Becoming the patient

Ask any doctor, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, nurse or paramedic and they will tell you, medical personnel make the worst patients.  I am 100% guilty of this!  I'm terrible at taking medications when I should (I'd rather sit with a headache than take aleve or motrin), dismiss my symptoms and dislike going to doctors appointments.  I'm also pretty whiny when I don't feel well, just ask my husband! 

Now that I've broken my first bone, I've realized what its like for the many patients I see every day with fractures.  It's a pain in the behind to have a part of your body not functioning, especially when it comes to your hands.  I only broke my thumb but its on my dominant hand.  This has made every day activities difficult like washing my hands, brushing my hair, taking a shower and getting dressed.  You don't realize how much you use your thumb until you can't!  Not to mention I can't get my splint wet, so doing anything around water is risky.  It's gotten me out of doing the dishes on a regular basis, but that's about it.  I haven't been able to cook much because my left hand isn't coordinated enough to chop, slice, flip or rotate things.  An attempt at making pancakes got very messy and ended up with burnt pancakes and a very frustrated cook!  I made soup last night and almost sliced through a finger on my left hand trying to cut up some carrots.

What's black, blue and swollen all over? My thumb!

Sporting my splint

I'm not trying to complain, just pointing out all the little things that I would normally take for granted.  My experience has given me a new-found sympathy for all the patients I send home with broken arms, hands and fingers.