Silly Little Country

Slings and Arrows

I woke up this morning with a sore left shoulder; I could not raise my left arm.
In my standard oblivious manner I did some exercycling and other light exercise. During my bath, I started noticing severe mobility restrictions of my left arm, and growing pain. I finally decided to head for Emergency at my local hospital.
I was in at 10:30, X-Rayed by 11, and sitting in a waiting area for about an hour before being taken into an examination room. Over the next few hours, there were numerous visits and minor examinations done by a staff who were consistently good-humoured and informative. After a few of these visits, the real doctor arrived; again he managed tone perfectly. He risked some humour and that was the right thing to do or this patient.
After a while I was told I would be subjected to a procedure that often gets the humerus back where it belongs, but sometimes does not succeed. This went on for a while, with the junior resident getting some excellent apprenticeship. In the end, while this did go a way to getting the shoulder joint propoerly reestablished, it did not achieve the final 'pop'.
So on to promised stage 2,which involved some anaesthaesia. This was not to knock me out entirely, but rather to reduce pain sensitivity a lot; it must have worked - I recall almost nothing of what actually happened.
I sat around for another hour or two, with a sling strapped on me, that I am not permitted to remove! When the staff concluded that the anaesthaesia had worn off enough, I was allowed to walk home.
This is not over - in the next day or two, I must return to the Fracture Clinic.
Thanks very much to Jane, Andrea, Dorothy, Alissa, Dr. Kumar, and all the many others who took such fine care of me.
I suspect this will interfere with my golf plans for 2006.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 6:03 PM