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Today I got poked and prodded and X-ray'd some more. The doc I saw this time was more informative than the ER staff, probably due to not juggling a dozen or more patients at once.
The specific problem is that I have a vertical fracture through the head of my fibula. It's "minimally displaced", which is good. Doc is optimistic that it will turn out to be stable without further intervention, but still wants me to go back tomorrow (11h from now) to see the sports-medicine surgeon who's in a couple mornings each week. Between them, they'll decide whether I need the broken bit surgically reattached to the rest of the bone to make it hold still and heal.
Today's exam has left me quite sore. 9h after getting home, I'm still needing extra painkillers to do anything besides lie here and hurt. So I'm not really looking forwards to the next one, even if the result is likely to be good.
All this has got me thinking about how I'm never sure how much pain one is expected to be able to tolerate. If we're going for functionality targets, there's a pretty big difference between what I need in order to reach 'able to do most basic self-maintenance if provided with ample distractions in between', vs. 'able to produce in-depth analysis of X.' - The latter being my bread and butter; the former being where I'm at right now. (Aside from which, it's disturbing to be left clinging to a rock rather than swimming in the ocean of data that I call home. Am I beyond the low-tide line? Will there be a hospitable tide pool to limp to if I am?)
At any rate, I have to get up early for that appointment. Goodnight, Dreamwidth.
The specific problem is that I have a vertical fracture through the head of my fibula. It's "minimally displaced", which is good. Doc is optimistic that it will turn out to be stable without further intervention, but still wants me to go back tomorrow (11h from now) to see the sports-medicine surgeon who's in a couple mornings each week. Between them, they'll decide whether I need the broken bit surgically reattached to the rest of the bone to make it hold still and heal.
Today's exam has left me quite sore. 9h after getting home, I'm still needing extra painkillers to do anything besides lie here and hurt. So I'm not really looking forwards to the next one, even if the result is likely to be good.
All this has got me thinking about how I'm never sure how much pain one is expected to be able to tolerate. If we're going for functionality targets, there's a pretty big difference between what I need in order to reach 'able to do most basic self-maintenance if provided with ample distractions in between', vs. 'able to produce in-depth analysis of X.' - The latter being my bread and butter; the former being where I'm at right now. (Aside from which, it's disturbing to be left clinging to a rock rather than swimming in the ocean of data that I call home. Am I beyond the low-tide line? Will there be a hospitable tide pool to limp to if I am?)
At any rate, I have to get up early for that appointment. Goodnight, Dreamwidth.
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