In which I break my wrist

[Kaylyn]

If your other wrist is sprained as well, there really isn't much you can do. It needs immobilization and rest as much as a broken wrist. I sprained my dominant wrist at work about two years ago and I had it in a wrist-to-elbow splint for four weeks straight. After a couple of weeks you will probably be able to manage a bit more, and possibly even taking off the splint for very brief periods of time.

I can understand feeling bad about asking so much from the bf, but he is a nurse, yes? You aren't asking anything from him that he's not used to doing at work. It might be stressful for him to essentially come home from work to more work, but I'm sure he'd much rather be taking care of you than you hurting yourself more trying to do more than you need to. You're not going to heal if you don't give your wrists the rest they need.

[Seshat]

does anybody have tips for coping with this?

BF doubtless knows some occupational therapists (or the local-terminology equivalent). These people specialise in helping you accomplish for yourself what you CAN accomplish for yourself.

The basic guidelines:
Planning
Pacing
Positioning
Patience!

PLAN your activity; even the most basic, with an eye to how you might be able to go about it without additional injury or (significant) pain. You can also plan to use special aids and equipment, if such are available.

PACE your activity; doing it in small portions. Hair, for instance, might be a job you have to do in sections. I need to! Some days I can go at it in three or four bites, other times I just have to accept that it'll be a two hour job, with most of that time spent resting.

POSITION your body, especially the injured part, in as close to an optimal way as you can.

Have PATIENCE with yourself. This sucks.

when the hell does this stop hurting?

sympathy

it's humiliating having to ask bf to do so much for me.

I understand this.

We manage some of this by having it be an expression of love. A brushes my hair to remind me she loves me, and because if I can pretend it's solely because she likes to do it, it's just plain mutually nice.
Sadly that's not the only reason, but I sometimes pretend it is.

[csquared]

I wasn't going to mention some of those things as I did not want to bum you out. I went through a lot of that, except I did not have a cast that I had to keep dry. I had always joked that if something happened to my right hand, I would die from starvation or impaling my face with a fork. I survived. No additional scars on my face.

For four weeks The Wife bathed me. Twice a day, she had to scrub and redress the burn. You know she loves me.

I will second patiokitty's advice on the baby wipes. Also keep a stack of wash cloths handy.

Give yourself a week. You'll get better with the tooth brush. Maybe get an electric.

Shaving wasn't a problem as I have a beard. I just trimmed back what the fire didn't get.

Take it easy. Don't push yourself for a few day. If the doctor said to keep it elevated, do so.

[Seshat]

For the moment, live in simple clothes. Elastic waists, simple tshirts, even wrap shirts if that's easiest.

If you're bathing to get sweat and excess skin oil off, run a bath and put a bit of bubble bath or other liquid soap in. Just soak the sweat and excess oil off. Even if you need to be bathed once every few days, a soak in between times will help get the worst off.

It's possible to get a trigger hose installed beside many toilets; rather like one of those handheld shower hoses. You can aim that at your butt to get it clean, rather like using a bidet. (It uses the pipe that fills the cistern - nice clean water, the same as you'd shower in.) You can then use a bit of tp or a small towel to dry off.

Brushing your teeth ... I've never found a good way to do it without hurting. A power toothbrush does help.

[Antisocial_Worker]

i get a ct scan this friday, finally, and have it read next thursday. by then i will have worn this reeking temporary cast for almost 3 weeks.

[Antisocial_Worker]

still in temp cast. dr. bf spoke to suggested they might be keeping me in it on purpose to ensure i need surgery. i'm scared.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Deep breath.

I fully understand being scared - surgery is never anything to take lightly. Look at it this way though, without the surgery you may not get the full use of that arm/wrist/hand back. That is how my own specialist finally convinced me to go through with the very necessary surgery. I have a huge thing against being cut open if I can avoid it, but when I realized what could happen if I didn't get this surgery I went for it.

And if you get the whole external fixator bar thing like I did, I can tell you that it will actually hurt a lot less to use that arm. I have a feeling that part of the pain you've been dealing with is caused by the moving your arm in the temp cast - with the fixator bar you CAN'T move the wrist around at all. No movement = no/less pain.

it's not that... it's that i might not have needed surgery, but will now because they're dragging it out.

[Antisocial_Worker]

surgery tomorrow. bones are shattered chips lodged in the meat of my wrist, basically. i need a plate and screws to put them back together. if lucky, i might -- might -- be back to normal by christmas.

[bhskittykatt]

Ouch. Hope your recovery goes smooth. That really sucks.

I broke my dominant wrist when I was 10, though not so dramatically. Had to learn how to write and do things with my left hand. On the plus side, a decade and a half later, I can now impress people with that skill. Small silver linings...

[csquared]

On the plus side, by Monday, you will feel sooooo much better. Miracles of modern medicine.

You are probably out of surgery by now. Hoping it went well.

[Antisocial_Worker]

surgery went ok, but recovery was horrible. had to stay overnight because i couldn't stand up and kept puking. next day hurt worse than when i broke it and vicodin wouldn't touch it. saw it without the cast on friday... more metal than an engine block in there. pins the size of screwdrivers sticking out of it. very uncomfortable. fingers have locked up. very depressed. i feel trapped and useless.

[Antisocial_Worker]

forgot to mention... wrist was so impacted from the fall that it had to be stretched back out during surgery.

[bhskittykatt]

Ouch. Just hang in there. It will get better. It will take time, but it will get better. Surgery is over; healing can begin. Things will start improving from here on out.

One thing you may consider is journaling your progress. When I was job shadowing at physical therapy clinics, I would only see patients once a week, and I would notice they made huge improvements week over week even though they complained they felt like they weren't improving at all. They would feel really horrible and depressed like they were spinning their wheels, and often once the PT and I would point out what they couldn't do the prior week they would feel a bit better with that perspective. Having something written where you can go back and see how much you've improved during rehab may be something useful from an emotional aspect. Going through rehab, focus a bit more on how much you've recovered since the accident rather than how far left you have to go. Just a little thought.

[BeeMused]

Ooooooh, you're a cyborg now!
Small wonder it hurts so much after they had to stretch your wrist, muscles and tendons shorten themselves annoyingly fast. Of course you're wrist is upset, <sheldon> it got screwed! </sheldon>
I really hope you can get physiotherapy, you'll recover faster and most likely fully.

[Akasa]

*gentle hugs*

You are on the road to recovery. You'll feel better soon.