"A NEEDLE IN THE WRIST"

I fractured my right wrist on Thurs. 8/20 while playing volleyball (see post below "Hitting the wall"). The next morning I went for my first visit to an orthopedic doctor in Hyannis for a "reduction". What the doctor and his nurse practitioner wife did was jab a needle into my wrist at the location of my wrist fracture and inject some Novocaine into this area of my wrist.

After about a ten minute waiting period for the Novocaine to take effect the doctor and his wife came back to the examination room. The doctor held my hand while his wife held my elbow. While his wife was pulling away from my elbow, the doctor manipulated my fractured wrist to align the broken bones in place. This felt kind of wierd and the doctor said to relax and put my mind to another place so I visualized that I was on the island of Hilo,Hawaii on a black sand beach. I was already to jump into the surf when the doctor said he was finished.

I then had an x-ray and the doctor was pleased with the wrist alignment. This procedure (reduction) was described to me beforehand as similar to pulling out a scoop of ice cream from an ice cream cone.

I returned today from my second visit to the doctor for another set of x-rays and the doctor said "excellent" which I suppose means " not too shabby". I am scheduled to return again in another week for another x-ray and then a hard cast if everything goes ok. It does appear so far that I can avoid surgery which would be fine with me as I don't relish the thought of having to stay in the hospital. Time will tell but so far so good, all things considered.