On the evening of Friday 23 April 2004 (more than a decade before I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease), a few friends and I got together at our friend Ken's new house in Boulder, Colorado. (Ken took most of the pictures that are in this post.) While there I managed to trip, slam into a wall, and then slam into the floor. In doing so, I put a nice little dent in the wall, and a serious break in my arm.
Here I am lounging leisurely on the floor, right after breaking my upper left arm. As you can tell by the looks on our faces, breaking the hell out of your humerus is very humorous.Still joking around and having a good ol’ time while waiting for the ambulance. If you look at the wall above me, you can see the dent that I put in it.Being examined by the emergency crew. After seeing how badly broken my arm is……the decision is made to cut the shirt off of me.EVERYBODY showed up for this. Police, fire department, paramedics…I don’t know WHO THE HELL the guy in the horizontally-striped shirt is!The paramedics apply the initial splint – note that this splint goes the length of the entire arm, not just the humerus.A good shot of the splint.Time to get on the stretcher. At this point I was given the option of either being lifted and carried to the stretcher, or standing up and putting myself onto it. They recommended I try standing up……so, up I go……and, after the remains of my shirt had been removed, onto the stretcher.Still jokin’ around, I manage to keep at least part of the emergency crew entertained.And away I go! I don’t know if it was just this particular ambulance or what, but the ride was much rougher than I would have imagined.
Upon my arrival at Boulder Community Hospital, some X-rays were taken...
Something’s a bit amiss here…Boy, I tell you what, that bone ain’t right.Ummm…OUCH!!
During my visit to Boulder Community Hospital, they did the following:
1. Gave me painkillers.
2. Removed the initial splint.
3. Took some X-rays (as seen above).
4. Put on another splint (this one was only for the length of the humerus) and a poorly-fitted sling.
5. Told me to go see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday
That's right. They gave me drugs, took X-rays, put on another splint (NOT a cast), and told me to go see someone else. For this, they charged me $1500. Google tells me that's over $2200 in today's money!
Ahh, the joy of being released from the hospital! As you can see, the broken arm is now in a sling under the hospital gown.Being wheeled out to the car. Notice that Seth (the guy pushing me) has to close his eyes to keep from being blinded by the glare off my head.
After laying around all weekend with a severely broken arm in nothing but a splint, I went to see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday. He advised that it would be best that I have surgery to put a metal plate in my arm, and screw the bone back together. So, after one more day sitting around wearing a splint, I had surgery on Tuesday 27 April 2004. Three days after that, the bandage came off.
As you can see, in addition to the traditional stitches, they also used staples to hold the incision closed.
Two weeks after the surgery, I went in for a follow-up exam and more X-rays.
Note that you can see the staples towards the bottom of the image. Who knew that I had so much muscle tissue between the bone and the skin? BEEFCAKE!!I like this image because it shows a screw which appears to be free-floating. This screw actually holds the two sections of bone together, and is the one screw that was not intended to secure the bone to the plate.
Skip ahead, DAMMIT! Nearly one month after the surgery...
The incision is healing nicely. Notice all the little staple-hole scars around the incision. I’m polka-dotted!
If there is popular demand, I can take a photo of what the incision/scar looks like now, 18 years after the ordeal. The plate and all seven screws are still in there, and probably always will be. Yup, I’m a cyborg.
That about wraps it up for this week’s edition of ThrowBack Thursday. Next week, there will be no TBT, as I will be reporting LIVE. I will be on the road for nine days, so next Thursday (and possibly the one after that), I will be posting about my ongoing adventures (rather than my non-recent ones). Peace!
Voyages with Parkinson's 