Mini-Herbert Screws

Unfortunately, 2 mini-Herbert screws is not as fun as it may sound....

CT scan of my left hand

These screws are actually pretty neat little pieces of hardware. They have 2 different threads on them - the thread at one end has a larger pitch than at the other end. So when the screw is fully contained within a solid (or two solids in the case of a broken bone), as the screw is tightened, you get a tensile force within the screw and consequently a compressive force longitudinally through whatever the screw is in.

In my case, the substance is my left scaphoid. And in my case, I think I'll end up paying slightly more than what Bunnings may charge for these things!

In a case of the medical profession being able to do things quickly, efficiently and effectively when required, within 8 days I went from having a scaphoid fracture that was healing and a cast coming off, to a bad scaphoid fracture that required surgery, and actually getting that surgery done.

As you can see from the CT scan, the fracture is on the side of the bone closest to my arm, the side furthest away from the blood supply, and the side which in most cases (according to the surgeon), you end up with non-union of the bone and potentially many problems down the track. So consequently I was scheduled for surgery last Saturday and within the space of 1 hour and 40 minutes (well, that was the time between looking at the clock prior to the anaesthetic kicking in, and first remembering the time as it was wearing off) I had 2 Herbert screws put in the bone to hold it in place, compress it together, and encourage the bone to heal.

I then spent a night in a 5 star hotel (well, it was a shared room in a hospital, but it cost as much...) getting woken up every hour to have various tests done. Thankfully all was OK by the next morning and I was home Sunday afternoon.

For anyone who saw the half-cast from Calvary Hospital, this one was post-surgery and looks about 100x more professional than the childish work done in Canberra.

The net result of all this is I am now stuck with the following timelines:

• 10 days of showing with a plastic bag over my arm (again) and probably ending up with a pretty stinky arm (again!)
• minimum of 10 days not being allowed to drive
• ~3 weeks in Perth with not much to do
• 6-12 weeks of being in a splint (and therefore only being able to move my wrist when I take it out for exercises - which haven't started yet!)
• who knows how long of occupational therapy and restricted movement

The good news in all this is the pain really isn't too bad. It's there, but generally nothing worth complaining about.

The even better news is that my new employer in Denmark is happy with me showing up to work when I'm ready - so at least I still have a job to go to!