The world of JULIANA

A week has passed by since my last blog-entry.  I had planned on updating this blog at least on a weekly basis on my fracture-recovery-cum-coping-progress. Not much has changed over the last one week.

I’m still in my cast, which I’m proud to say is as WHITE AS SNOW. Despite several requests from enthusiastic loved ones & friends, I declined any form of drawing/colouring/autographs on my cast! From my knowledge of understanding, scribbled/graffiti-casts are so teenaged-years! They are! I can’t possibly imagine being wheeled into that Orthopaedic clinic next week with a rainbow-coloured cast! Arggggghhh… I may be a patient for now, but I still am a doctor by profession and the last thing I need from the Orthopaedician is, " Oh dear, being a doc, you should know better! I don’t know how you managed to get your cast THIS colourful" . Hehe.

As mentioned in my previous entry, Robz managed to snap a couple of shots of me shortly after the POP-cast was ‘attached’.

I’ve watched tonnes of movies, both English and Tamil over the last one week. Once you’re glued to the tv, a whole morning passes by just like that! TV’s such a handy tool to keep you occupied, believe me!! Attempted watching Hindhi movies but since I wasn’t sure on how to ‘turn-on’ the subtitltes option on my controller, I finally gave up on it.

In my entire life, this has got to be the first time whereby I’ve been confined to the UPSTAIRS-portion of my house for a whole 10 days! *sigh. I’m afraid I’m gonna forget how the ground floor of my house looks like if I don’t get downstairs at some point! Hehe…

My highly-concerned grandma and Aunts made a trip to KL just to visit me last week. I was so touched! Sitting around at home all day and all nite has got me into LAZY-MODE and inevitably, I’ve become a COUCH-POTATO! *sigh.   It’s extremely tempting to over-eat ‘coz one tends to get rather restless and fidgety when all you do is just lie on a couch watching TV/reading. Aiyooooooo, if I continue eating like a pig, I’m not gonna be able to squeeze past my entrance door to leave the house on ‘appointment-day’. I keep referring to ‘appointment-day’ as my victorious day as I’ve targeted D-Day as the day I shall make my way downstairs. I do not want to exert undue stress onto my rather fragile limb at this point in time! Hence, that way, I can confidently tell the Orthopaedician that I took very good care of my fractured ankle. .

The itch. Oh goshhhh…..when friends had told me that at some point, wearing this horrid POP-cast may cause some ‘inevitable side effects’, I figured that it’ll only happen to those who don’t take good care of their cast. I always thought that only patients who keep soaking their cast in water whilst showering may end up with a bad bad itch under the cast. I thought I’d never ever suffer such consequences ‘coz whenever I showered, I always made sure my cast was fully covered by various plastic-bags (yep yep, not exactly the world’s best water-proof material).How WRONG I was!! Arggggggghhhhhh….it was a miserable Thursday evening, and it must’ve been that sambal belacan and prawns and fried fish combo that I had all day. Yeppp, quite a seafood-lover I am. I had this horrendous, tormenting, awful itch on my leg. It was just unbearable. Made me feel so very helpless ‘coz there was absolutely no way of scratching it unless I had a funky drill to drill thru’ that crazy POP-cement-cast !! Mommy has advised me to STAY AWAY from seafood to avoid a similar occurance in future!

Thru’ all these experiences, vanity keeps popping its head ever-so-frequently. It’s been so many days since I put on make-up! *sigh. It’s just ridiculous to put on make-up at home and sit there all ‘dolled up’. I kinda miss gettin’ DRESSED to go to work,etc. Of course all that I ever wear at home these days are highly-unfashionable-comfy baggy T-Shirts and 3-quarter-pants!

So many loved ones have brought varities of fruits for me to eat all week! Instead of downing packets of Maggi-soup when I’m just ‘restless’, munching on some fruits is a much healthier option, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, this week, I won’t be able to attend our monthly church-council conference. However, being the perfectionist-ever-prepared-4-Emergencies Young Adults’ Fellowship President I am, I’ve prepared a report for this month and e-mailed it to my dear Patricia who will present it on behalf of me at the meeting.

Hmmmm…..Oh no…I don’t mean to be moaning ’bout this. As I said previously, it could’ve been a lot worse and I’m just takin’ this all as part and parcel of ‘growing up’.  Heyyy, here’s a cool story I can tell my grand-children in decades’ to come, can’t I?

UNBREAKABLE – by M Night Shyamalan, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson.
I’m sure many of us would remember this movie as it potrayed a strong man who thought he was super-human as he never once had a single injury/fracture on his body.

Back to my story.

Human beings take things for granted. We do ! It’s so true that you only realize the importance of somethin’ once you’ve lost its function. In my case, it’ll have to be my LEFT ANKLE. L . One nasty fall, a swollen ankle and the fact that I could no longer walk on the injured leg landed me in hospital , facing the Orthopaedic Team with my XRay which so clearly confirmed a fracture of my ankle!

Up to that point, I was still convinced that it must’ve been a horrid sprain.
Being wheeled into  the Emergency Room in Hospital on a wheel-chair where just months ago, I had been strutting around in my doctor’s coat treating patients was a humbling experience. It just makes one realize that we’re mere mortals and nobody in this whole wide world is invincible! My dearest hubby and Mommy stood by me whilst we waited at the Emergency Room. Havin’ worked there barely 4mths ago, I had excellent express-service! In a matter of minutes, the
XRay of my left ankle was on the computer and the Ortho team had come to have a look at me. It’s amazing how I took this entire ‘bad news’ rather lightly, much to my surprise! I was in all smiles as they broke the ‘bad news’ to me. In retrospect, Robz was a lot more shocked than I was. My Mom tried to remain as calm as possible. As far as I was concerned, it could’ve been worse!Havin’ worked in the Orthopaedic Wards, I’ve seen so many young patients with debilitating injuries such as spinal injuries! They’re entirely helpless and dependent on nursing staff for elementary basic needs such as toileting! Compared to that, I knew that I had such a narrow escape and ended up with only a simple ankle fracture, which didn’t even require surgery! I have a ‘boot cast’ on at present. Let’s just say there’s a whole lot of ‘new’weight has been added onto my leg!

Being a blog-crazy person, I told Robz to take a couple of PHOTOS at the Emergency Room whilst nobody was lookin’ ! (thanks to camera-h/p) . Haha…I must be the craziest doctor (who’s now a patient) in town !! There I was happily posing whilst sitting on a wheel-chair with my leg in a POP(cement) cast! Mom went to Pharmacy to collect the pain-killers. Guess what? Up till now, I’ve managed without a single pain-killer!!! The pain’s still bearable and I’ve promised myself never to touch the
painkillers until and unless I can no longer bear the pain! Robz wanted to purchase the ‘best crutches in hospital’ and we were given a ’standard pair’ which was the only available ‘design’ they had. Haha.Getting into the car with the cast was quite a feat, which I managed well ! J

1^st weekend of fracture

I think the w’kends will be more fun as everyone’s around all the time. I’m guessing the weekdays are gonna be a lot more challenging since I’ll be at home alone all day.

I insisted on havin’ my hair-washed on Saturday morning. Mom says that I need not wash my hair so often since I won’t be leavin’ the house! However, I DO NOT wanna feel like a poorly-taken-care-of-patient-with-greasy-hair-stuck-at-home  !! Nothin’ beats that fresh feeling of just havin’ come out of a refreshing invigorating shower! With some assistance, I managed my very first shower with a cast on. Goshh, I wonder how awful it must be for patients with full body casts or several casts on various fractured limbs. I wonder how terrible it must be to have a damp towel substitute a whole shower in the bathroom!! I insisted on blow-drying my hair and felt so good once I was fully dressed. I guess vanity just flows rite thru’ all my blood vessels!! At all times, I’d like to look ‘presentable’ at home! Call me super-vain, or ‘plain-silly’ but, there’s no harm in wanting to look one’s best regardless of the fact that the entire 2nd half of my left leg is in a not-so-fashionable-POP-cast,right?? *grins

Anyway, my parents brought some food over and we had dinner together upstairs at the coffee table on Saturday evening. It’s amazing that even in this time of ‘illness’ (a fracture is a sort of illness, isn’t it?), thatz when we value the kindness and love of our loved ones. When we’re fit as a fiddle, we’re so busy and caught-up with our daily routine and monotony at work that some times, one fails to realize that such affectionate people are all around us! We just go about doin’ things routinely much like a Japanese Robot!

On Sunday, it was miserable to be sitting at home whilst everyone else was at church. I’ve mastered the art of havin’ a bath all by myself with absolutely no asistance! Havin’ ‘conquered’ the most challenging bath (washing my hair, that is!) yesterday, havin’ an ‘ordinary bath’ today was a easy as ABC!

Apparently, my ‘illness’ was announced in church during Sunday Service for all church members to pray for a speedy recovery. After church, I had several visitors showering me with much attention and gifts(fresh fruits) all day!
Ahhh, the attention from all these people was splendid! *giggles. To further enhance my dear visitors’ understanding on my fracture, I even completed an artwork-drawing and coloured it with oil-pastels to illustrate my ankle bone and fracture site!

Woahhh……..walking on crutches is energy-draining!! The heavy-POP-cast ain’t makin’ it any easier,too. I’m not complainin’  ‘coz as I said, it could’ve been a lot worse than this !! The Priest of our church brought Holy Communion to be administered to me at home.
It is common Christian Practice for the resident church Priest to administer Holy Communion to sick members of the church either at their residence or at the hospital ! I never once imagined that I would be the recipient of this special Holy Communion !! I’ve been catching up on a couple of movies on ASTRO over de w’kend.
Thank God for such entertaining programmes or not I would be so bored at home all day and nite!!

What saddens me is that playing the organ in church will be almost impossible until I’m out of my cast which may be nothin’ short of 5-6 weeks! I hope I’d be able to attend church next Sunday,though.

Anyway, for now, it’s best to take things slowly and cross the bridge when I come to it. One thing’s for sure, before this incident, I’d never had a single fracture on my entire body all thru’out my life. Now that I’ve got a broken bone, being a star on that movie ‘UNBREAKABLE’ by M Night Shyamalan only remains a dream !    *laughs