Recently I was involved in a bicycle crash and this resulted in the worst injuries that I have ever had in my life. Granted, much of this is true because of the fact that I have been quite fortunate in my life and just I guess had a resilient bone structure and therefore haven't actually been injured very many times in my life at all.
When I was in elementary school it seemed like every month or so one of my friends would turn up with a cast on their arm and I recall one time at the YMCA when a guy came down from a basketball shot and landed on his arm and the bone was protruding through the side of his body. It wasn't even a hard fall either, just very unlucky.
My situation was a combination of me making mistakes, the motorbike that hit me being careless, and me forgetting how important it is to always be aware of your surrounding and expect the unexpected on the roads here because there aren't really any laws or "right of way."
But in the now near 2 months that I have been kind of out of action, I got a real appreciation for being healthy, or not necessarily that, but having a body that works. And in that time I had a lot of chances to reflect on things that all of us just kind of take for granted and we should appreciate it a lot more than we do
To the layman that probably doesn't look like much but I believe the doctors: I had a fractured collarbone, a shoulder broken in 3 places, 2 fractured ribs and 1 completely shattered rib. Let's just go ahead and say that I couldn't use 1/2 of my upper body because that is the case.
These are little things that I am just now starting to get over that I didn't realize I would miss as much as I did until I didn't have use of one side of my body.
Being able to put clothes on or take them off
Do any of you struggle putting clothes on? I dont mean getting annoyed because you accidentally put your socks on inside-out but not being physically able to dress yourself normally?
Well, that was me and it was particularly bad during the first 2-3 weeks. I found myself not changing clothes very often because it was a long, drawn out process that had potential to be quite painful if I moved in the wrong way. I started to need strategies to do something like put pants on. I would have to be seated, and use my one functioning arm to do both sides and also do it very slowly. Too much rotation of my torso would aggravate my broken ribs and this would result in a electric-like shock of pain that would shoot through my entire body. Socks? Forget about it, not gonna happen. Thankfully I live in a hot country so that wasnt necessary.
Until about a week ago I was completely incapable of wearing any shirt that required you to raise both arms above your head and instead would wear button down shirts. I can now ALMOST extend my broken side with my arm all the way up. It will likely be 2026 before I can do it without discomfort.
Not being able to exercise
I don't mean this in a "I don't have energy or I am lazy sort of way, but just any sort of movement causes pain. About week number 3 I decided to just go for a walk on the beach, a walk of about 4km but I made a crucial error, I just went in one direction and not back and forth. So by the time the pain started to set in from the incredibly jarring movement (that's sarcasm) of putting one foot in front of the other got to be too much, I was 3km from home. I got a taxi home because every single step had that electricity shooting up my side sort of feel to it again.
I had to spend the next couple of days barely moving and I wouldn't so much as attempt to do anything at all for weeks after that.
Having to wear certain slings/casts/isolation devices
I've posted this picture before and that is fine.
It's not like I want to have a bunch of memories of the horror that is the "figure 8 back-brace". This is really tight on your upper body, both sides including the side that doesn't have problems. It HAS to be tight on both sides because what the hell else are you going to attach it to.
It feels like someone is squeezing you too hard at all times and while I would like to say that you get used to it, you do not. It's always uncomfortable and I always wanted to take it off. But if you DO take it off you run the risk of your shoulder bones growing back at a funny angle and now you have a misshapen claw connecter next to your head for the rest of your life.
To make matters worse a lot of this gear is built presuming that you have someone else that lives with you to get you in and out of it. I, by my own choice, live alone. Nadi (my dog) doesn't have thumbs and is too short to reach the straps anyway. One night when I couldn't get it off and the claustrophobia kicked in pretty hard, I cut the damn thing off of me. I got a replacement but that, dear readers, was 5 weeks of my life.
It also gets really stinky. Which brings me to my next point.
Not being able to bathe properly
This is my shower and before you say "wow that is such a nice shower!" just know that I, and everyone else that lives in thsi building hates the showers. We do not need bathtubs and they are too short for a normal sized western foreigner to lie down in anyway. Whatever! Ok, so you never really associate getting in and out of the shower with having two functioning arms but you kind of do need that. Not to mention that I cannot bathe the one side of my body very well since I have a gimp arm on one side.
The same could be said for doing things like applying deodorant or just scratching an itch somewhere. I'm nearly 2 months from the accident date and I still cannot reach properly but thankfully have no difficulty showering anymore but there was a time where I just sometimes wouldn't shower - and I know that is gross - but it's not like I was running marathons since simply walking was painful.
Sleep
This has likely been the worst part of it. At first, the only way I would be capable of accomplishing sleep was to be so doped up on painkillers and then some sedatives to top it off. Otherwise, there was no chance of getting to sleep. Then, once I did get to sleep if I involuntarily moved in my sleep or even worse, rolled onto the injured side of my body, I would be awoken by rather large amounts of pain. This is not a great way of waking up.
So for about 3 weeks or so I was simply exhausted all the time, but not able to sleep at all for more than a few hours in a row. The pain was just too much if I so much as moved.
getting in and out of bed was a chore as well because I want you to try it one day if you read these things. Try to get in and out of your bed without twisting your upper body at all and without using or even moving/rotating your left arm and everything it attaches to. It isn't easy at all.
I am now at the point where I can sleep with only a little bit of pain if I lie on my left side - which is my preferred side for some reason. I still don't do it though because I don't want to accidentally re-break something.
My bones are pretty well healed, but according to my doctor(s) I should still be taking it easy. I am running again and I did a very light weight session a couple of days ago.
The very good news is that I can go bowling again and that makes me very happy. I still struggle to put on t-shirts without doing one arm at a time. I don't want to push it and accidentally re-break something
It's just so strange to me that we all - or at least I do - take things like this completely for granted. We just assume that we can lie down in bed without pain, that we can go for a walk, that we can put on shirts and pants and take a shower. Once that gets taken away from you though, your mindset completely changes. I am very thankful for just being able to move and I think I should start to be more mindful of that while I still can.