Ferret in reverse - Yahoo! Video

Ferret in reverse - Yahoo! Video

An Elbow update ......

Posting Update : - this entry has (or would it be accurate to would have ???) taken  two days to complete. As I type the final section, and this note,  as I look to the left, and out of our main front room window, and then to the right, with our TV showing the Chinese Grand Prix, it would seem that it is going to be a rainy day - - - Sigh

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything, so I thought it would be a good idea to give everyone a bit of an update.

It's now just over two weeks since they operated on the "issues" on my elbow.

The first surprise was the lack of surprises.

Please let me explain.

Tuesday , last, was my first chance to see, physically, what the operation had actually done to me. So, in the middle of Tuesday Morning, we (that is I and Cathy) sat waiting to see the Doctor for my two week check up.

The first thing I have to say is that I really didn't know what to expect to find under the wrappings and bandages that had covered the site of the operation. Would I find a bloody, mangled mess.

Or, would I find nothing.

As with most things, your own mind then starts to invent various scenarios, usually of the worse kind.

Anyway, firstly the nurse called us down to the Consulting Room, and the then explained that she would remove the dressings, followed by a check and then a removal of the stitches. To say that I was beginning to get slightly nervous would be a bit of an understatement.

Nervous - yes. Frightened? - un-usually No.

Anyway, the removal of the dressing began. I have to admit, I was expecting at least a small sign of some bleeding, some sign of trauma. But, what became obvious as the covers retreated was that things had gone a lot better than most people had expected. There, below all those coverings was a wound approximately 2 or 3 cm's long (around an inch in "old" money), held together with six stitches. Both the Nurse carrying out the action, and my wife, both declared their appreciation of a neat, tidy, clean job. They were also both pleased that there were no obvious signs of excessive bleeding, infection, or any of the other possible side effects.

Even the stitches came out without complaint (and I have had stitches out before - and they caught and tugged on their removal)

The Doctor then came in - had a quick look, smiled, and then sent me on my way, inclusive of the "Make another appointment for six weeks, and take this down the Physiotherapy" (who we are still waiting for !!). I have to say, I left that room feeling the previous few minutes had been somewhat of an anti-climax.

Cathy soon changed that feeling. As we walked she began to explain to the dummer part of my brain that the appointment was really the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end. And how right she turned out to be. With the bandage/dressing now off, the support that this device was given had now gone. Although the past few days have been "uncomfortable" , it is a different type of discomfort from that I experienced before the operation. The pain, the discomfort is fairly difficult for me to explain. When I move my arm, at the moment, the muscles etc around my elbow feel a bit like things are "pulling", catching. I know that this is just because of the trauma suffered by the surrounding devices - and that these will work "loose" as I begin to use my arm more and more.

But I still get caught out. Human instinct came to the fore. Yesterday, a carton of grapes fell out of the fridge. Automatically, as most people would, I reached out to try and catch it.

Guess what?

Your right , I 'm right handed. Instinctively I reached out to catch the falling object - bad move. I can still feel the discomfort now, nearly 24 hours later.

As you can see - I use the term "discomfort" as opposed to pain. Because I feel that this term is the more descriptive, most accurate, most appropriate. It isn't really out an out pain. But, most certainly at times, uncomfortable.

 

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Just a quick aside.

 

As many of you will know - I do like to take a few photo's. And,as part of that hobby, I have just coughed up the appropriate amount of cash, and updated my version of Photoshop elements (I'm certainly no where near rich enough to by Photoshop CS2).

After the same interface and layout for the last two versions (pretty much), the new version has a darker, more "childlike" interface this time round - the link icons are bolder and more colorful, and I'm not sure that I particularly like it. What I do like is the way it works - short of a few of the main menu links having moved.

All that said - I only downloaded it yesterday so we will have to give it a decent amount of use before we can say if this version is any better than its previous incarnations.