It is the 3^rd month of 2012, 3 months since my last anesthetic for a cholecystectomy and exactly 1 year since my broken left shoulder from snowboarding in deep powder. 1 year, 2 mnths back to work and 1 year 4 mnths since my cancer treatments finished.  2012 was looking like a good clear year….

No, Im not a good skater but I am always willing to try. It was a gorgeous day on the lake, completely frozen all over as far as the eye could see. The kids were away and one of those escape weekends at our cottage. We went for a walk but the ice was too inviting for my husband – we would go back and put on skates.

I know my bones are osteopenic and just started bisphosphonate treatment but my husband assured me that holding a hockey stick would add stability. Shuffle shuffle glide – the ice was very hard and bumpy.

Then about ½ km out on the lake a split second of loosing my balance and wham – instinctively I put out my left hand and watched as it bent further than any hand should bend. A shooting pain went up my arm and I knew….

There was only one way back to the cottage – skating back with my broken arm. Any wobble and the pain screamed as I could feel how loose my wrist was. I took off my coat and saw the S shape in my forearm.

As luck would have it, my husband is an orthopedic surgeon. He had seen just one too many of my painful surgeries and sending me into anesthetic procedures so called a colleague to look after me.

My friendly hospital were getting too used to seeing me on the other side and I greeted a couple of my patients as they wondered what my next calamity was.

It was angulated and very broken in lots of pieces and needed reducing (straightening) under anesthetic. So I resigned myself to this year’s procedure and was put asleep as they pulled it straight and molded a cast to keep it there.

And so I sit, typing with one hand, the other in an awkward Colles fracture splint that tilts the wrist to make it very difficult to use.  My fingers look like sausages but luckily I was never hand model material anyway. My rings now live on my necklace for a while.

Off the tennis team now, so on with the art classes. I’ll manage work with good colleagues to call upon when I’m stuck. My make up is not as good and my hair may take on a ‘natural’ look but look out elliptical trainer with one arm! I think I will catch up on some good books on my ipad too since no pages to hold with that. I get out of cleaning and cooking too. I see the good already….

I thought you my like a little medical post – not hard to see the fracture.

So don’t stop going beyond your comfort zone but know your limits too!