Yikes

[skinsk]

well, kinda as I expected. . . Su-nam (Jin-taek's wife) took me to a specialist bone clinic today for x-rays and a consult. . . didn't even need the consult. . . the small metatarcel closest to the pinky-metatarcel was clearly broken and mildly displaced (this would be the one middle-metatarcel that I managed NOT to break last May. . .) funny, this one broke so much easier but hurt much less. . . I think I am just getting used to it.

Now splinted up. . . I negotiated with the doc a bit about what I could and couldn't do. . . I got him down to 3 days total rest and 4 weeks in a cast (since I broke it last weekend, anyway. . . I figured it was a week into healing already, though maybe if I told him I had been hiking and climbing on it all week, he wouldn't have given me time off--or maybe it was 3 weeks and he added a week for this!).

So this kinda sucks, and I have to kinda think about how to proceed. I do have a lot of "office work" I can do. . . and I am kinda used to it. . .

[shanja]

Oh no! Sonia that is a total bummer. I was hoping it would just end up being a bruise or something...You have all our condolences and besy wishes for a speedy recovery. Maybe soon there will be no bones left for you to break so you can not have to worry about it anymore (lightning never strikes the same bone twice, eh?).

[skinsk]

actually, some truth to that. . . the bones tend to heal stronger. . . hence maybe why the old breaks were OK. . . but it's the ******-up ankle that has caused all these latest. . . I mean this was barely any impact-- lowering off a route with climbing shoes on?!?! WTF? unfortunatley, the same bone could break just as easily in another place. . .

but the timing sucks again, just as things were really coming together and it's not like i can put off the book, i mean, i am HERE now. . .

[ricardo]

when bones break and begin healing, the 'bone building' process does create higher density bone in and around the fracture, but this leaves the adjacent bone structure more vulnerable because of the relative weakness...thus more susceptible to fracture. after time (i don't know how much) the density decreases to normal and balance is returned.

[skinsk]

Rick, I was told by several docs (and you can see the density on the x-ray) that the healing point is stronger than the original bone (and truely, I never break the same bone in the same place!) . . . given the one that broke this time was the smaller one anyway, and at the same point, that's probably true. Unfortunately, I still have two metatarcels left (on either side-- the poor pinky one the smallest of all!!) that haven't broken!! I would like to get some sort of metal brace or plate that hugs them tight enough to fit under climbing shoes as "extra protection" (this time it broke through my shoe!). . . anyone know where I might get something like this?

I also wonder why the MIDDLE metatarcels are breaking and not the end ones?