Jun 28, 2017

Ignoring the elbow - Kandy Shepherd

Have you ever tried to take a selfie of your elbow? I’m here to report that it’s not easy.

Why, you wonder, would Kandy want to take a photo of her elbow? The thing is, I like to include pictures in my blogs and I’m writing about my elbow. And I’m writing about my elbow to warn you not to do as I did, that is, ignore the fact I had fractured my right elbow.

About seven weeks ago, I was staying on my own at our little farm in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney in lock-down mode to meet a deadline for a book for Harlequin Romance. Being at the farm involves looking after the seventeen animals in residence: four cats, two horses, two Dexter steers (a miniature cow breed); and nine chickens. At the time of year (winter Down Under) it also involves hauling firewood from a shed into the house as the wood-fired stove is the main source of heat in a cold mountain climate.

The chickens need protection from predators such as foxes and eagles. Though they free-range during the day, in the evenings they are locked into a secure yard. The metal gate to the chook yard (Aussies call their chickens “chooks”) had been difficult to close for a long time (in spite of constant requests to hubby to fix it). Long story short, in a frustrated effort to secure the gate I banged my elbow on it.

It hurt. My elbow ended up with spectacular bruising half way along my arm in both directions. I iced it. I massaged arnica into it. I displayed my multi-coloured bruising with a strange kind of pride to my family. “You should go to the doctor, Mum,” my daughter said each time. No need for that, I would answer. I’m too busy. It’s just a bruise. A very big bruise, but just a bruise.

It didn’t hurt that much. I continued to haul firewood, mix and carry buckets of feed to the horses, throw hay to the bullies, wrestle with the gate to the chicken enclosure, vacuum the house. When the bruising abated, I went back to the gym and did resistance exercises.

Then my arm started to really hurt. The simplest movements caused pain. “You should go to the doctor, Mum,” my daughter said. Six weeks after the incident, an x-ray and an ultrasound confirmed I had fractured my elbow and torn a tendon. Resting the arm was required, a neoprene cuff fitted by a physiotherapist, and all activities such as outlined above banned. No lifting, no pulling, no pushing—and certainly no gym or swimming (my favourite exercise.)

By ignoring the pain and exacerbating the injury I had made things worse. Even simple things like using scissors hurts. A natural right hander, I’m finding it tricky to use my left hand for heavier tasks. I pride myself at carrying on but it was foolish not to heed nature’s warning of that massive bruising and look after myself. Now my elbow will take longer to heal than it would if I had sought help sooner.


So that’s why I took a selfie of my elbow to share with you. Not a particularly attractive photo to illustrate my post—how fortunate my cat Alfie happened to be in the background to liven it up.


Have you ever ignored an injury or an illness? Or did you seek help straight away? I’d love to read your comments!

16 comments:

  1. Oh Kandy, commiserations. I would've done exactly what you did. What's a knock or two? Hope you're get back to full normal quickly despite everything. Hugs.

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    1. Thanks so much Sue for the hugs and kind thoughts. At least I can type okay on my laptop!

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  2. Ow, Kandy! Sending hugs and sympathies. I'd have done what you did -- kept carrying on...and I'd have patted myself on the back for it too. (The one thing I'd have not done was go to the gym. ;-)) I hope you mend quickly and are pain-free again soon.

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    1. Thank you Michelle. I think it's a female thing, the carrying on and patting ourselves on the back. I reckon if my husband had done it, I would have been driving him to the ER!

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  3. Oh Kandy sending hugs that must be so painful and very annoying that you can't do what you normally do, you know as a female and mother I think that we ignore injuries and illness a lot, to keep going for ourselves and family. I know that when I had my shoulder operated on and my right arm in a sling for 6 weeks it was just horrible not being able to do what I normally do and even now 8 months later I still can't lift although I am doing really well with it other than a bit of tendernitis. I hope you are moving and feeling a lot better very soon.

    have Fun
    helen

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    1. Thank you Helen. Yes, I think it is a female thing. My GP once told me she thought the working mother was the lowest creature on the food chain, looking after everyone but herself! Hope that shoulder is soon completely back to normal!

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  4. Ouch, Kandy!!! I say while nodding along and agreeing with you and Sue and Michelle and Helen, because I too would have proudly shown off my spectacular bruising while ignoring all sensible calls to seek medical attention. Because it's a nothing, we say. Because it'll soon right itself, we say. Because I'm too busy, we say.

    I do hope that it does heal completely and quickly. That you can manage to type one-handed. And that you met that deadline.

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    1. Hi Bron, so funny we all see our behaviour here. I'm convinced it's a female thing! Fortunately I can type okay using a laptop at a certain angle. And yes, I did get the story finished just a teeny bit after the deadline!

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  5. Commiserations for the fracture, pain and extended healing time Kandy. I can imagine how bad that bruising look as I still recall being shocked at how dark and multi-coloured my left big toe went in January (and the blasted thing is STILL healing).
    I try to avoid ignoring medical type things since I experience chronic pain from 22 year old injury - that said living with pain for that long makes me more tolerant than I should be too pain. That said, it still took me 3 days to bother to see my doctor after breaking aforementioned toe.
    Experience tells me you will develop better use of your left hand for some tasks - there are things that I now do with my left hand that I primarily used my right for, prior to breaking my right arm years ago.

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    1. That's interesting, Lyn. I think I'm already more adept with my left hand than I was before this little accident.
      Hugs on the chronic pain, that's a dreadful thing to have to bear.
      Hope the toe is back to normal very soon.

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  6. oh, Kandy, that's terrible. I'd have done the same, keep going, but like Michelle, I wouldn't have been going to the gym. Awful that the injury is worse. Whatever you do, make sure you take the time the suggest to rest it. Don't do too much to fast when it starts to feel better. I've done that and it's a mistake! Thinking of you.

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  7. Oh Kandy, sending lots of sympathy and hugs. I hope you heal quickly despite the longer healing time. And yes, I've done it too. I hurt my shoulder and my chiro was away for a month, so I left it. It sort of got better but didn't. I finally got it treated a month or so later by then it was too late. The pain got very bad and it had referred down my arm into my wrist. I was in a brace for 9 months with multiple acupuncture and chiro visits. Silly me.

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  8. I think not taking more notice of our health is a common problem amongst women. We tend to brush things off thinking it will be fine and everyone else is more important. Take care Kandy and rest up.
    Hugs Ann

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  9. Ouch, ouch, ouch. That's sounds very nasty, Kandy.

    Being a complete hypochondriac, I usually end up at the doctor pretty soon after a feel a twinge.

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