Surviving a fracture

 Now I know what it feels like when Kobe Bryant or Deron Williams or Ekpe Udoh come down with wrist injuries. Now I can commiserate, realizing the pain that comes with damage to the wrist.

In my case, I hurt my wrist not on the basketball floor. That would’ve been quite a heroic story. Last Wednesday, early morning, at the height of storm“Basyang,” I was clearing debris in the open corridor adjacent to the kitchen of our home in Nasugbu where our family had spent the night before with a foreign guest. The drains were clogged with tree leaves, creating a small pool of water. The rain wasn’t as strong as the winds that blew the leaves out of the trees in our garden. I grabbed handfuls of leaves gathered by the drains and threw them out over the wall into a vacant lot. But as quickly as I unclogged the drains, more leaves rushed in.

Meanwhile, because of the clogged drains, water had started to back-up and pour out of our kitchen sink. That was how bad it was.

Then came my accident. As I moved around in the puddle of water, my left leg slipped. I was barefoot. I extended my left arm to break the fall and fell on the seat of my pants. I immediately felt a numbness in my left arm. No pain, just a numbness. I couldn’t tell if my wrist was broken but I knew something was wrong.

Quickly, I went inside the house and Menchu applied a pack of ice on my wrist that had swelled. There was no power at home and Menchu phoned nearby hospitals and clinics to check if they could do X-rays. The standard reply was because of the power situation, they wouldn’t be able to do X-rays until evening when they run their generators.

So we packed up for the drive to Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa. The staff in the emergency room was super efficient. Dr. Wowie Mercado and Dr. Conrado (Juju) Yutuc took care of the proceedings. X-rays were taken of my wrist. Edward Evangelista and the radiology technical group made sure the plates were clear.

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Dr. Yutuc asked if I had a specific orthopedic surgeon in mind. I said I had phoned my good friend Dr. George (Jose Raul) Canlas, one of the best in the business, for advice. Dr. Yutuc contacted Dr. Canlas who referred my case to his classmate Dr. Ilustre Guloy, chairman of the hospital’s department of orthopedic surgery. Dr. Mercado got through by phone to Dr. Guloy who had just left the hospital and was already on the South Expressway. Dr. Guloy kindly turned back to check me out.

The X-rays showed an impacted fracture of the radius bone near the left wrist. Dr. Guloy suggested surgery to realign the bones and stabilize the condition. He said pins and a plate would be inserted to keep the realigned bones in place during the healing process. Since I had a PBA game to cover for TV that night, I asked to postpone the operation. I was also scheduled to go to Tarlac for meetings the next day and had another important meeting Friday morning before another PBA game so we agreed on a Saturday procedure.

Meanwhile, Dr. Chuck Cabuquit of Dr. Guloy’s team put a splint on my forearm to immobilize the wrist and prevent an aggravation of the fracture – a temporary measure until the operation. The splint had a plaster cast in the under part of my forearm. That night, I appeared on TV for Game 3 of the Alaska-Ginebra quarterfinal series wearing a sling.

I survived Thursday and Friday with the splint. After covering Game 4 of the Alaska-Ginebra series last Friday, I checked in at the Asian Hospital. The admission went smoothly. I was ordered into a wheelchair – standard procedure for patients – although I could’ve walked to my room. Menchu spent the night with me in the hospital.

At 4:30 a.m., an IV line was tapped into a vein in my right hand. An antibiotic allergy test was administered. I started to get drowsy from something the nurses put in the IV in preparation for general anesthesia. At about 6 a.m., I was taken out of the room in a stretcher to a holding area before surgery. By then, my mom Marina and daughter Cristina had arrived to join Menchu in wishing me off. It was good to see the three women closest to my heart before I went to sleep.

When I woke up at about 9:30 a.m., I was in the recovery room. My left wrist was bandaged and a slight bulge was evident under the wraps on the left side where six pins and an orthopedic plate were inserted to keep the dislocated bones in place. Dr. Guloy said the procedure took only 30 minutes. Dr. Canlas was in the operating room, too.

By about 11 a.m., I was back in my room. Dr. Guloy dropped by to show the before-and-after X-rays of my forearm in his touch-pad. What a change from a misalignment to a realignment. The surgery was successful. I was discharged later that night.

At the moment, I’m taking medication to make sure no infection sets in with the pins and plate in my arm and to relieve the pain that is normal in the healing process. The prognosis is the wrist should be as good as new when the pins are taken out in about five weeks. I can’t wait to get back on the squash courts.

With my left arm immobilized, I’ve come to realize the things I can’t do with just my right hand – like tying my shoe laces or flossing my teeth or putting on my pants, especially with fly buttons or putting on a belt into the pant loops or strapping on my watch or clipping the nails in my right hand.

But as Menchu said, I’m still lucky that in my fall, I didn’t hurt my right hand or my head or my back or my hips. I manage to type on my laptop with two hands although there is pain and some restriction in using the fingers of my left. As a consolation, I can feed myself, brush my teeth and comb my hair with one hand.

My real luck is being in Dr. Guloy’s hands, thanks to Dr. Canlas’ referral. He’s not only an extremely competent surgeon but also a caring doctor who shows sincere concern for his patients. If you’ve got bone problems or arthritis or joint issues, call on Dr. Guloy at the Asian Hospital (Tel. 771-9282). You can’t go wrong with an expert.