CAST OFF & THERAPY BEGUN!

Here is my arm and wrist, a few hours out of the cast, before soft washing and baby oil treatments!
Here is my lovely new brace called "Titan."

No, I am not bionic. Yes I have metal rods in the complicated brace to protect my arm from any more damage and support it as it continues to heal. Doc told me if he left me in the cast until it was completely healed, I would never move my wrist again!

Thus I began Physical Therapy. It was not a bad as I anticipated. I only needed Ibruprofen yesterday for the pain from all this new movement after almost 6 weeks of being held in the same position. The therapist was impressed with how much range of motion I retained. I guess working it even while in the cast was NOT harmful!

The difficult part came as I was leaving and she said, "Think of yourself as left handed, i.e., use it as much as you can while in the brace, as well as doing the exercises 3-4 times a day.So I went off to the grocery to find XL rubber gloves for working in the kitchen. Wet towels in the washer are still too heavy for me. Afetr a search I found some Playtex XL rubber gloves that fit over the Titan brace. The first time I used them I accidentally cut off the index finger tip on the left hand! So I rubber banded it, put a flimsy glove under it and went about my chores. This morning I put superglue in the rubber banded tip. It seemed to hold for lunch dishes!

I am faithfully doing my exercises, returning to PT Thursday morning and back to the doc next Monday! Hoping for lots of healing, return to full range of motion and learning how to use these arthritic hands to the best of their ability without causing more problems.
Oh, she also told me that crocheting would be excellent therapy when we get a bit further along :-)