Facts

November 9th - Half hour past midnight
Hand breaks... Rushed to the hospital.. Prahlad and Manoj to accompany me..
X-rays taken.. Pain killers given.. Hand put in a cast.. Fracture fact was established..
From what it looked then and for almost a week after that.. It is some hair-line fracture which would be alright with this cast in a couple of weeks..

November 10th to November 12th
Postponed the midterm exams by two weeks... Completed the pending assignments with left hand.. Started managing activities with one hand..

November 12th - Meet with orthopaedic surgeon
Possibility of serious bone damage mentioned.. Asked to consult a hand orthopaedic specialist.. Appointment for Monday - November 15th

November 13th and 14th
Dull weekend.. Fingers crossed.. arm in the cast..

November 15th- Dr. Laurie Koch
She suggested Three possibilities...
One.. Twist the hand in one of the most awkward position and put a cast.. Not use fingers, elbow, arm for 6 weeks.. Shall set.. Might pop back to bad position in case of mismanaging

Two.. Surgical operation.. Put a pin to hold the bone to another bone.. 4 weeks of healing.. Surgically remove the pin and wait for a little more time for the incision to heal..

Three.. Put a plate.. Make a cut.. use the plate to put the bones back in position and put a screw to hold the plate.

Option three chosen after various opinion polls and xray research...
Day fixed to be November 19th

November 19th - Surgery

Took the bus.. Prahlad and Vivek to accompany.. Finished paper work.. Got into a funny robe.. Checked for BP, Heart, lungs, temperature etc.. Intravenus installed.. Removed the old cast.. Another intravenus for the right hand.. Settled in a room probably tailor made for me.. It had a clock with a broken hand..

OPERATION THEATER
Nothing like the one we see in the movies.. Brightly lit.. Music during the surgery.. Heart beat and pulse monitored in those fancy machines seen only in movies before.. Tight band on the right arm at the blood pressure cuff... Anasthesia injected in right hand to be spread only under the band.. Sedation in the left intra venus..
Hollow for 45 minutes...
.............
Woke up with a heavy head.. First thought .. "Hope they didn't screw it up... I mean... Hope they screwed it up properly... "

Out of the OR .. Instructions given... Food given... Apple juice.. Throbbing head.. Cab back home.. Threw up the juice.. Ate.. took the pills .. slept.. got up.. ate..
took the pills.. slept... got up.. chatted and watched movie with friends who had come home .. ate.. took the pills .. threw up.. slept...

November 20th - Saturday
Anasthesia leaves.. Pain arrives.. Ate.. slept and took the pills the entire day.. Talked to everyone over phone..

November 21st - Sunday
Little stabilised.. Pain killers losing effect.. Food habits normal.. juice.. bananas.. apples.. rasam sadham..

November 22nd - Present
Recovering.. itchy feeling.. healing sensation.. Decent movement of the hands.. almost nil pain..

Facts apart there was much more to it... For the feel of it read below.......

Single handed effort

Blame it on luck or sheer timing but November 9th proved to be a real hard blow. Should I say ARMageddon ???

The birthday party was utterly chaotic considering the thirty odd people trying to make their presence felt in a room ideal for three. Everything was fun until a random kick by god-knows-who landed on my right hand, instantly breaking my ulna bone in two.

Nobody in the room, including me could believe (we refused to believe) that it could be something serious, until I realised that I no more had control over my wrist. Amidst immediate attention with sprays, ointments and pain killers I was already sure my two hands were no more similar. Not until writing this did I realise that they never are going to be. Thinking of it now, I could have challenged them about a broken bone.. I would have won it hands down.

The consequences and the pain are too much to HANDle. The cast was restrictive enough to hamper my elbow movements too. The days following the accident were characteristically different with me realising how dependent I have been on one hand. But I thought I was RIGHT in doing so. Inspite of all my friends offering me a helping "you-know-what" there were lots of things that were too difficult to manage...

It took me a while to digest that my typing speed was one-tenth what it was. Technically shouldn't it just be half ? My mouse became left handed. Spoon replaced the fingers. Bowl instead of the plate - that makes more sense .. two plates in one hand is redundant...

It WAS irritating and clumsy to be eating like that initially but on the "other hand" it was definitely a learning experience.
I learnt that 5 minutes is normal time to wear shoes. I learnt that the shirt pocket was made for the right handed. I learnt taking a dollar out of the wallet is seriously worth the money. I learnt that my hand writing doesn't matter much when I write with my left hand. I learnt that you might end up having less number of plastic covers, a painful shoulder and a hour less if you want to take a bath... I learnt the complexity of parallax while combing and shaving..

Beyond the tears.. Beyond the sorrows.. there were more meaningful lessons I learnt.. Whatever be the situation, friends and family would always be there to support you. No matter what.. life goes on......

Eventhough this might have been a oft repeated diwali warning said almost every year.. this year coming through the phone from Amma who was totally oblivious to the facts made so much more sense and brought down a trickle of tears.. "Paathu da... pattasu vedichena use the long agarbathi.. match stick vechu koluthi.. kaila patukadha"
[[[In case you burst crackers use the long agarbathi.. Do not hurt yourself using a matchstick]]]