The Day I Broke My Arm- Oct. 2, 2013

How it happened: I was playing in my soccer game like I do every week. We started playing the game short one player so of course we had to work harder. The games are only played 6vs6 including the goalie. As the ball was going out of bounds, my opponent and I were running to it. I got there first and kicked it down the line as the other girl rammed into me knocking me backwards. I put my left arm back which felt like it bent my wrist back like a rubberband. After that i hit my head too. It took about one second to realize that something was wrong with my arm. I wanted to get up but had to have my friends help me because of the pain. I was feeling an immense amount of emotions at that moment. I was so angry because I knew something was seriously wrong with my arm, there was no foul called on the play, this meant no working out and it hurt like crazy. The Ref said they had someone there that could look at it so they looked and it and poked one spot which hurt and then they quickly came to the conclusion that I just needed to move it and it would be fine. Of course that was a bunch of crap. I could tell by looking at it that something didn't look right.

My friend Keeta happened to be at the game watching Everett & Vinson while I played. She normally watches them at her house or mine but she decided to come. I think it was intervention from someone above knowing that I was going to get hurt. My arm hurt so bad that I had to support it with my other hand so driving was out of the question. The boys were so well behaved.

We made it back to Keeta's house and had Blaine take a look at it. We knew that something was definitely wrong so as soon as Anthon got out of class, he called me. I had sent him a text to call as soon as he was out of class. After telling him what was going on, we decided I better go to urgent care that night instead of trying to sleep on it overnight. We went up to Health First Urgent Care in Gilbert. I heard great things about them there and knew that they had an x-ray machine. We didn't wait long. Keeta was nice and helped me fill out the paperwork. I kept an ice pack on my arm until they took x-rays and it looked scary when I took it off. I had it on for about an hour and my arm/hand had changed a great deal in appearance during that time. Blaine watched the boys until Anthon could get there to pick them up.

X-ray results were that I fractured my radius and chipped the styloid process off of my ulna as well. They put me in a splint and sling and sent me on my way. The next day I was able to meet with my Primary Care doctor (Homewood Family Medicine- Love their office & staff). They were able to give me a list of references to see an Orthopedic doctor.

I wasn't able to get an appt. until monday so I wore my splint for 5 days before I was able to get in. Sleeping was practicall impossible. I returned to work that Thursday morning even though I broke my arm the night before. I had to put off starting as the Personal Trainer for the Aspire Kid's Sports Center Boot Camp for another week but that's just the way it goes sometimes. I'm proud to say I never missed a whole day of work after breaking my arm. Work is important to me and we can't pay the bills if I'm missing work. My boss Steven has been super understanding and for a week or so gave me some extra hours off to rest here and there when we weren't super busy. Trying to keep my arm comfortable was quite the task. It felt best when holding it above my head and resting it on top of my head. I also rested it often on a pillow at work and sitting on top of a box. Bathing, getting dressed, or doing my hair very difficult along with doing several other things such as opening anything, carrying things, driving was even mildly hard. Anthon got to experience helping me dress, putting my hair in ponytails and tieing plastic bags over my arm. Sometimes baths were the easiest because then I could just hang my arm out of the tub. I had to pick and choose what to wear. Some pants were too difficult to button on my own while working and sweatshirts wouldn't fit over my cast (because I couldn't get my fingers out the end.)

I met with the orthopedic doctor that Monday and of course they put a cast on me and I told them I would only take a cast if they had orange ones and they did! There office is super nice! Dr. Toth also said that my radius was tilted and may require surgery. That made me nervous and I hoped for the best. I went back in two weeks, he said I didn't need surgery as of then and to come back in about few weeks. I also got a new cast that visit because mine was becoming more loose (I got another orange one). After getting a new cast I was actually more comfortable because it stabilized my arm better and kept it from wiggling.

I was in a cast for 5 weeks before I got it taken off and I was super excited to get it off. My arm looked super sad though. Lots of atrophy (shrinking) occured. It was still very swollen around the wrist. That swelling combined with the shrinking has caused a very funny shaped/looking arm. I had a lot of dead peeling skin on my arm as well. I was able to wash it at the office there and it felt so good to do that and scratch. They put me in a brace which I was to wear for 5 weeks all the time except when not at risk of falling. I didn't have to wear it at my desk and was able to shower without a plastic bag. YAY! I did still have to wear it while I slept though.

The weekend after I broke it, Anthon was out of town for a job interview in Utah. That was a difficult weekend. I remember crying the night before he left, wondering how I was going to survive. I couldn't change any diapers for the boys because it was painful and no one wants poop on their cast. Thanks to my friends, the Parkers, the Meyers and my family for being so helpful and making that weekend bearable.

After getting my brace, I started Physical Therapy a couple days later. Who knew it could be so painful? Since I wasn't allowed to have any movement in my arm for that long, everything was tight and weak. We have been able to get some of the strength and some of the pain to subside but its still tight, weak and painful. After about 4 weeks of physical therapy I didn't make as much progress as I would like or as the therapist would like so we thought there may be some underlying issues. There is still a great deal of swelling on my ulna side (pinky side).

I went back to the doctor back on Dec. 17th and expressed all of my concerns. The doctor felt that most of the problem was just stiffness and weakness but went ahead and ordered an MRI anyways. I went an got an MRI the next day I think and that was interesting. Fortunately it was an open one where you can still see out the sides. Due to some technical difficulties with equipement I had to lay there still for an hour. I was able to get the report back before I left for vacation and have a tear in my TFCC. It's like the meniscus of the wrist. It explains the pain on my pinky side. It also said a few things about my radius but nothing that ended up being a big deal.

I went to the doctor tuesday for official results. The doctor told me that I did tear my TFCC which I knew and that he still thinks most of the problem is stiffness but that there was a hand & wrist specialist new to the office that he wanted me to meet with him. Good news was that the specialist was already on his way over and he was able to see me that day. He told me he wanted to do surgery to fix the tear in my TFCC, re-break my radius, take a bone graft from my pelvic, put it in there to raise my radius higher than my ulna (because it's not) and straigthen because it is sitting tilted. He also told me I broke my scaphoid which wasn't caught intially but healed nicely. It would take 2.5 hours for the surgery and they would have to keep me overnight. I'm not quite ready for that so I have decided to get a second opinion. I'm hoping to have answers next week. That is all I have so far.