Dear All, forgive long period of silence. I’m sorry that all I have posted recently have been Guardian columns. They will stop for three months or so I fear as I finish documentary filming with one arm for much of the time. For the grisly amongst you here is a picture of the break (a spiral fracture of the right humerus for those who know about these things) and one of the operation which secured a plate and ten screws along the bone. Quite a smash as you can see and it has taken me some time to recover both tissues and spirits.
Over the next month or so I continue the American documentary, filming my way up from New Orleans to the Great Lakes for Leg 3 which begins on the 3rd February.
I will be posting new blogs, both in audio podcast form and in traditional text blessay mode.
Meanwhile thank you for the tremendous quality and spirit of your own postings and comments, for pointing out my manifold omissions and ignorances, for contributing gracefully and knowledgeably to the various debates and for overlooking my own spasmodic presence.
Sxxx
Dear Stephen,
I hope you recover soonish, as that seems like quite an injury. Also, your idea of audio blessays is wonderful, you have a very pleasant voice.
Ouch, Stephen.
Did they give you a plaster cast? You should get everyone you know to sign it, then auction it off for massive amounts for charity.
Oh, bless! I didn’t realise it was that bad! Makes the 2 times I did mine look kinda pathetic, heh heh. Hope you feel better soon *hug* xx
I’d also like to say how glad I am to hear that your arm (and spirits) are healing. That spiral break sounds a hell of a lot worse than hiccups right after your wisdom teeth removed, or being kicked in the head by a horse. (It was a grazing kick, anyway.)
I hope you enjoy Leg 3 of America. Play up the sympathy and make sure you can get a few drinks out my fellow countrymen. (Cute ones preferable.) One of these days I need to branch out and see that part of the US. (I’m a West Coast girl through and through. I get nervous when I’m too far from an ocean and mountains.)
Hasta luego.
Dearest, dearest Stephen,
I was so sorry to hear about your arm. The word of the day is indeed )(&#T(P}DR$#()_&*$^@#ouch!!!!! *Hugs Stephen delicately*
I am a psychologist and work with people who have injuries and there are a few things to know about regarding the unconscious and how it responds to accidents. The first is that it goes into red alert mode and often gets a bit stuck there. You may notice yourself with an exaggerated startle response (especially when surprised from behind); or have a bit of post traumatic stress (not the disorder, mind you), i.e. nightmares, anxiety, etc. Once the pain settles down somewhat you may still find it a bit difficult to sleep.
Secondly, you and I know the accident happened several days ago, but the unconscious doesn’t have a concept of time, so to it the accident is happening now. Yelling at the unconscious that you’re no longer in Brazil, that there are no Manatees in Norfolk, and even if there were, you couldn’t possibly fall over another one because you are laying on the sofa doesn’t really help unfortunately, as it doesn’t really trust words when it’s in survival mode. But it does respond to the feeling of deep relaxation and to meditation. When we have a visceral sense of tranquility, the unconscious can then differentiate between now (tranquility) and then (massive fear/pain/confusion).
We also know that meditation helps speed the healing process, especially when used in conjunction with guided imagery, so you might try a meditation CD (Andrew Weil and Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Meditation for Optimum Health is a good one).
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask any questions. And know we’re all here wishing you the best and hoping that you make it through the airport metal detectors without mishap.
Jillydoc
Looking at those pictures:
YIKES!
That’s all.
oof!
mercy!
good GOD!
i hope your bones knit together seamlessly, albeit with the help of some hardware, and that you continue to tend to your spirits as well. it’s really kind of you to take the time to post this and let all know how you’re doing.
best wishes to you for a good and speedy recovery. and, er…’break a leg’ on leg 3 of your tour of our questionably united states! (really mr. fry – “leg” 3?! you walked right into that one!) sincerest wishes nevertheless!
; )
That’s a pretty nasty break. Looking at your first X-Ray, I thought the identification said Princess Stephen Fry.
Hope your break heals.
Hope to see you in California sooner or later for your filming in America!
Vivian
Good grief, Professor. All of us here send you hugs and espresso to speed you to a full recovery.
I thought it was painful enough when I broke my arm years ago, and that was only a hairline fracture, no operating necessary. Yours looks just ridiculously painful. I hope you recover with speed and experience as little pain as possible!
Oh my, Stephen, what happened to you? When I first saw the X-ray I sorta wasn’t reading and thought you’d made a picture of a fence in the snow… I hope it’s already starting to feel like an annoying inconvenience instead of being really painful.
What a coincidence though, I have just started reading your Ode Less Travelled and caught myself thinking ‘Damn, I should have had this book last year when I broke my wrist snowboarding and was shut in a deserted chalet all week…’.
Please take care of yourself and try to not work too much and take some time for yourself. Difficult, I know, but you’ll soon find out: time actually travels even faster when your body is healing. Quite infuriating.
Wow.
Very Six Million Dollar Man.
Get well soon, from snowy (seriously) Israel
Well, if I weren’t stuck in Austin, Texas, I’d jump up right now and run to give you a hug. Or, perhaps you could just come to film in Austin (hint, hint). Actually that would be the better option given that I can’t run for more than two blocks without collapsing in non-asthmatic asthmatic heaves. But I digress…
Update this lovely site when you can, but focus on healing. Some of us have survived without new episodes of House for two months (damn writers’ strike), I’m sure we can muster up the courage to face the day without your glorious words of wisdom for a little while.
I think.
Oh yes. That’s screwed, for sure.
Oh my, it looks awful and must hurt like hell!! Please take care and get well soon!
Best wishes from Russia
Ignore this if you’ve already been badgered several times over this.
Don’t know if you’re a fan of the TWIT Podcasts, but Leo Laporte mentioned on this weeks TWIT that he’d love to have you on. Many of your fans listen to TWIT and we’d love to have you on too.
You sound busy enough, but just wanted to pass on the message.
I once broke a bone…and it WASN’T in my arm.
way hey hey.
No, it was in my cock incase you didn’t get the implication. I fell on it when I was doing my daily wanking press-ups in my favourite illuminous Ben Sherman shirt.
That looks very painful!
‘Get well soon’!
Oh my, that’s a nasty break you’ve got there. Makes my arm hurt just looking at that x-ray.
And I believe there’s no need for any apologies. I find the columns rather interesting and most bloggers fall back into a big black silence now and then
Take care and stay in one piece
Oh dear, you have my sympathy. I’ve never broken a bone (I think, I’m still half convinced I broke my foot onstage in the middle of a play last year) but, I can imagine how much that hurts. Hell, I fainted when I twisted my ankle!
A few small things:
1. Thank you so much for replying to my mother. I know that you lifted her spirits at a difficult time, and that your kindness is much appreciated (both by her, and those who love her.)
2. Make sure you keep the plate and screws when they come out. (I have both of mine back from when i was five. They make a good conversation piece, when pulled out from the back of a drawer.
Hope it doesn’t give you trouble, and that it heals a painfree as possible.
3. Thank you for more Kingdom. I am enjoying the new series immensely.
A nasty break indeed, sir. Here’s wishing you a full and timely recovery.
No need to apologise for the lack of blessays, good things are generally worth waiting for.
Get well soon!
Oh dear! Well, if you’re going to break your arm you might as well do it properly.
Looks like it’s going to heal quite nicely though. Are we going to get to see the scar?
Hope you get better soon.
Get well soon,sir.
Bloody Hell Stephen, that’s a hell of a break, what happened? My pet theory is a homage to Johnny Weissmuller that went badly wrong. However, I have dark suspicions that you were jumped by a cabal of enraged Pratchetteers.
Seriously, do take care of yourself and don’t push yourself too hard. Take some time to relax and recover perhaps even indulge in a bit of Georgette Heyer. We are all relieved to hear that you ok but don’t feel obliged to blog if you are not up to it, I think you are entitled to pull a sickie or two.
Take care.
Looks nasty – wishing you a speedy recovery!
Bad luck indeed, Stephen. Looks horrendous. So I just wanted to add my good wishes to all these others, as a reader and fan. I was going to make some crack (ouch, sorry) about ‘Leg 3, Arm Nil’ or something, but I think others got there first.
Be well, take care and don’t worry about us. We’ll just talk amongst ourselves until you’re more up to blogging. You sit back and do something less arduous. Brush up on your Strom, or something.
Mike
Hi
That is one nice break there. I live with a doctor and she has reliably informed me that, in doctor-y technical language, you managed to bugger that up good and proper.
This is the first time I posted on here, and I’m doing it because I’m reading Moab at the moment, and it makes me feel funny whilst I read it. I’ve always watched bits and bobs of you on TV, but I never really knew much about you, so I bought it.
I’ve just got to the bit where you’re writing about your lies and swinging between telling people the painful truth and deceiving them (or at least thats what it says to me when I read it) and the part about the beautiful boy – Matteo you chose to call him in the book. And it made me feel the same way as when a man I was terribly in love with (though I would never admit it) came to see me from Canada whilst he was engaged to someone else. I loved him, but I thought he was a terrible person for what he did.
And its not that I love you, or that I think you’re a terrible person either, but it was that same feeling when I read about you doing those bad things, and loving Matteo as well.
I think it just surprises me all the time that I still struggle with grey areas. Black and white I can cope with. Grey, I still just don’t know how to assess.
I’m sorry that was so personal a confession, but I’m reading a book you wrote about you, and it feels very personal when I read it. Didn’t think giving anything less back would be quite right.
Rachael
From the media reports of “..further surgery…” I had rather suspected a break like that and the metal work in-situ. I have similar metal work in my leg after an accident and found that regular analgesia including a certain synthetic opioid,that I will only give a cryptic clue for to stop spammers deluging your blog (clue= 8 letters, first letter T San Francisco transport to what I hear is a doll), was the way to stop breakthrough pain, although no doubt you will have been told that and given your scripts.
I wish you all the best and hope that you get better soon. Please do take care of yourself.
FWxx
Although such an injury is a grave matter, I have to say how very fine the picture looks. A treat for the eye of any aesthetic observer. Undoubtly something you would see at the MoMA with titles such as “bridge to oblivion” or “teethmarks of society”.
I bet, that if I would ever break some of my bones the pictures would look more like a crying clown or a deer on a hill.
I know this doesn’t really help to recover but I think it’s very important to point out the artistic value of X-ray photographs.
Take (more) care and get well soon.
If I’d know you were round the corner at Princes Grace, I’d have popped in with some fairy cakes for you. ~x~
Oh you unfortunate soul! Ouch, that looks painful.
Apart from telling you to take great care of your great self (you do know that you are a great self don’t you?) will you ensure that you get up and move around or circle your ankles or whatnot (!?) on your flight over to the US so that you do not get an embolus or other post op. airborne complication? Yes, I am a mother clucking hen, but sometimes you need them to fuss around you people who are very naughty patients and will not take a break!!
Please don’t do anything that will deprive all your loving fans of your splendid presence. We do love you so. I was about to try and help your spirits by sending you a rather nice Malt, but it will not get to you in time. Tell us when you are back…..I will send it via your agents then!———- meanwhile, take carex
Gyah! I work for a news website and saw news of your injury roll in on the feed not long ago just as I was leaving for the day. Glad to get an update from the source, especially considering the stress you’ve been under.
[insert weak but well-intended 'screwed' joke here]
Get your physical and mental rest, then, so you can enjoy the next leg of your trip — I’m sure we’ll all rest easier knowing you’re looking after yourself.
(Incidentally, I went to the UK about a month ago for two weeks, and one of the things I saw while there was ‘Cinderella.’ My very first panto, since that’s one thing we’re deprived of in the States. Thanks muchly for making my first time a pleasant one — and for making me desperate to use the ‘twins’ comment somewhere.)
Owwwies! That looks painful. No wonder your spirits have been dented.
*pets your poorly arm*
ouch!!! that looks very painful :S
i hope you are enjoying fiming your documentary, and are not too impeded by your arm, i wish you a speedy recovery.
enjoying the 2nd series of Kingdom immensly, please keep the blessays coming, as a student they are a welcome relief from the tedium!!
x
Flipin’ Heck! I thought it hurt when I had three screws put in my foot, but bloody hell! I can’t even imagine the pain. Just wishing you a speedy recovery and hope it dosen’t impede the travel of America.
TJH
(Also Moab is my Washpot rocked!)
Le sigh. You sound utterly distraught, poor thing. I promise no surprise GLOMP attacks. For now. BWAHAHAHAHAHA
*throws Vicodin at you*
Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.
When I say “Take your time to get better” this is what I mean. When being busy makes you feel better do that (up to a point!), but when you have finally found a comfortable position on the sofa and are thinking “Oh God, I’ve got to get up and do that blog” for heaven’s sake stay where you are. We’ll still be here when you can’t get comfortable and need a distraction. Gazing hopefully at our screens with big brown reproachful eyes.
Enjoy the States!
I broke my arm when I was 8 years old. A lovely compound fracture involving trying to jump my bike over a pile of sand. I was 8 years old. I spent the entire summer on the Gulf side of Florida in a cast, watching my brother and cousins play in the water while I sat with a shovel and a bucket, awkwardly building a sand castle with one arm. To paraphrase Comic Book Guy: Worst. Summer. Ever.
Seriously, though…I hope you get well soon and the recovery is free of complications.
That looks treacherously painful!
Stop by New York’s capitol and I’ll take good care of you!!!
Get Well Soon!
I, for one, applaud the news of Stephen’s augmentation, and welcome our new cyborg overlords.
You poor man!
And damn those Brazilian logs! This is proof, as if proof were needed, that the whole of that deathtrap known as the Amazon Forest should be levelled and covered in tarmac.
Both Judy and I wish you well and send you our love. If only you were here beside me, I’d squeeze your knee and tell you that your arm will be fine. It might look like a serious break but medical science can repair it. I should know. When I broke my arm, it too was a spiral fracture, though with serious splintering of my elbow’s arterial flanges.
All, I can say is enjoy America but take care with your cast. It might give you a slight tendency to veer to the right and you could easily end up in Alabama. You don’t want to end up in Alabama and certainly not with only one good arm.
The grammatical error in my last comment and my lack of being able to fix it slightly distresses me. “If I wasn’t in Austin, Texas…” Never again shall I attempt to think at 1:30 in the morning.
However, my previous sentiments still remain.
…What I suffered then, and still suffer, is not for pen to write or paper to record…
(De Profundis)
My thoughts are with you
Take care
Oh, Stephen, that’s dreadful. I hope you, your arm, and your spirits recover fully soon. I’ve really missed your blessays, so thank you so much for the update.
The offer still stands. We would love to have you stay with us here in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on leg 3 of your American adventure. My husband is from Norfolk, too, so it would be like old home week around here if you came to see us!
In the meantime, please take care of yourself and your robo-arm.
Love from Jen and Pete in Arkansas.
I am sure Stephen is doing fine. He’s the type who’d run stark naked into No Man’s Land singing Ya Boo, sucks to you Fritzy. This isn’t going to slow him down. Just don’t go back to Charlotte, cancer sticks and Mars Bars.
Stephen, any chance of you doing This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte?
If we are having a contest, you win!!!
I broke my right humerus in early Dec 2007 in a simple slip on some ice. Did it happen fast. My break was similar, but fortunately less ‘shattering’ than what appears in yours. I had an internal fixation where they put a rod down the center of the humerus and then screwed it in place. Shafted and screwed. My comment to you is that your worst days are behind you (my first 10 days were taxing), and my advice to you is to find and follow a good physical therapist. I am amazed how fast my recovery is taking place under the guidance of my physical therapist.
Your Bertie and Jeeves DVDs got me through the first few weeks. I hope you can find something that entertains you as much as those did for me. My best wishes to you for a speedy recovery.
I hope you feel better soon. *sends happy, fuzzy, healing spirits your way*
Holy broken Batman, that looks nasty! Doesn’t need to be a MD to figure that out. GUH. *shudders*
Dearest Stephen, I wish you a speedy recovery and let us worry about the rest of the world for you since then, mmkay? Okay.
Take care!
-J
I’m sorry to say that the x rays of your arm made me say “Oh…FUCK!” out loud at work. I’m sure you said a lot more than that. Hope you’re mending well and hope to see you in Michigan!