My last day of hospital

23 November 2011 (Wednesday), Day 42

Today ended my 6 weeks of stay in hospital.

Perhaps it was not a good idea to agree to be discharged 出院. It seemed that because I was not going to be an in-patient 住院病人 anymore, they were trying to force me to accept less than ideal solutions regarding the weekly shower after discharge. They were going to hire and put a hospital bed in my house and I had to find a space for it and they would get community care people to come to my house to change the lining after shower.

I had the full cast on my right hand taken off this morning. The process was pretty scary 可怕 but fortunately there was little pain. The plaster king used a disc cutter 圓形刀片的鋸 to cut open the cast. At some points I could feel the blade 刀片 touching my skin and it did leave a few marks on the skin. My hand looked like a chicken foot with the fingers clawed in 向內屈曲 and there was hardly any flesh 肉 in the palm 手掌, not to mention the dull brown colour and flaky 碎屑的 skin.

Then I was sent to have an x-ray. On the way to the x-ray department, many passersby said: “gee, that looks sore”.  I had to admit it was unsightly 不雅觀.  

Back to the orthopaedic department, I asked again “will it hurt to take the wire out?” “No, just a funny feeling,” the doctor said. In my mind: was “funny” a euphemised 經修飾的 expression for “painful”?

  

That was the first time I saw the x-ray of my hand. There was a long metal plate (about 6 inches) screwed into my bone and a wire ran from the plate through the two forearm 前臂 bones (the Radius and the Ulna) with the end sticking outside the skin. The wire was more like a pin, a straight and rigid piece of thin metal holding the plate and the two bones in place. The doctor got hold of a pair of pliers 鉗子 and was about the pull the wire out.  

“Will it hurt?”

“No,” and he did not use any anaesthetics 痲醉藥.

“Ouch.” The cap of the exposed 露出的 pin came off.

“This is not done yet. The wire is still there.”  He asked for another pair of pliers. Obviously he was not happy with the previous pair. Another tense moment came.

“Ouch.” The metal pin eventually came out and was binned 扔進圾垃箱.

Because a substantial length of the pin went through the bones, I could hardly sense it when it was being pulled out.  However pulling it out required a fair amount of force and the doctor therefore had to hold my wrist tight. The pain was mainly from a sore wrist.

“Was my hand badly injured?”

“Yes, you can see from the x-ray.” “You can move your wrist but it will never be the same again.”

My heart sank. I will have to work harder to train my left hand in terms of strength and dexterity 靈敏度 so that it will take over the functions of my right hand. One consoling 安慰的 fact is that at least I still have my right hand though it is full of scars and am not as good as before.

Things for Grace in Hobart seemed to be moving fast on her side. She should be able to move to her sister’s place in 3 days.

Other than the glitches 煩瑣事 surrounding the discharge, I had to say I received good care, in particular excellent nursing care.  Thanks to everyone who saved my life: Sandy, Grace, Gilbert, Rebecca, the six good Samaritans 見義勇為的人 who stopped to help, the paramedics 救護員, nurses, doctors, numerous health professionals, hospital volunteers, police and last but not least, the flying doctor pilots. My gratitude 感謝之情 also goes to those who came to see me and send me their concern and support.