antonywilliams.com

The other night, while trying to hack into my phone with a data cable and a hex editor, I was able to extract some pictures I'd taken with my phone right after my hand surgery.
They're quite amusing, so I thought I'd post them here for you all to check out.

As most of you know, a few months ago I got into a bike wreck and broke my thumb, right where it joins the hand.
I had to have surgery, in which the Dr. drilled 4 pins into my hand to hold my thumb in place while it healed.
As you can imagine, it sucked. The worst part being I had to go on holiday with my cast, and couldn't go swimming at the beach in Galicia, Spain :(
So, catching up to present day.... I got back, and 3 days later had the cast removed. At first I couldn't move my thumb. My doctor recommended I see a physical therapist. Since I play the piano, I thought it might be a good idea if I intend to play at a high level again.
I went. The guy would push ever so lightly on my thumb and hold it. He'd ask
"Is this stretching?"
I'd tell him no, so he'd push just a tiny bit more on it.
I kept telling him that he needed to push harder, but he seemed afraid to.
I just couldn't keep quiet any longer, so finally after the 4th time of telling him to push harder I blurted out
"Was the last person you gave physical therapy to a girl??????.....Come on man....push, I'm not gonna cry!"
He seemed a bit embarrassed by my comment, and used the excuse that it's better to push too lightly than too much.

Needless to say, I didn't bother returning.
A complete waste of my time and my insurance's money :)
Instead, I decided to be my own physical therapist.
This meant stretching my thumb in all directions. I would do this while in class, watching a film, doing hwk. etc..
I soon got tired of having to hold my thumb down with my other hand.
I came up with a very simple solution.

A rubber band, that can stretch my thumb as much as I need it to, all day everyday.....even while I sleep... and for FREE!
Maybe I should put in a claim to my insurance provider and get them to pay me some money instead of some useless wimp.

The great thing about it is each day I just shorten the length of the band, making it pull more.


I'm now pretty much back to how I was.
I have about 95% of my flexibility back, and most of my strength.
I'm a little slower when playing the piano, but nothing a little bit of practicing won't fix..... If only I had time to practice.....

The day finally came!
My cast was removed on Wednesday 6th Sept.
I suppose I was expecting to be playing the piano the next day.
Little did I know that the removal of the cast was only the first step of the recovery process.
The first thing I noticed was the size of my hand/wrist/fore-arm. The whole thing has shrunk, and it looks feeble. It sucks. I'm gonna have to lift weights to fix that ASAP.
I also couldn't move my thumb at all.
I came back the next day to speak to my Dr.
He wasn't there. I asked to speak to another Dr. to ask him what I should do (whether to try to force it, or stretch it etc..)
I hate going into Doctor's offices when you don't have an appointment, a they're treated like royalty. You have to speak to them through a secretary. It's extremely condescending.
The nurse came back and said "The other Dr. says for you to come back tomorrow to talk to your Dr."
Great....How helpful. So, I skip out of work to go the next day to see my Dr.
He doesn't see me either, but I have to talk through the clueless secretary again.
She then says "It's normal."
I ask "but is it really normal to not be able to move it at all?"
She clearly doesn't know anything, and gives me the same response again.
I guess I'll have to wait until my appointment 2 weeks away!
Clearly I need some Physical Therapy, but I'm not sure I believe in that kinda stuff.
I don't need help just to stretch my thumb. Can't I do that myself....and for free ?
I'm fed up with having to pay for stuff that should be free!

I went in to get surgery a few days ago.
My brother dropped me off, but had to work, so he left.
I waited (I was there at 6:30AM, and yet, they still made me wait...) and was finally called in after 10 mins.
The nurse came in and after jabbing me with the I.V., complemented me on my large (meaning easy to jab) vains :)
I then waited more.
I started sending text messages on my phone (which didn't really please the nurse, as since my left hand was out of action, I was using my right hand (the one with the I.V. in it)
They started getting ready to operate, and the anesthesiologist said to me "you're going to be asleep in about 10 seconds"
I replied "I bet it takes longer than that; I'm pretty resistant" and then started to count out loud. The anesthesiologist starts cracking up and I hear some cluttering going on on the table behind me (btw. I made it to 19, and then I don't remember the rest :)
I wake up in what seemed to be about when I would have got to about 20 (counting).
My hand is completely numb, bandaged up and with 4 huge pins sticking out.
The nurse comes over and asks me what kind of medication works best for me....
I reply "How should I know, I'm not a druggy"
I then go on to tell her I don't want any.
She gives me a prescription to Percoset (an extremely strong, and potentially addictive pain medication, that is basically Oxycodone with some other stuff mixed in)
I tear it up in front of her (and in the process, accidentally offend her)
I call Craig Meister, a buddy from Indiana to come and pick me up.
As he's arriving, the nurse gives some kind of disclaimer telling me that I couldn't make any legal decisions for the next 24 hours. I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow before suing that amateur bike shop for screwing me over.
I pretty much sat around for the next while at home, and decided (at around 11PM) that my hand was hurting, so the best thing would be to go to bed :)
A couple of days later, my thumb started moving around inside my cast (I'm not a doctor, but my guess was that this was pretty bad). I went in, and told them to put on a fibreglass cast, and not a cheappy plaster one like I had on right now.
They cut off my current cast, and I had just enough time to whip out my cameraphone to take a shot of the pins(....for all your enjoyment) before the P.A. gave me a dirty look.
He asked me if it hurt. I told him it didn't. He laughed and told me they be removing the 4 pins with pliers.......I replied "Well, I was hardly expecting the Doctor to remove them with his teeth" Here came Dirty look #2.
I left, and went back to work.
I'll try to get a shot next week with the pliers :)

Lately I've been biking up Provo Canyon and back on my Cannondale F400.
I bike about 40 miles a day on average. From Utah lake all the way up the canyon.
I took my bike in to the bike shop on campus "Outdoors Unlimited" to get it fixed. After they supposedly fixed it, I rode up the canyon when my gears started rubbing. I was far from home, so I just carried on.
I took my bike back to the shop and let them have it. I don't think they actually did anything to it; just charged me to look at it. I told them this was unacceptable, as they'd charged me and not fixed anything.
The apologized and said they'd fix it for free this time.
Well, as you can guess, after the 20 mile ride up the canyon, it was soon time to enjoy the well earnt downhill cruise. I must have been doing about 40 miles an hour when my chain gets stuck and the gears jam. I would have been thrown from my bike, but I was wearing toe-clips. My face slams into the handlebars as I try to protect myself with my hands. Result - 10 stitches above my eye, and a broken thumb/wrist.
I got up right away about to go on my way when tons of blood starts dripping from my forehead. A guy who was running the same trail says "Are you alright?" I reply "Yes!" He takes a closer look at me and says "No you're not!" and calls the ambulance. Another guy stops and says "You're about to go into shock! You need to lie down and elevate your feet"
I ignore him and start to get on my bike. The first guy (who called the ambulance, and who also happens to be a firefighter) stops me telling me he's now responsible and can't let me go and he pulls away my bike (basically he was afraid I would sue him if I kept on cycling and fell again...... I told him I wasn't American and didn't do those kinds of things. He smiled, but still wouldn't let me go) and sticks duct tape over my cut to stop the bleeding.
The ambulance arrives and the paramedics try to force me in. (I then remember my brother telling me that just for setting foot in an ambulance they charge thousands of dollars. I decline. They try to make me, but I refuse. They then said I should call someone to come and pick me up. I call my brother, but he doesn't answer. I figure he's on a date or something (it was 10pm on a Saturday night), so I send a text message telling him to call me at that number (I didn't have my own phone with me).
He calls back and tells me he's in the middle of watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (I think to myself, Man, I would hate to get pulled out of the cinema) I tell him not to worry and I'll see him when he gets home (he didn't know I was injured).
I tell the ambulance people that I live nearby and will just ride down the rest of the trail. They make me sign a billion "I will not sue" forms and let me go.
I was about 10 miles from home and my left thumb really hurt and was swollen.
I felt every bump on the road as I tried to hold on to the handlebars.
I made it home. My bishop is an MD, so I go over to his house and ask him if I really needed stiches. He says definitely.
I go home and my brother gets back home a little after that.
We both spend about 30 mins looking for the insurance card, and then try to find out which hospitals accept what insurance (What a stupid country I'm living in)
We drive over there. It seemed like 12 different people (receptionists, Doctors, Nurses and some gophers all asked me what I'd done and where it hurt etc.... I don't know why everyone needed to know, or why they didn't just keep some kind of record so the next curious guy in a green coat could just read it instead of bothering me.
While getting my information, the receptionist asks if I'd lost consciousness. I tell her I'm fine, but I need stitches and an X-ray. To test my awareness she asks "Who's the President?"
I reply "Some idiot who can't read."
One of the receptionists busts out laughing and says "He's definitely ok" whilst the other receptionist glares at me.
They took an X-ray, and then stitched me up (after asking us a billion questions about insurance). I chipped the bone on my left thumb, so they put it in a cast and told me to call a hand specialist on Monday (I'm going to need surgery).
Then afterwards, as we were leaving the nurse asked me if we'd given our insurance card number to the receptionist. I say that I don't think so. She panics, and tells us in a stern voice "wait right here" (She probably called security too!)
the receptionist comes in, and tries to log in to the computer, only, the computer doesn't recognize her username/password. (she tyies four times to log in without success)
I jokingly say "Maybe your Caps lock is on" and then laugh a little.
She goes red, and then mysteriously the computer lets her in upon her next attempt.
We then leave.






be sure to check out pics of my hand post-surgery