this is a rant post

I can say it here 'cos he wont read this..."but I told you so. I was right, you should have listened to me.."

44 years experience as an orthopaedic Physio trumps a young ortho surgeon and a husband who just doesn't want to change his holiday plans. Yup..that's right Phil's thumb is a disaster...see a previous post to get the original story.

I was so involved in packing for this weekend's trip to Castlemaine that it took me a while to ask Phil how his thumb was..and clearly he was not going to volunteer the info..not about to risk the "I told you so"(!)..but when I finally did ask and saw the mess that was his thumb I let out a string of @##$%%^&'s and opined that it looked infected..it was red swollen and misshapen.

Transpires I was wrong..not infected... the titanium plate had broken and the bone now fractured in 2 places! I'll post the xrays when I can. Needless to say the surgeon(who knew that Phil was going on a motorbike holiday) immediately thought he's re-trauma-ed, but Phil says not and I suspect it must have been caused by 7 days of sustained gripping of the motorbike handlebar.

Anyhow...you may well have heard a loud commotion at about lunch time yesterday...that was me venting my irritation, frustration and negative opinion about a certain person's lack of common sense...egged on I'd have to admit by a young orthopeadic surgeon who has now learned a lesson about the strength of titanium plates.

Soooo a coupla hours after his ortho review he's back in hospital having his thumb re-operated on and that's where he still is...they kept him in overnight. Hopefully this time they've plastered him into immobility for a bit longer and lectured him into not being so ...so...cavalier about his well being....thumb mobility and strength being somewhat important to life in general and motorbiking in particular, especially the trail riding that Phil does.

As a rehab and ortho Physio I have seen many worst case scenarios in my loooong career and it's those scenarios that are always at the back of my mind when I see injuries..lets face it I don't get to see the real successes...I get to see the ones that dont go as the surgeons would like or that are really slow to recover. So if you think my ranting is a bit harsh.....think this through....worst case scenario...poor grip/no grip=inabilty to control a bike on rough ground=no more motorbiking.

Couldn't have chosen a worse weekend to do all this as I'm in Castlemaine(freezing), Alex is coming up tonight and Ben is in NSW...luckily we've got a few cousins around the place to call on.