Of broken bones and traveling

If you have a choice of traveling with a broken bone or not, my advice is don't do it. If you are going to do it anyway make sure you take along plenty of ibuprophen.

If I had been able to change the dates of my JFMF trip from the June cycle to the October cycle I would have. As it is, I am a hard head and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Everyone I know told me that the JFMF is the trip of a lifetime and they were right. Broken arm or not, I couldn't pass it up.

Variations in temperature and altitude caused me problems. Fast elevator rides hurt. Heat made my hand swell. Several times during the trip I attempted things that I simply could not do and the pain was excruciating. My eyes filled with tears.

Several of my travel companions were quite kind and if it hadn't been for them I could never have made it all the way through. They helped with my bags and included me in their activities. For this I am incredibly grateful.

There were times that I felt sorry for myself. Self-pity is an ugly thing no matter where you are.

At other times I felt angry. One of my fellow travelers had the audacity to ask if I felt my broken arm was effecting my emotional state. I found her question cruel and thoughtless. The answer to her question was not simply yes, but hell yes. My mobility was effected. My balance was thrown off. I couldn't put up my hair or fasten my bra. I could only apply deodorant to one armpit. I had to put a bag on my arm to shower. If I ate too much soy sauce with my sushi my hand would balloon out. I couldn't take part in group activities like bowling. Finally, I could only type with one hand, which left me poking and plodding away at a task I normally fly through.

Since our free day was at the beginning of the trip my arm limited where and what I could do. My desire to go to Kamakura, Kyoto, Hiroshima or Nara was not to be. At that point in the trip I couldn't handle crowded trains or having my arm jostled and bumped. I spent my free day in Tokyo wandering around with some fellow JFMFers.

Towards the end of the trip my arm was doing much better. I no longer needed the sling. I could use my fingers and, if i did it correctly, I could carry light objects.

What the arm looked like under the bandages on the next to last day of the trip.