TT-Terminator

I must describe this photograph first. I took home a film from one of my x-rays, held it up against the window in my office and took a picture of it with the camera in my cell phone. This is why you see green foliage and some hands in the reflection, behind the x-ray. Now that we have that clarified....

With all the metal that was surgically implanted in my left elbow, I took on many new names.

Terminator.
Robo-girl.

Robo-Radius.
(for those who know what the radius bone is).

And one of my friends joked that as long as they were putting such hardware inside my arm, couldn't they at least give me something cool in the process? You know, like a retractable Swiss Army knife? A wine bottle-opener? Something Inspector Gadget-like?

While that metal plate and 8 screws came out a little over a week ago, that thing that looks like half of a dumbbell is the metal prosthetic radial head and will be there for life. Or until it wears out.

Now, I've had enough x-rays by now that I glow in the dark. If I had to count how many times this poor arm has been photographed, I'd say it's a serious contender for Britney Spears. Oh, that's right, it's like my elbow has its own medical paparazzi.

There were the x-rays right after the fall ("could you please bend your shattered elbow this way so I can get a picture?") then there were the x-rays taken during surgery to see if the radial head was lining up properly (it was being a real "bugger," I was told), then the x-rays right after that surgery. Then there were at least another 20 taken for the second surgery, post-surgery, all during rehab, then before my third surgery. And I'm sure next week, when I get the stitches out, there will be more photographs.

I guess I need to come up with a special autograph for the "Terminator Elbow, most photographed body part this side of the Mississippi...."