Bionic Man

Story continued from here. 

As the week went on, the grumpier Adam became about his splint, it was hurting his wrist. The night before his appointment to get it removed, he was ready to take it off himself. His wrist and whole arm hurt—He was worried that he'd fractured his ulna or radius and was considering asking for an X-ray further down his arm.

(Below) Adam is trying to smile just before his appointment. He wasn't feeling well on top of the new pain. He'd finished his prescription pain killer the day before and it wasn't treating him well as it was leaving his system. (Light headed, pale, nausea...but a day later he was fine.)

Just an hour later, the blasted thing came off. The splint was stiff and made out of cast material.
The PA also fessed up as to why Adam's arm and wrist hurt so badly. For this kind of surgery the arm has to lay flat with the palm up. Because Adam lifts weights (and doesn't stretch well enough) she had to CRANK his arm and put a lot of her weight into keeping it in place during the surgery.  She told us that the minute he rolled into the operating room she thought, "Oh no," because she saw his buffness and knew it would be a problem.

The exterior wound doesn't look anywhere NEAR as bad as I imagined—in fact, it looks great! (I was expecting blood stains and a bumpy mess of stitching.) 

During the appointment the ends of the thread (dissolving) were clipped and the wound taped up. Now Adam can get it wet...which means he can shower all by himself! Yesss! And dressing will be much easier.

Furthermore, the PA also told us the scar tissue they cleaned up inside his arm (mentioned in the previous post) wasn't from the injury healing. It was tendonitis. It's what weakened his tendon in the first place and though the tendon ripped—the scar tissue was still holding on to the end of it, keeping things connected so the doctor didn't have to fish way up in his bicep for it. Ewww.

Fitted with a brace that will keep him from over-extending his arm while it continues to heal for the next 8 weeks, Adam really can't use it much or put weight on it. Right now the brace is locked at 60 degrees and he can't rotate his palm up. Physical therapy starts next week. And yes, he finished shaving his one arm.