Peace with the Cage

As the time went on, I got brave. I started looking at my cage more and more. I didn't like it but I was going to have to live with it. I couldn't quite look at the pins going into my leg, but I could look at them. My friend knitted me a little Santa and we thought it'd be funny to attach him to my cage to make it look more festive.

The operation

On the 18th of December at 3pm, I was wheeled down to operation. Luckily for me, they took my needle phobia into consideration and the anesthetic was administered through a mask. All I remember is going to sleep and waking up in immense pain.

Sexy picture of me taken by my mother.

The worst part about waking up was the compression pillows on my feet. The pillows basically inflate up and down to keep the blood flowing. It was painful because the pillows would squeeze my foot tightly (think like having your blood pressure taken but on your foot) before deflating. Later, when I was recovering, the pillows were put on my feet only at night and they became more of an annoyance rather than painful. 

Resetting the mistakes

After my x-rays, I was wheeled into the fracture clinic into a private bay. I was given shots of morphine and gas and air was placed around my mouth. My partner was told to wait outside and it was explained that in order to put a cast on, the bones would have to be reset. I didn't know what that meant and was a bit hazy on what was happening. The next thing that happened was one of the worst experiences of my life.

To have bones reset means that they will literally manipulate the ends of the broken bone so that they are in a better position. This means they take the bones and crunch them together, hold them and then plaster it. It makes me sick to even think about what happened. I was in agony, I screamed, I lashed out so much that a nurse restrained me and then I passed out. Or I think I passed out because all I rememeber mostly is pain and darkness and screaming.

I wish I could say this process happened only once. I had my bones reset four times in total.