My Badass Titanium Wrist

Today I had my last appointment with Dr. Gary Blum, the Orthopedic Surgeon who put a titanium plate in my once-broken wrist. Here are x-rays taken of it January 11, 2011, 2 of the 7 taken over 4 visits since November 22, 2010, which I borrowed and scanned.

Dr. Blum said that the bones in my wrist were all healed after looking at this x-ray. I had weeks of physical therapy and now have most of my flexibility and strength back in my wrist and will try to keep improving it.

Having gone through the pain of breaking my wrist; the challenge of managing without the use of my wrist and my dominant hand and the pain, discomfort and exhaustion of what felt like a long recovery from surgery, I'm amazed and relieved that I survived it all as well as I have. The ability of our bodies to heal themselves, sometimes with help from or in spite of modern medicine, is awe-inspiring. Psychologists have discovered that our brains have similar capacities and speak of "neuroplasticity," the ability of our brains to change as a result of our experiences well beyond infancy. All this makes me optimistic about my potential for physical and mental health and inspires me to try harder to realize it. Also, I'm going to be much more careful not to injure myself again!

Here's my arm just before my surgery, all swollen it my splint. I had just removed the elastic wrapping from it.

Here's my badass scar now.

Take care of yourselves, people and be careful!