Lounge vibes please? I fractured something in my hand...

[Zornhau]

so apparently this longsword thing is dangerous...
i took a hit to the left hand last night while sparring and even with a padded blade and lacrosse gloves it still hurt like hell. i iced it there and @ the bar, hoping for the best, but my hand was very black & blue this morning. :( it's been downhill since...
mistake 1 was calling my primary care dr, who saw me & ordered outpatient x-rays. ok, probably cheaper, but once the dr there talked to my dr, i was supposed to go to their emergency room. but there was no orthopedist, and the orthopedist's office in the complex had no doctors in today. (all this mind you, 45min from home, since that's how far my dr's office is. thanks insurance!) so i came home and found that hartford was the closest covered ortho... so now i'm going out of network. and the ortho needs the outpatient place to fax over the x-rays, which he'll look @ and call me. that was 3 o'clock... still nothing, so i guess he'll get to me tomorrow? i just hope i'm not doing damage till then.
:grr: I love our medical system...
so how have you been?

[Mike03]

1. You will probably be okay so long as nothing is severed

But a fractured hand is definitely something that needs to be seen by a doctor. Rest, Ice and Elevate. Hope everything turns out okay.

[Zornhau]

2. yea, I'm doing that...

i just wish someone somewhere in the process would have let me know exactly what was wrong and how bad it is... :( thanks for the good thoughts!

[Mike03]

3. That sucks that no doctors or nurses gave you better information.

That is an endemic problem with the medical system: incompetent communication. They just leave their patients feeling scared and uncertain and totally confused.

Be well.

[Zornhau]

5. yea, when i talked to my dr on the phone @ the outpatient

he said just go to their emergency dept & ask for the ortho. everyone there said they didn't have one, and then they just left me to myself... :(

[LynzM]

9. Yeah, it definitely sucked.

I was there as chauffeur, and ended up acting as... I dunno, medical advocate or something, trying to get some answers, figure out what we needed to do next, where to go and what to do. Ugh. I can't imagine what it would be like for people who were less proactive or less familiar with forcing the medical system to work for them.

[ThomCat]

13. It's a damned shame, and should be a crime, but

you're right. People often don't get healthcare unless they are agressive about it. But not too agressive, because if someone decides that you have "an attitude problem" you'll get stonewalled and denied any care at all.
x(

It's like our system is designed to NOT treat people unless it's easy, convenient and profitable. :grr:

[LynzM]

18. Yep.

It's really frustrating. I was talking to a friend tonight (a doctor) and we agreed that you could start a whole new industry, people hired to go to dr's appointments with you and be a "patient advocate" - help you navigate the system if you're not experienced at that. It's not often that I'm glad to have seen a lot of docs and such in my life, but once in a while, knowing the system is a little helpful.

"It's like our system is designed to NOT treat people unless it's easy, convenient and profitable. :grr:"

You don't say? ;) :banghead:

[redqueen]

4. Aw I'm sorry to hear that...

I hope it heals up nicely.

My daughter broke something in her wrist and the first ER doc diagnosed it as a fracture which didn't need a real cast, and just put her in a foam support thing. After a few weeks they realized it really was broken and she needed a cast. We've got the best medical care IN THE WORLD! :eyes:

[Zornhau]

7. thanks

i hope your daughter was ok. it's just frustrating that i as the person who is hurt has to do all this work to get help... :shrug:

[VenusRising]

6. Sending good vibes!

I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this. I hope you get help quickly tomorrow, and that it's nothing too serious.

:hug:

[Zornhau]

8. thanks!

:)

[I Have A Dream]

10. I hope that you feel better soon. Good vibes are being sent your way!

:hug:

[Zornhau]

14. thanks!

[lizziegrace]

11. Ouch...

I'm so sorry J. :( You're not left-handed, are you??

[Zornhau]

15. luckily no

but i'm finding out how many things require two hands... luckily Lynz is taking good care of me!

[lizziegrace]

16. Good...

:hug:


I found that out when I broke my left arm last winter. It was tough doing routine things like taking a shower or putting laundry in the dryer.

[ThomCat]

12. Ow! I'm so very sorry.

:(

I really hope nothing is broken. And if something is broken, I hope it's something that can be immobilized to heal properly.
:hug:

You don't post in here often enough. Please let us know how this goes.

[Zornhau]

17. Thanks, Thom!

I just want someone to look @ it tomorrow...

I know i don't post often, and typing w/ one hand won't help that :P
You're coming to the party, yes?

[ThomCat]

19. Send me the time and date and I'll definitely be there.

:)

[DarkTirade]

20. Next time try padded PVC... it's a lot lighter and hurts a lot less.

Hell, even without the padding it hurts a lot less than a regular practice sword. I lost count of the number of times my old roommat and I would be sparring and suddenly *THWACK*, right on the hand. "Sorry. I was aiming for your torso." became a kind of mantra for us. :)

But even though he's an artist and I'm a musician and we both need our fingers in full working order, as long as we stuck with using PVC, nothing bad happened. At least, not to our fingers.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of sword do you do?

[Zornhau]

23. we use these

http://www.woodenswords.com/WMA/padded.htm
which are generally ok. I do medieval german longsword.

[DarkTirade]

28. I've never tried wooden with padding, just bamboo, PVC with and without padding and plain wood.

Overall I liked the PVC best for sparring, both with and without padding. Didn't quite have the heft of a heavier sword, but I had the heavier wooden ones to practice with if I wanted heft. For what we did, the PVC was for sparring without hurting each other. The wooden was for building up strength and speed. :)

[Zornhau]

30. cool

we're using pvc in our one handed study group, it seems like swinging nothing after the wooden longsword wasters

[DarkTirade]

32. Yeah, that's why it's always good to still keep practicing with the heavier one. :)

The lighter one will feel even lighter afterwards.

The first sword I ever bought was a cheap piece of crap, but I purposely bought it because it was tough enough to swing around without worrying about it breaking, but it was heavy enough that it would give me a good workout. When my old roommate and I started sparring, he was much stronger than I was. And we were both just about as fast. But then I started doing a training routine at least twice a week with my heavy sword, just practicing repetitive cuts and blocks. Within no time at all I ended up becoming a helluva lot faster and stronger than him.

It also helped work up muscular endurance too. I started out doing ten reps for each cut and block. Then fifteen. Then twenty.

When I took karate we did something similar. Every now and then he'd pull out some very small weights, 5 pounders for the guys and 3 pounders for the girls. And we'd do our regular punches and blocks with these weights in our hands. Most of the time we'd do it normally to keep our reflexes honed to what we'd be using most of the time, but just to work up speed, strength and endurance we'd add a little weight to it now and then. If you can swing something heavy at full speed and with full control, imagine how powerful and quick you'll be with something light. :)

Good luck with the hand though, I hope it's nothing serious.

[SPKrazy]

21. a bone maybe?

:shrug:

heres some vibes


the medical system is broke

we got to take it back

:hi:

:hug:

[Zornhau]

24. probably

unfortunately :(

yes it is, I missed the german system today...

[Cabcere]

22. Ouch! That sounds painful and frustrating.

x( Sorry to hear about your troubles. I hope your hand heals up soon and that all the insurance, scheduling, & other stuff gets sorted out! :hug: :hi:

[Zornhau]

25. thanks!

I hope so too!

[bertha katzenengel]

26. Fucking HMO Bastard Pieces of Shit.

:hug: Good luck.

[Zornhau]

27. lol, pretty much

thanks

[bertha katzenengel]

33. from a movie, delivered with fully believable vehemence

by Helen Hunt. "As Good As It Gets."

how are you feeling today?

[LynzM]

34. At the moment, he's asleep....

So I'll fill in :)

Two fractures, one of which will need minor surgery (the doc said 10 minutes) to suture the ligament back where it belongs, since the bone chip that came off is the bit attached to the ligament. That should happen on Tuesday (I'm surprised it can wait that long, but...).

:hi: Bertha!

[bertha katzenengel]

35. Oh, man... will he be knocked out for the procedure?

Please give him my best. It's great to see you! :hi:

[LynzM]

37. Yep, that's the plan.

I guess you don't mess around with hand surgery. Oy. So I'll be around on Tuesday, too...

Nice to see you, too! How's life? :hi:

[Fire Walk With Me]

29. 3 out of 4 doctors recommend surgery above Lounge Vibes.

Hope it heals!

[Zornhau]

31. hopefully no surgery!

thanks!

[applegrove]

36. You'll probably end up with a half cast. That is what they do for broken hands.