Resonance

The physiotherapy tales are getting a little repetitive, so I'm just doing one post for this week. The Tuesday session was much like the previous one. The focus was on strength and improving wrist motion and flexion. Resistance was provided by a rubber strap anchored to the front of the table. Flexing hurt a lot during the session but didn't hurt that much afterward.

On Thursday morning, I went to the hospital early as I had my sister drop me off on her way to work. I didn't want to take a cab since it was a pretty short distance from my house. Of course arriving at 8:30am for an 11:00am appointment results in a pretty boring couple of hours. Fortunately I had just downloaded Angry Birds Rio recently, so that helped to pass the time.

At 10-ish, I went to the Imaging Department for my MRI scan. After a short wait, they ushered me in and weighed me - 74kg (getting fat!). I answered their questions mostly about metals in my body, then I emptied my pockets of anything with metal, even my belt, and put them in a little locker. I cleverly opted not to wear a watch that day.

The MRI room was cold, very cold. A (poorly) simulated skylight showed a blue sky fringed with cherry blossoms and other pretty tree parts. The MRI machine was a Siemens. It looked stubbier than I imagined, but was suitably impressive. The technicians and radiologist (a group of 3 people) made every effort to make me comfortable as I lay on the bed. The radiologist asked if I could stretch my arm towards the sky and I said yes, so that's the position I took while lying down. My knees were elevated by a special spongy thingy and my head lay on a thin pillow. My arm was strapped in place. A noise-dampening headset, a blanket, and a panic button completed the paraphernalia.

As the motorised bed was raised and slowly inserted into the tube until my head was barely in it with my hand at the centre of the machine, I thought of many things including how the machine worked, how cold it was, and how on House, something awful always happened during MRI scans. I thought about the massive amount of EM energy being generated by the machine and I imagined I could feel my molecules absorbing the energy. But really, all I felt was cold while the machine made a series of weird humming, buzzing, and knocking noises. It took longer than I expected and I began to regret taking the arm-over-head position as my arm started to get tired, cold, and a little numb. My muscles weren't all that strong yet so my fingers were involuntarily shivering I guess. They had to repeat the scans a few times and the radiologist had to come in to put another blanket on my arm and let me rest a little. Finally they got what they wanted and the radiologist promised over the headset to let me out after one more 2.5-minute scan sequence (I swear it was way longer than that). It was quite a relief to move my arm again as it had really gone numb.

The whole thing took 40 minutes from entering the room to exiting it. On the way out, a woman going in asked how it was and I just told her it would be really cold.

After the MRI, I had two hours to kill before getting the results, so I had a rather weak lunch of a 1901 hot dog (yes there is a 1901 hot dog stand in the hospital, along with a Starbucks and a Baskin Robbins). After lunch, I went up to the orthopaedic clinic for my physiotherapy session which was much like the Tuesday session. My flexion still needs a lot of work but they focused mainly on strengthening the biceps. I went back to the imaging department and foolishly waited an hour before asking if the results were ready. It turns out they were waiting in a tray all along.

MRI films in hand (they're huge, by the way), I went back to the clinic to see the doctor. The MRI confirmed that there was a fracture of the radial head, joint effusion, and possibility of injury to the annular ligament. All these conditions were expected due to the sprain and fracture. The doctor looked at all the films and concluded that all was well. He prescribed a 10-day course of anti-inflammatories and continued physiotherapy as my flexion was still poor. He said he'd see me in a month which would probably be the last visit. Good to know he's confident at least.

Personally I think I've come very far since the initial visit 3 weeks ago. My extension is practically full and flexion is improving. I'm quite confident that I'll eventually regain functional if not perfect range. Time heals (almost) all wounds.