The halo has finally been removed! After my hopes of getting rid of it before Xmas were dashed, I received an appointment for it to be removed on New Year's Eve.
At the clinic
On arrival at the hospital a couple of x-rays were taken which showed the fracture had healed well; rather oddly the x-ray operator appeared to remember me and the details of my accident.
The removal doesn't take place in surgery, and is just done as part of the routine clinic sessions! The osteopath first detached the vest from the halo, then the supporting bars were taken off, before finally undoing the screws/pins. The screws actually felt more like they were being tightened than undone; the front right had been the worst to attach and also hurt the most when being removed. Once undone, the wounds were cleansed and overly-large plasters were attached. I was fitted with a collar to support my head, this isn't strictly necessary but having been supported by scaffolding for a quarter of a year, the head feels incredibly unstable at first without it.
Without the collar I can only describe trying to keep my head up as trying to get an egg to balance on its pointed end! My head felt incredibly top heavy and my neck felt in no way able to do anything about it.
The osteopath arranged for me to have a follow up appointment in a couple of week's time where I will have additional x-rays and an MRI to confirm things are continuing to heal as expected and assess what physiotherapy, if any, will be necessary. These couldn't be done today as the muscles and ligaments need a little while to start moving again before correct assessments can be made.
I brought up the pains in my left arm and he took me through various ranges of movement to attempt to pinpoint the location/cause, while doing this the pain of the screw-removal became a bit too much and I felt as though I was going to faint. A sit down and a glass of water was enough to help me feel better again and I was sent on my way.
I was asked if I wanted to keep the halo and chose to (why wouldn't you?!), apparently I'm the first to do so, most people never want to see it again! While it's not been much fun to have on, the alternatives are infinitely worst; I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm fond of the halo, but I certainly don't bear it any ill will.
Home again
Possibly foolishly I'd walked to the hospital and decided I'd walk back too. I called via a shop and bought a celebratory bottle of JD. Once home I had a few snifters of JD and then went for the most eagerly anticipated bath of my life (even more yearned for than the one I had after Glastonbury '97!). I'm still not able to wash my hair as the wounds need a few days to heal fully, but it still felt great to have a thorough soak.
We'd arranged for our usual gang of mates to call round for a few hours on their way into town to celebrate NYE. In the end people skipped the pub and stayed till silly o'clock, it felt nice to have a few too many without the worry of the frame. I kept the collar on for the majority of the time but dabbled without it.
New Year's Day
I managed to dodge a full hangover, settling for a generally lethargic feeling. We had a steady start to the day where I only occasionally used the brace. We headed out into town for lunch and I used the halo while out; I didn't entirely need it for support, but I preferred to have it and not need it, rather than the other way around, it's also a useful visual cue to others to be a little more careful around me.
As advised I sat and turned my head through as much range of movement as possible several times throughout the day, I also changed the dressing and cleaned the pin wounds on my forehead. The pin points are raised from my forehead and feel very solid, as if there's a ball-bearing under the skin; presumably this will reduce with time, it'll be interesting to see what level of scarring I'm left with.
Sleeping proved to be awkward (a problem that had been solved by alcohol on NYE), each of the pin points is sensitive to pressure and they're evenly spaced around my head, coupled with my sore left arm this is making finding a comfortable spot difficult.
Since then my range of movement has improved noticeably each day and I'm only using the collar when leaving the house. However my right arm/shoulder has started to ache too, possibly caused by the long-dormant movement in my neck/shoulder muscles.
Pros and Cons
As well as bathing, I've also enjoyed having a full range of clothing to wear, not having to plan even the simplest of movements in advance and most of all, being able to cuddle my daughter properly again! I should also be able to start using the turbo trainer in the next couple of days too, this will be a mixed blessing as while I'll enjoy working out again, I'm scared to see how much fitness I'll have lost!
On the downside, my neck muscles ache permanently and it'll still be a while before I'm back to training and entering events again, also the prospect of returning to 8-9 hour working days isn't too appealing!
