress in the coming months. If there is one thing I would like you to take home, your hands and your wrists are a huge asset to you, coder or not. So look after them.