White Out

Our village of Val d'Isere can be seen at the bottom of the valley.

Rather than waste precious electrons on the 'printed' word, I will let the photos do the talking here. One week snowboarding in the French Alps, right near the Italian border, with a good friend of mine from Australia, equals an awesome time, great boarding (for me, as an Australian, but I'm sure more fresh snow wouldn't have gone amiss), awesome food, lots of pains, and best of all, no fractured scaphoid!

The Amazing Human Body

T + 5 weeks

On the positive side, I am amazed at how quickly a a bunchy of atoms stitched together in the form of a human is able to repair itself so well when something goes wrong.

On the negative side, I am constantly astounded by the way it can fall apart so easily in the first place (both mentally and physically). It is for this reason, that certain objects, such as bicycle helmets, were invented.

As it so turns out, this story would not have been much different were said bicycle helmet on my head in the first place, but another story down the track might just be - hence its very procurement...

I'll let the pictures tell the story rather than words, it is that much more amusing.

2 days after - Fat Albert, here I come! Oh, and
now I notice bruising and grazing on my neck and chest

The day after - before the swelling started

T+10 days - I can't take the beard!

So I shave off what I can

3 weeks later - looking nothing worse than
someonewho has had a amateur plastic
surgeon work on him

So the moral of the story: just because you broke your wrist (twice) by falling on it, doesn't mean next time you fall you should land flat on your face in order to save your wrist! Whilst it does allow you to end up with a totally untouched wrist (despite the smashed watch), eating gravel is not fun!

But, as they say, when you fall off your bike, you have to get back on again. And so, after my visit to the ER I returned to pick up my bike and ride home (of course, my bike wasn't locked up so I just didn't want it to get stolen...)

Admittedly, the pain really wasn't that bad - but having stitches put in your upper lip after receiving what must have been saline water as an anaesthetic, is not pleasant. Nor, of course, is having them yanked out through scabs. Ouch!

I've received the all clear!

Almost 5 months since the accident.
Almost 3 months since surgery.
Around 6 weeks since I've started physio.

And the good news is: my scaphoid is healing well and both the physio and doctor have given me the all-clear to go snowboarding this winter! Not something I was expecting, and not something I will be doing immediately, but good to hear the news!

NOW I am integrating

Finally, I have joined the elite echelon of Danish society. I own a bike. But not just any bike, a dorky bike with a brand name that I had never heard of before, relatively simply, yet unnervingly expensive (for what it is). Two weeks after receiving the all-clear from my physio, I managed to select the most snowed in day since I have been here to get myself a bicycle. This also meant I had my first experience of riding on ice, through snow and slush, and having the pleasure (very unlike back home) of cars giving way to me!

For a country where it seems there are more bikes than people, it is crazy to think that bikes cost an obscene amount of money here. If you want a new bike, you will probably not find one under DKR 2,000. And that's for something simple (not a racer, not a mountain bike, and probably only a single gear - though in a country without hills that's not as bad as it sounds). If you want something fancy you'll pay upwards of DKR 4,000, and like any other country, you can really spend as much as you want. But the crazy thing is the cost of second hand bikes - from a shop, you'll unlikely find one for under DKR 600 or DKR 700. Not much less for a private sale. And to think that the sort of bike that I had to give away in Canberra before I left (because there was no chance of anyone paying money for it) would cost probably around DKR 800 here - that's crazy!

Anyway, I went for the cheapo option since my apartment building doesn't have underground bike parking - so a bit of rust, gears that are literally frozen in place and a slightly torn seat will just add to the character.

A Handy Update

I've had enough of this broken hand saga. There is no novelty in it, no fun at all. As of today I have started serious physiotherapy, aka torture. It turns out that most of the pains I am experiencing are as a result of not moving the joints for so long, rather than the fracture (general pain versus sharp pain at the scaphoid) and therefore I need to push things to the limit. Well, it's bloody tiring!

Using my arm muscles I can bend my wrist forward around 30', and backwards around 40'. Add a few degrees if I push using the other hand. It's very frustrating when your body doesn't do the simple movements it has known its whole life and you experience pain when you try to do such basic things. On the other hand, when I look at my left hand it still looks rather awkward (I try to capture it in a photo but it just doesn't come out). Unlike my right hand which is effectively 'flat' on the top-side between the wrist and my knuckles, my left hand is concave. The effect of this is when I do bend the wrist, the curve is entirely at the wrist and then flat between the wrist and the knuckles (as opposed to the right hand where the curve stretches a lot further towards the knuckles). It looks rather weird actually and makes me wonder whether my hand will ever return to normal. The physio assures me though that normal rehab time is 6-8 weeks. Can't wait.

On an unrelated note, winter is finally kicking in here. With temperatures around freezing point and some crazy strong winds, it's time to start wearing my beannie on my walk to work! Also, I have done a bit of touring in Copenhagen and surrounds and will put some photos up soon...

Ah - a quality medical system

Fine, although I haven't quite yet been indoctrinated into the Danish public health system (I am currently awaiting my CPR number - which serves as a national ID number which just about everything in this country relies upon), I have seen the edges of it and I've had a taste of the private health system here. And boy is it good! There is definitely something to be said for good ol' socialist ideals!

Yup, I've been screwed

I now at least have some evidence that something useful was done in surgery a couple of weekends ago. The 2 screws in my hand actually look a bit larger than I was expecting, but oh well, as long as they do the job.

The good news is, my orthopaedic surgeon has cleared me to fly to Copenhagen at the end of the week and start work. Thankfully Denmark is a nice western country with all the trappings of a quality medical system, otherwise I would potentially be in Perth for a lot longer. So I leave Perth now on Friday afternoon and get to Copenhagen on Saturday morning, all ready for work on Monday. I have an apartment to stay in for my first 10 days there - a very trusting neighbour of a colleague-to-be is renting their place out to me while they're away for a couple of weeks. Once there, I figure it shouldn't be too hard to find something more permanent.

So after spending, what feels like many many hours, filling out medical forms, spending time on the phone to QANTAS and various other places, I am finally heading off. Although it's a little frustrating that my adventure starts with only one working hand, I can't wait to begin it!

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!

How to NOT transition between jobs

Hypothysis

• That if I want to 'try something new' in terms of a job and location, the hard part is getting the job. The rest should be simple.

Inputs & Raw Materials

• 1 x job offer that sounds like a fantastic opportunity
• Appropriate leave from existing job
• 1 x shed with just enough space for all my personal belongings
• Plan to spend 2 weeks with my family interstate prior to flying overseas
• 1 x snowboarding holiday in New Zealand