Tim Trott's Blog
The weblog of an amateur Astronomer, Photographer, Programmer and car enthusiast.
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Monday 11th February 2008
…The Wonderful Wizard of Wrist Reconstruction, also known as my consultant at the BRI. I had a six-month follow up appointment this afternoon, from the operation in September, to evaluate my continued progress.
Overall my wrist is much better than before the operation, however there are still a few problems, most notably sustained supination where my wrist joint tends to “lock” and it is difficult to return to neutral, the bones feel as if they are rubbing against the cartilage between them.
I am keen to get back into weight lifting, however with the continued problems I am facing my consultant has advised against this at the moment. I must still avoid putting excessive force through my wrist in any direction for at least another year. There is a small chance that I may never be able to do a push-up or curl a dumbbell again - just goes to show how bad the injuries were. It has been, and continues to be, a long road to recovery.
I’m still trying to get hold of the x-rays to show off all the wrist fractures and the plates they put in, its just taking a little time. I’ll post them up when I get them.
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This post is filed under Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 6:06pm
Friday 1st February 2008
After a lot of thought I have decided to release a few pictures of what was left of my Honda Civic after the car crash I was involved in two years ago this month.
In February 2006, as I was driving home from work down a quiet B road after my late shift had ended (11pm), an oncoming driver lost control of his vehicle and ended up on the wrong side of the road, on a blind corner. Both my car and the oncoming MPV were doing between 55-60mph which resulted in a combined impact speed of 110mph I was hit head on.
Luckily I’m still here to tell the tale and still recovering from my injuries which you can read more about here.
This is what’s left of my Civic, not a lot. I didn’t see the wreck myself, but I’m told that there wasn’t a straight panel to be found. See how the exhaust is flattened? That was due to the car lifting off the ground during the impact and landing with considerable force. The boot lid is a few inches clear of the rest of the bodywork, as are the doors; the whole car is banana shaped.
Attached Thumbnails
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This post is filed under Car Crash, Injury and Recovery, Honda Civic by Lonewolf at 9:03pm
Discharged from Physio (again!)
Monday 10th December 2007
I saw my physiotherapist again today and my wrist has improved a lot since the last time I saw her, both in flexibility and strength. My left hand grip strength is now upto 36kg compared with the 54kg of my right hand. Before the operation I could barely manage 26kg.
She now feels that my wrist has improved so much that I no longer require physio sessions as there is no more they can do for me, I just have to keep working on the exercises that I already have until I see my consultant in January. He will decide then if I can fully load my wrist (i.e. weight bearing) and direct me as necessary. I may still have more physio at that stage to regain full use under load.
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This post is filed under Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 7:27pm
Monday 26th November 2007
I had another physio session today and she could see another big improvement in my range of movement. My wrist extension (moving wrist upwards) was up by 20° from last time I saw her. She also measured my grip strength again and it was nearly double what it was last time at 28kg. Still early days, but this is better than before the operation where I only could achieve 26kg of pressure.
She has also said that I can progress onto light hand weights in order to start building the muscles back up. I must also keep massaging the scar more vigorously to loosen up the scar tissue, and keep plenty of ice on it to help the swelling go down.
I have been using cocoa butter on the scar as it has been recommended to help scars fade quicker as well as keeping them from drying out. While the scar is looking much better than the old one, it is still early days and very pink still.
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This post is filed under Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 8:25pm
Monday 19th November 2007
I saw one of the Doctors at the hospital again today, and she can see a big difference in my wrist, in strength, stability and range of movement. I think she was surprised at how much range of movement I had considering I have only been out of plaster for six weeks.
She has cleared me to progress onto lifting heavier weights and using it for daily activities, as long as it is pain free, as directed by my physiotherapist, who will continue to work on my range of movement and work on grip strength.
Unless there are any problems, she does not want to see me again until January.
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This post is filed under Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 8:20pm
More Physio and Quantative Results
Monday 12th November 2007
I had another physio session at my local Hospital with yet another nice physiotherapist (I’m on my fourth now!) and she measured the range of movements and comparing them to those taken in the hospital two weeks previously, and found that the range of movement has improved a bit. She also measured my grip strength with a hand dynamometer as performed prior to the operation in clinical studies where my good wrist scored 55kg and my bad wrist scored 23kg. This time my bad wrist scored 16kg which is quite poor, my good right wrist scored 52kg with a good crack of all my knuckles.
It is still early days yet, and my overall wrist strength is still very weak (I can’t even hold a pint glass with it). A few more different exercises to do for next time, focusing on strength, and its been recommended that I squeeze something like a soft ball, or stress reliever to help build up strength.
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This post is filed under Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 8:13pm
Finally Out of Plaster (Again!)
Monday 29th October 2007
In my recent wrist operation to stabilize my distal radial ulnar joint, I had a ligament reconstruction and tendon graft about six weeks ago. I have had an above elbow plaster for 4 weeks, which was followed by a normal below elbow plaster for a further two weeks. Today I saw the consultant who is very pleased with my recovery so far and has given me a splint and referred me to physiotherapy for continued rehabilitation.
I still can’t do anything with my wrist, it’ll be another 4-6 weeks before the tendons have healed enough to allow me to carry anything or turn my wrist fully. Having only been out of plaster a few hours, my wrist is feeling very vulnerable and painful, and so stiff I can hardly move it. Instead I must do special wrist excesses 10 times a day for the next week, avoiding putting any stress on the ligament repair or tendon graft. Its at the stage now where I need to get it moving otherwise it will never be right, but also its at a very delicate stage - too much too soon will break it. I just have to continue to take it easy until I see the consultant in another 4 weeks time. At least I can wash it now!
During surgery they went back into my wrist through the existing scar (which they trimmed back and made a lot neater) and through a new scar on the back of my wrist.
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This post is filed under Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 10:41pm
Monday 22nd October 2007
…But only one more week to go! Its been five weeks, and the plaster is starting to get on my nerves, itching underneath, joints painful and stiff, and to top it off I have the flu.
Haven’t done any astronomy as its been cloudy or misty lately, but I am about to start an Astrobiology course with the University of Central Lancashire, taught via distance learning in the same way as the Astronomy course. Should be interesting and i’m looking forward to starting.
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This post is filed under Astronomy, Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 7:55am
