What the Surgeon Said

We met with the surgeon this morning, and here's what he told us:

1) It’s a nasty break. The two ends of the broken (severed) bone are more than 2 cm apart.

2) If he operates, it means putting in a rod/plate to connect it all up. If he does that, we risk cutting off the blood supply and muscle to the bone. It also means a much longer recovery. And it means all the risks that go with incisions and anesthesia. Not to mention scarring.

3) If he doesn’t operate, I will have a bump where that bone sticks out. But my body will probably eventually create its own personalized funky z-shaped piece of bone to connect up the two pieces. (The human body is a marvel, is it not?)

(Considering that, as one of my coworkers said, “The spaghetti-strap look has never been big on our campus,” I can live with a bump.)

4) Sometimes these injuries fail to heal as they should. Another x-ray in about three weeks should tell us how it’s doing. If badly, we can relook at operating.

So we opted to wait and see. And we pray for my body to heal itself.

In the meantime I’ll lay off the driving for at least another week. And I have more soreness today, so I’m popping more meds to stay comfy.

My hubby is off work to hang with me for another day. (Actually, he’s in the garage refinishing an antique. He left me with a walkie-talkie to use if I need him.) I’ll have to work out transportation so I can teach next week, but one day at a time….

I am totally content with taking a period of enforced rest. I have more books than I could possibly read as well as Netflix movies to entertain me. Today the mail brought the new documentary “Beyond the Gates of Splendor.”

I told my assistant editor I might also study some Greek. In response she introduced me to “Lucky” magazine, which I suspect was her tactful way of saying, “Get a life.”

My friends do a good job of helping me stay sane. Or perhaps I should say “steering me toward sanity”?