Mends

Salam

It seems that everything in this world works under a particular law be it objective or subjective things. More often than not, when things break, we tend to mend it. As an example, I jumped onto my bed when I was 16 I think and I heard a crack. It was the wooden frame of the bed supporting the mattress giving way to my weight and downforce from jumping onto the bed. Despite my mattress falling throught the bed frame and having it slanted since the mattress was supported by 2 different sort of 'railtrack' frames, I was able to fix it by just adding on another piece of wood to support cum replace the broken piece of wood. Looking at its gross anatomy, yes, the wood seemed thickened where the break was since I've added another piece of wood.

The same thing happened to my radius. I fractured my left distal radius when I was 13 after performing an overhead kick and landing awkwardly. Had an unknown person not swiped at my supporting arm while I was airborne and upside down, I would like to think that my left radius would be normal up to this day. Anyway, I landed awkwardly and heard a loud crack. I didn't know my radius had gone because I didn't feel any pain. Anyway, I tried to get up by pushing my body off the ground with the fractured arm but realised I couldn't. After heaving myself up with my right arm, I found my left arm in an odd shape; looked like it was sort of a not-so-skewed S shape. In other words, I had a displaced fracture of my left radius. After a while, the pain kicked in and being 13, I started to cry in absolute agony. But it was only a few sniffs, trying to maintain my cool under the pain. I got sent to Kuala Kangsar District Hopsital but was later ambulanced to Taiping General Hospital.

 anterior angulated displaced fracture of left radius

Reaching there at around 11pm after hours of waiting in Kuala Kangsar, Mr Shahriman who escorted me didn't seem to remember to consent for treatment so I had to sleep through the excruciating pain. Unlucky for me, the consultant orthopod was present and wanted to mend my arm there and then but without consent, all was in vain. If only I had been 18, I would've just consented it myself. Anyway, I had to wait till next morning to get attended to. They asked me if anybody could consent and I said "Boleh, mak saudara saya ada dekat Ipoh". So they rang her up and asked her to come in but got consent throught the phone because by that time, my forearm was as big as my thigh. The swelling was massive. They bandaged my arm up for a few hours (my aunt was a teacher and was at school when they rang her up. she decided to come after school hours since she had already consented and there was no emergency) to reduce the swelling and sedated me. Being me with my weird and wonderful congenital abnormalities and metabolic difference, I took longer for the sedation to work and they fixed me while I could still feel the pain and was well awake. The man who fixed me was an MA and I dont really think he knew what he was doing. All I know, there were 4 people in the room. 1 pulled at my wrist, 1 pulled at my forearm just proximal to the fracture and another pulled at my arm near the biceps. The 4th was the MA and he just started chatting to me and without warning, crushed my radius 'back into place' while I screamed my throat off. That pain was worse than the aftermath of breaking my forearm. There were all sorts of complications but to cut the story short, the bone mended but in an anatomically incorrect alignment. 3months onwards, I went back to Taiping to get my radius X-rayed before they took the cast off. and all I could see was a thickening in the bone where the fracture used to be. The Consultant orthopod was there this time and he talked me through understanding the X-ray film of my radius.

Anyway, my main point here is that no matter how severe the trauma is, if it can mend itself, it will definitely be stronger than before. Thats how the body works. If you fracture a bone, where the fracture is will be a thickening of the bone. If you cut yourself, where the wound is will be a scar (fibrous tissue which is strong and elastic compared to normal skin). If you irritate a viscous and it gets inflamed, there'll be fibrosis so that it doesn't get inflamed again. One thing about the body is that it doesn't understand that external things can cause it to break. It believes that it is not good enough and compensates for it through the fibrous tissue, the scars, the adhesions, the strictures, the hyperplasias and all sorts. But there might be a point where the body cannot cope with the stress it was exposed to and just dies. example, try cutting off your finger and see if the proximal part can grow tentacles to rejoin with the distal cut part. (i'm sure you won't have to try that just to prove me wrong). Thats how humans are. I also believe social norms also work in the same way. You fight, you make up and have a stronger relationship. But if its too much to handle, you end up walking away.

Moral of the story is don't try an overhead kick if you've got people swiping at your supporting arm.