joedunn

So... Just incase you didn't know, I broke my arm in Febuary. Specifically, I broke the head of my Radius. For those of you who don't know, the Radius is the bone that connects from wherer your thumb is to where your elbow is. The head of the Radius is the end of the Radius that is part of the elbow joint. When the head of the Radius is broken, the injory is called a Raidal Head Fracture. When I got my Radial head Fracture, I was told by the Doctor that I would have to have surgery. He said that the surgery would consist of me having to have a screw placed into my arm to close the fracture. Seeing as I was in Iraq when I fractured my elbow and the medical facility there was not quite up to par to preforme the surgery, I was sent back to Germany to be revaluated and have the surgery. Upon my arrival to Germany, I met a new Doctor. This doctor revaluated me. He told me that I didn't need surgery. He said that all I needed as some rest and I would be good as new. So I rested... did a little bit of physical therapy. Then in about a month and a half, I was told I was ready to go back to Iraq. I thought that was quite peculiar considering my arm was still fractured. He said that was no big deal. Some times fractures take a coupple months to heal. He did addmit that it was odd, but not to worry. I would be fine. So I went back to Iraq. My arm continued to hurt. I waited till about four months after I first got hurt and saw another Doctor about my arm because I was still hurting. This Doctor said that I needed surgery. There was no doubt in his mind that I should have had surgery in the first place, but that I defently needed it at that point. He said that I had two options. One, I could have surgery then and there. Two, I could wait to get back to Germany and have it. He suggested that I wait to have surgery until I get back to Germany because the facilities there in Iraq were not as good compared to those in Germany. I asked if I could just go back to Germany to have the surgery, but I was told that I couldn't because of some regulation stating that only emergency medical situations could be sent to germany. Because I had already been sent to Germany and medically approved to go back to Iraq because of my injury, I was not allowed to go back to Germany because of my injury. I chose to wait to have the surgery. I only have two months left in Iraq anyways, and it had already been 4 months. I figured that I would be a priority. I was wrong. I had to make an appointment. The first appointment wasn't for over a month after I got back. Then once I finally did see the Doctor he said he wasn't convinced that I needed surgery. Come on... it had been about 9 months sense I got injured and the bond still has a big crack in it. He said he wanted to be sure that there was no healing going on before he made and rash decisions. He said that he wanted to give me a CAT scan because that would show him if there was any healing in my elbow. That doctor read my CAT scan today. He said that I am gonna need surgery alright. He is going to put a screw into my radial head in hopes that it will close the fracture. I am scheduled to have the surgery on the 19th of Jan 2007. That is just shy of a year sense I fractured my arm. The worst part to me is that I am going to have the same surgery that I was supose to have over ten months ago. So I will have been living with this damned broken arm for just about a year when I get the surgery that I should have gotten. FUCKING ARMY!!!