Fractured.. eh? Yep :-(

For the first time, I owe my abscence to my physical inability. Hurray, an achievement! Thanks to an accidental fracture to my right arm, which made my upper right symmetry immobile for such long time. To be precise, yours truly, succumbed to a spiral fracture on the distal right humerus. Sounds nasty, eh!!

Uss kaali amavas ki raat, sunsaaan jungle ke beech raastein mein, merae dost logon ne aisa prank khelein kii meraa haathon kii patti lagaani padii.. Sounds so exciting!! Unfortunately, no such thing happened. All sincere due credit to my own deeds, got to hear the sound of bones. Trust me; sound of timber is zillion times sweeter :-)

The above activity had satisfied all the requirements for me to get into an Emergency Department(ED). Now for people who are imagining the scene of an ambulance with glowing Red atop, zipping past the streets of Melbourne city, CUT!!! Nothing of that sort happened, as my own dear friends drove me at supersonic pace to the ED of Epworth Hospital.

Now this was my first entry into an Oz hospital and what an entry first up, Emergency! In a few minutes, had all my initial tests done and renowned (as the ED people mentioned) Orthopaedic Surgeon was standing in front within 30 minutes. All those movie scenes of getting umpteen paper forms filled, sounded hoax.

When you hear the word 'Surgeon', first thought crossed over my mind was the 'Operation Theatre'. The green bulb glowing above the shut door. People standing out waiting for the doctor to come out and say a few positive words. Yeah, too much influence of movies. For, have never been to OT, touchwood!

Back to reality! Unlike the Indian doctors, the doctors here mention every minute detail to the patient about the injury(sportive to patient tag in few minutes). Unfortunately, they start from the ugliest and become more optimistic towards the end. So the first few minutes of my conversation with the Surgeon was not pleasing. Thankfully, my friends were beside me and they knew the Doctors communication protocol. But for me, more than the physical pain erupting from my arm, those words sounded more painful.

Before the surgeon left, he wanted my family to sign on the dotted lines for the surgery. Holy Shitt!! Now I would not want to disturb my parents back home about my injury and not of this extent. So, had to request the surgeon to take me and my friends into confidence and go ahead with the next steps. Then, was moved to the hospital ward with the OT timetable saying 'Sunday, 09 Sep 14:00 – Prakash K.

Prior to this, had faint memory (childhood) of stepping into hospital wards. Array of Bed with patients and their close ones treating them nearby with nurses walking along the pavement. Everything looked WHITE. But when I stepped into my room, it looked as though was in luxury hotel. But in the hindsight, was in a hospital. The night was laboured with thoughts of OT – scissors, incision on my right arm, wasted biceps muscle to get into the bone, stitching etc., It was time for being brave and to face it head on.

As an anti-climax, the next day morning, Surgeon had other ideas. Park the idea of Surgery and take the conventional way of curing. No incisions and let the body metabolism cure it. Bring on the Sling coupled with braces, keep the right arm immobile. His only intent was to keep it simple and effective. I had passed the first test without attending it. Yet, it was still a long way to go. Most of the ortho-related cures are on-experimental basis catalysed with strong prior results (my gut feeling only). So now, it was all upto me and my body – the natural therapy as they say.

Now that my arm was supported by a sling straightened by plastic brace, felt that much comfortable. The surgeon did not commit on a specific day of recovery. He responded with a range. And the range spelt 4-6 weeks. That's a long time!!

After the discharge from hospital, next biggest challenge was to convince my mind to send signals to my left arm always. Now coming from a genre of 'Thy left is not right', needed some effort for traffic shift.

The next 5 weeks was filled with some single-handed official work, umpteen movies, lots and lots of rest. And special urge to my own body, to get all the calcium generated by metabolism to divert to my right humerus :-). Now since my parents were unaware of all this, every time they called, I had to shift to a happy mood. It did work sometimes but failed mostly.

After 4 weeks of right hand immobility, am now back to being normal. When the Surgeon saw my fifth week X-rays, [quote]Prakash, You will hit the pool in 3 more weeks[unquote]. I was so so happy to hear that. When he asked me to shake hands with my right hand, surprisingly, could do that :-). Hail me!

So am back in office, without any external fittings and slowly getting to use my right hand for normal activities. With four more weeks of physiotherapy and proper rehabilitation, should be ready to jump into the pool :-)

With all the self-bragging done, would want to bring in few people into this space. As a sincere vote of thanks, would want to thank my roomies/friends for making me feel normal. For treating me as a normal room-mate and not as a patient, which helped me break the mental barrier. For their prescnece and much-needed assistance, negated my thoughts of flying back to Bangalore. Guys - your cooking, attitude towards getting me up and running was truly rocking.

And, special mention of Dr. NH4 (I love naming people), for being there when it mattered. For your optimistic medical advice, warmth, feel-good factor is worth a mention here.

Also, thank you all for sending those daily get-well-soon e-cards, voice messages, phone calls and SMS.

For I wanted to get this documented, if in future felt bad about my own health/physique, should be able to come back here and rejoice reading of how my body responded to the critical call :-)

cheers...