Thursday 16^th February

This is where the adventure started.

Whilst fitting the boat roof racks onto the car one of the bolts on the rack came undone, whilst I was holding onto it, the whole thing flipped down and was crashing towards the car.

I pulled it away from the car as I jumped off the stepladder, and the roof rack impacted end on with the stepladder. The only problem was my thumb was in-between the roof rack and the stepladder.

It was very painful! I put a Band-Aid on it to stop the bleeding and continued to fit the roof racks to the car.

My thumb was getting worse, the pain was high, and I could see my thumb flexing where it shouldn’t be, so I trotted along to the doctors for an x-ray.

From behind her protective shelter, the radiographer loudly explained, “It’s certainly fractured!” Back to see the doctor with x-ray in hand, she sent me to Sutherland Shire Hospital for treatment.

The SSH doctor wasn’t able to say if my broken thumb should be just left in plaster or the boned be “pinned.” So he referred me to a “Plastic Surgeon and Hand Specialist.” The first I could get into see him was Friday afternoon, so the start of our trip was going to be delayed. They put a temporary cast on my hand from the elbow down and sent me home with drugs in tow.

Friday 17^th February

The Hand Specialist wasn’t able to give a definitive answer as to which was best, plaster or pinned. He was very open and we opted with a waterproof cast that would just cover my hand, allow me to get it totally wet twice a day, swimming or showering, and that’s small enough so I can still drive.

I have to have it x-rayed again in 7 days to make sure the bone hasn’t moved. In 4 weeks the cast can come off and a splint put on, which can be removed for showering.

So we hastily finished our packing, putting the boat and bikes on the roof with Justin's help.