..In September 1997, I broke my wrist. First broken bone for me. I staggered out of bed on Fathers' Day only to descend very quickly and inelegantly into a crumpled heap. I looked a my arm and it was an unexpected zig-zag shape. Six weeks in a cast was not as dreadful as I'd feared. Or as itchy as I had been warned.
When it came time for the cast to come off. I persuaded my photographer to record the event.
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It looks worse than it really is. It's not a circular saw that's being applied to my cast but something which is curtains to plaster-casts but friendly to people. |
| The cast is prised off. |  |
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It's pretty oomy in there. The dark stuff in the cast is gelatinous betadine (disinfectant) which has been put there to avoid infection getting into the openings where the pins emerge. |
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The cast is off! and the nurse is
washing my arm. It feels weird: cold but
delicious after six weeks of no water. The green ball (arrowed) is the end of a pin which has been in my bone for six weeks. |
| The pliers which were used to
extract the pin. Have you ever used a claw hammer to extract a nail from a piece of wood? I was the piece of wood. |
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The photographer passes out. |
© Australian Philosophical Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge 1997
