A new annual tradition!

I'm starting a new bad annual tradition here. It's like that fruitcake you always get at Christmas, but one better because it celebrates the arrival of spring. So here it is, without further ado, the new annual tradition, simply titled "I'm in a Spica Splint--Again!":

I'm hoping to, once again, avoid surgery with the combination of this spiffy spica splint and a big nasty steroid shot in my right wrist. The doctor says that if I don't feel any relief from the pain I've been suffering with in four weeks, then I'll most likely have to have surgery. However, I'm feeling quite good right now, so I'm hoping to get by with just wearing the splint for a long time. Regardless, the splint stays on for six weeks. And since I'm staggeringly right-handed, life is quite interesting since I now cannot use my right hand for much of anything while the splint is on. (I am allowed to take the splint off to bathe and wash my hands. But that's it.)

As spiffy as spica splints are, I'll be glad to have this one off! (However, it is pretty cool that I now have a matching pair...)

When life gives you lemons...

Well, the latest in a seemingly endless series of doctor visits has resulted in a crimp in my plans:  possible surgery! (Again!)

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while now, you'll recall that about this time last year, I had to go to see a hand surgeon because I had a fractured bone in my left wrist.

Well, guess what? This year, I'm seeing the same surgeon next week for about the same problem in my right hand!

:D !!!

Not really.

Basically, what's going on with my right wrist/hand/arm is that I have an avulsion fracture to the tip of my radius (arm bone below the wrist on the thumb side) that is of "indeterminant" (sp?) age.

No, I do not know when I did this to my arm. I haven't fallen or anything specific like that. I know about how old the fracture is, though. (I think.) My arm/wrist/thumb started really hurting in late October of last year, about the time it got really cold in the area where I live. I put off dealing with the problem until now because I have never lost use of my thumb and it (the pain) seemed to be resolving on its own--that is, until it started hurting like a real motherfucker again. That's when I finally broke down and went and got the x-ray and CT the doctor requested.

This time, because of the way the bone is broken (yes, it is actually broken, there's a bone chip and everything floating around in my wrist's synovial fluid), I don't get a spiffy spica splint. Major sad face. :(

However, surgery will be interesting given how staggeringly right-handed I am. I'm just wondering how this will affect my work as a fabric cutter/cashier at the craft store and my ability to go back to school, especially since I'm poised to start practical (hands-on) classes in just a few months.

I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime, don't expect a whole lot on here because it does hurt to type.

And pray that you don't have weak wrist bones like me! This going to the hand surgeon stuff really sucks!

A good word or two

I know I usually kinda whine and complain on this page. That is, in part, why I created it.

But I'm not always a whiner. 

Some really good things have been happening to me lately, so I'll share.

First, there's the job at the craft store. Not only have they cross-trained me to run the cash registers, but now they are starting to schedule me for early morning stocking/merchandising duties. It's nice to know that they think I'm capable and trustworthy enough to perform such duties. Both the store manager and the merchandising/assistant store manager are very demanding, exacting ladies (which is not a bad thing because it allows the store to run well), so I know they don't assign these duties to just anyone. 

Another good thing that has happened to me has been my jewelry making. I've been making a lot of jewelry lately and posting pictures of it on my Facebook page, and the response from my friends and relatives has been overwhelmingly positive. My friends and family have been pushing me to start a site of my own to sell my stuff on etsy.com, which I am planning to do some time in the near future. (I'll post a link to my etsy page here, so stay tuned.) 

I am also going to be making a public debut as a jewelry designer at a good friend's zumbathon on May 30. My friend saw my jewelry pictures on my Facebook page and liked them so much that she asked me to be a vendor at the event, which is also a charity fundraiser for the local food pantry. I'm excited about this event, but nervous too, like really nervous. My friend just sent me the vendor contract for the zumbathon, which I have to sign and return, but it said that the local news media outlets will be present, which really makes the scale of this event hit home. This ain't some little extra-large exercise class, this is the real deal. I still have a lot to do between now and then, so wish me luck in the mean time!

And somehow, I have to fit in going back to nursing school into all this...

Oy vey. I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew!