The Next Step (marginally gross picture alert)

Yesterday, I got my cast off and got a brace.  It isn't nearly as pretty or interesting (it looks like I have carpal tunnel), but I'm glad to have it.

The surgeon said I'm "ahead of the game" and he's hoping I won't need physical therapy.  Whether I will or not will depend on how I do over the next three weeks.  I need to keep doing the "palm up" practice, but I also need to start "knocking on the door."  In other words, flex my wrist back and forth.  So far this isn't difficult--it's impossible.  And it's frustrating when I think I'm bending my wrist, then look down to see that it's still essentially flat. At any rate, I need to have the brace off three times a day, for about 10 or 15 minutes and work on those exercises as much as I can.

The surgeon did tell me that I flat out will not be able to move my wrist front to back as much as before. This morning, I realized that I should have asked why that is. Is it a factor of the plate itself, or just that the muscles & tendons won't be able to get back to that original point?

Now that the cast is off, I have an idea of what my scar will look like.  Really, it's not much.  Yeah, it seriously grossed the kids out last night, but in six months, I doubt it will be noticeable at all.  There was a lot of dry flaky skin that I thought was much more disgusting than the incision itself, and it looked worse from the compression of the brace than anything else.

It has been a little more painful without the cast.  There were a couple times yesterday that my wrist under my thumb gave me a sharp unexpected pain, and it was a little achy at night, but not too bad.  I've been able to ponytail my hair, but not really well, and the hard twisting motion needed for a bun is totally out of the question.  Luckily, I had a friend put it up for me this afternoon.  Since it's getting cut next week (the hair, that is), it hopefully won't be an issue after that.