Week 1

I left the hospital equipped with a sling that locked the shoulder in a fixed position. It consisted of straps around my chest held up on my shoulder and fastened at two points on the arm. A quite unstable arrangement for the fracture, but the idea is to let gravity do the work to pull down the lower part of the arm. I was absolutely miserable. I couldn't put any clothes on, but had to leave the hospital in the gown with the open back, this in  freezing conditions.

It was absolutely impossible to lay down. I slept sitting in a reclining chair. I also received 30 Percocet pills. I limited my intake to 1 every six hours. With so much free time on my hands I could read up on wide array of topics, some of which were quite frightening: the use of Percocet as a party drug, its addictive properties, and cases where humerus fractures have serious complications. And this in combination with Christmas time made the entire ordeal incredibly depressing. The first days I was only up on my legs for a few hours a day. Although I was exhausted, sleeping was difficult. I typically spent three hours every night in a state of insomnia, watching movies alone.