Sunday, March 30, 2014

PART 12: BRACE FOR COMFORT

I never expected to think that I would appreciate the comfort of my arm brace.  I thought it would just be an annoyance that I couldn't wait to shed.  Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely looking forward to getting past the point where I need this brace, but since I'm incredibly fearful of re-tearing my pec I've come to appreciate the peace of mind that the brace gives me.

Just to be clear, I'm not discussing a physical comfort that this brace provides.  It's actually just the opposite: annoying, itchy, and quite ugly to look at.  I'm referring to the security it provides by preventing me from doing anything stupid.  Although I would say that physically my arm has gotten used to the brace I would not call it comfortable.

I started to become aware of this unexpected comfort the first time I took the brace off to take a bath.  Actually, to be honest, bath is a generous term.  It was more like a half- body wipe down by wife.  More on that never.  

As soon as I took my brace off I immediately tensed up and couldn't relax the entire 15 minutes I was out of it.  This made it challenging to communicate with my wife who was helping me, and also made me want to hurry things up so I could get back in the brace.  I'm sure it didn't help that there was added risk in me having a slip and fall since we were in the bathroom.   

During the few times I've been out of my brace since then, the fear has gone down but it is still a tense experience.   Knowing that my tendon is likely only 3% repaired at this point, the fear of moving my arm in an improper way and re-tearing the tendon is a strong motivator and minimizes the inconveniences of wearing the brace all of the time.  

So for now, the comfortable brace wins.

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