Sorry to hear about the injury Brian. That surely won't be helpful with the remodel work, or with filling your wood stacks. What's the prognosis on heal time? BTW the porch is looking pretty nice.
Bummer! Are you right or left handed? I'm glad you are keeping a positive attitude, sometimes all we can do is roll our eyes at what life hands us. PS:. Impressively long post from someone with only one functional wrist!
Wow Brian, that is an awful way to get screwed. Hope it heals fast and for sure, use that bone stimulator. But use it for what is intended for. House looking much better.
Thanks for the well- wishes guys! I am right- handed so broke the 'correct' wrist. I can actually type with both hands if I twist the left hand, go slow and fix the mistakes Healing time will be months, with 12- 14 weeks wearing a splint, this is one of the slowest healing bones in the human body, so the orthopedist tells me, which is another reason why surgery is recommended- that screw goes a long way to make the original bone much, much stronger (yep, there is a joke in there somewhere). And yes, normal life is about shot; I really cannot run the stove, have trouble eating and cannot button or zip my own pants (seriously). Losing most of the use of even the off- hand is pretty disabling for doing anything useful. That said, of course I am fully able to walk, drive, etc. so no complaints. Actually, no complaints from me at all- it was my own fault (when asked 'what happened to cause this injury', I answered honestly: "stupidity"), the treatment could not have been better, the outlook is fine and it does not take much of a look around a hospital to see that I am in wonderful shape. Really. And besides, we did get a few laughs out of it (though if I do this again, there is going to have to be a two- drink minimum for the staff 'cause some of the medicos were downright humorless, even with medical jokes tailored just to that audience.....). Thanks also for the house thoughts. We are thrilled at how it is turning out. This is an old, very modest and small house and we know it will not become the Taj Mahal but I do think there is a choice between improving it or just renewing it without making it look any better. We are shooting for 'better' and I think getting there. Just trying to make the best results possible with the material we have to work with. Oh yeah, and as much maintenance- free as possible Brian
The place is looking great! I am really looking forward to pics with the siding finished. Sorry to hear about the injury. Hope you heal up quick!
Very sorry to hear that Brian, wish you a speedy recovery! House is looking good, slow and steady wins the race. On a brighter note: I finally met with the tree service owner last week, he has about 8 cords of oak down and bucked on his property he said I can. Good news he lives on my street and should be relatively easy to grab. Over the next couple weeks we plan to pick it all up and will make sure to let you know when we have it here. You are welcome to be the hydraulic splitter handle man, we load the splitter you split, only one hand needed. Of coarse for your effort you can take as much wood home as you want, we are already 4+ years ahead and I know you need to get some wood stacked at your place. (Free delivery with my truck and trailer! )
BDF, glad the house is coming along, finding a good contractor is tough and most important part of the job I gave you a thumbs up (left handed cause that will be hard for you for a while ) Love the shirt!! Raised those kids well. Sorry about the injury. More sorry that I could not have taken you to surgery because I would still be rofl.. Keep your sense of humor and good luck..
Wanna' hear something REALLY funny? The orthopedic surgeon has suggested I use a "bone stimulator" (a gigantic Easy Boys on that one- it ain't what I thought it might be either) to help the bone knit. Of course they are expensive because they are FDA approved; it is nothing more than an ultrasonic generator one straps to the area to be treated, and ultrasonic generators are just not that expensive but again because this is a 'medical device' it is astronomically costly to rent (which is basically what I would be doing). But the amusing part: I am currently in negotiations with a woman named Julie as to how much her 'bone stimulator' will cost me, what / when the payment schedule would be, how long she will provide these 'stimulator' services for, where we will meet for the initial stimulation and so forth. Of course I have made a few minor ( and in good taste, nothing beyond PG rated) references in passing and while Julie finds it mildly amusing, I find it hysterical. But the best part is that my wife, knowledgeable in the ways of medical insurance, is helping steer through these rapids that are part of the US medical system. So yes, my wife is helping me negotiate for Julie to provide 'bone stimulation'. Life just provides humorous material all around one if one simply listens...... BTW- I do not think I will partake of the 'bone stimulator' because frankly I find it to be so over- the- top in expense that it is the typical abuse of our entire medical system. The fact is that my medical insurance will pay for it but the initial fact that it is ridiculously expensive remains; even though it is not "my" money, I think I will choose NOT to participate in such a broken, and frankly, fraudulent system that is causing so much damage to our entire country's economy. Dumping the bill on Blue Cross does not erase or even reduce the damage done and it would still be irresponsible of me to ignore that. Put another way, even though they are not "my" dollars, they still have value and I do not want to be the cause of such wasteful behavior. OK, end of Brian's social rant of the day and back to the humor. Brian (who can still type but his left pinkie finger makes a LOT of mistakes)
Thanks! And yes, the wood thingy should still work. I can bring the splitter and a larger saw, though as you noted, I cannot do much with only one wing but of course I can operate the splitter. And I can bring something even more useful- my wife, who loves to work with wood (Easy Boys, this is my wife!)..... seriously. And with a Hookaroon, I can handle some moderate pieces of wood with one hand. So the whole thing might still work. I am tempted to say just hold off a bit and I will be back to 100% but honestly, I am being told this will be a long recovery- months. :-( Jeez, now that I think about it, I do not think I can even start a chain saw. I can start and run the splitter of course but even filling those tools with fuel may be outside my 'clipped wing' ability right now. This wrist thing kinda sux. Shoot me a PM or phone call and we can talk dates and times, when you are ready. Brian
Brian, perhaps if you handle this right, you might be able to still get that stimulator. A few years back when my wife had to get one because of bones not healing after foot surgery, the doctor, on his own, was able to get the company to get us one. We met a fellow at the doctor's office so he could show it to us then after she was done with it, we simply mailed it back to the company. No money changed hands! That makes the price good. So, perhaps you can suggest this to your doctor?
18 July 2018 Finally a worthwhile amount of word done for an update. We ended up with a 'spare' window (brand new, Harvey, high energy efficient 'E' type) and ended up putting it in the entrance-way wall. We think it looks nice, it beat literally throwing it away, and it is actually useful because we can now see directly west from the side- door window. Having the house sided at the moment. Also fully trimmed- out. New door on the back (north) end of the house. The crew is going fairly slowly and we lost time to other customers (two months) as well as vacation (1 1/2 weeks) but again, we are making forward progress. Decided to go with wide trim (6") all around. The guys are here full time now and making good progress. So this is where we are: Note: the siding is NOT BLUE and has NO BLUE in it at all- it is medium gray but showing as blue in these photos. The photos lie, I am telling the truth. As I said, the general trim is 6" but the corners are 5" vinyl, shaped corner pieces filled with rigid foam to hold their shape. Expensive but really pretty nice. OFFTOPIC: wrist has also healed very well, better than the Dr. had anticipated actually. The bone is solid, knitted and dense, just the way they should be (Easy Boys!). The graft seems to have taken well and knitted well into the bone as well. Wrist function is close to normal and while I was told I would not be able to bend the wrist far enough to ever do a push- up again, I can actually bend it far enough for that so again, better than expected. I am done with P.T. and only have one more appointment with the surgeon and then I should be finished with this whole broken wrist event. All in all, I am very pleased with all aspects of treatment, healing, P.T. and final function and movement. I am still on limited 'stress' but can and am using the wrist / hand fully and not wearing a cast at all anymore. Almost no discomfort at all and no pain. Brian
Absolutely- got to meet Dan in the flesh a few weeks back and he is even nicer in person! Great guy. Once I get caught up a bit on this house project and am cleared to fully use my wrist, I plan on at least taking a ride over to his place and splitting some wood. Brian
Great news Brian. Glad to hear that the wrist and the house are progressing nicely. Pretty soon you'll be bored with "normal" life, and have to go out and rescue some more kittens.
The house is looking great and I really like the window in the entry. the pics really make it look blue though, don't they. Although if you look at it with grey in mind, you can see it. Nice job.
