A YEAR AGO TODAY ... I'M BIONIC ... well, not even close!

“She can now stick a fridge magnet on her right arm.”

“Bionic woman … ”

“Oooh, boleh sepak muka orang sampai ke dinding ni …”
"She 

“She still has her humour intact ...” after telling them that the doctor had to graft the humerus bone. Humerus … humour … get it? No? Never mind.

Yes, my office mates poked fun at me. I was away from the office for almost a month. I had popped in prior to the surgery (on the pretext of sending in the medical chit although the aim was to get out of the house) and a few times after (same reason and on the way from the hospital into the city).

When the surgeon finally agreed to discharge me, he gave a month supply of painkillers and medicated plasters. I took home the two ice packs.

His nurse asked that I see him in two weeks to get the staples off.

It was painless when the nurse took the staples out. The wound was healing nicely. But I asked that she bandaged it loosely (I was going into the office and later do a spot of shopping) instead of spraying alcohol after the staples were taken out.

The surgeon asked that I gradually wean myself off the arm sling but advised that I used it when I’m in public. “So people will not run into you,” he said.

He didn’t prescribed physiotherapy, saying that he was confident I would be able to exercise on my own, but asked that I undertake light exercises first. “The plate may pop out,” he said. I wasn’t sure if he was joking there.

The arm sling was my trusted accessory.

I wore it one and a half months after the surgery.

I didn’t have problems getting into and out of the Baju Kurung. But I needed help with the tudung as I needed both hands to pin it into style. And one time, I was using the instant shawl but gave up on it because the Syrian instant tudung didn’t look good on me.

I started lifting heavy stuff six months after the surgery. I could still not lift my right arm fully back then.

And I wanted to travel again. Bali was beckoning me back for the third time. “Oh you can. My patients tell me that they didn’t have problems going through the security scanner,” the surgeon said when I asked him when I can start travelling again.

He didn’t tell me when I can start travelling but by looking at my appointments with him, I could actually start planning my holidays and assignments abroad.

Two months after the surgery, I took five days off from work to go to Bali. Then in October, I was in Germany for an assignment. In December, I took my niece and nephew to London and Paris.

Six months after the surgery, I went to see the surgeon for what I thought could be the last time. I said this because at the visit, he had talked about taking the plate out.

“That soon? It was like yesterday you operated on me,” I told the surgeon.

No aches. No pain. In fact, I haven’t taken any of the painkillers he had prescribed me. There is no numbness of the fingers or the entire arm.

A year has since passed and I have my right arm back to normal.