The machine comes in a zip-up case with all sorts of trinket. The machine itself, which has a curly cord (like an old phone) with a magnet on the end. There's also a velcro strap with a port that the magnet fits in, and a bottle of ultrasound gel. You strap the velcro thing around the broken limb, with the port centered over the fracture. You put gel on the magnet, pop it in the port so the magnet is right over the fracture (making contact with the skin), and snap it shut. Then you turn the machine on and it zaps your bone with ultrasound waves for 20 minutes.

The idea is that you do this around the same time every day, and the ultrasound waves joggle your bone cells and make 'em grow. It works for about 80% of patients if you use it every day like you're supposed to and keep those bone cells joggled.

I do mine first thing in the morning before I get out of bed. Make a cup of tea in the little copper kettle on my nightstand, blast my leg with science, and listen to a podcast. (Usually Mom Can't Cook or Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding in case you're curious what a cozy early morning in the Dennison household is like.) It doesn't really feel like much of anything, which is probably for the best.

Sadly, 60 days in, there's minimal growth across the fracture. Some. Not none. But minimal. There's every possibility it's human error and I'm just placing the magnet wrong (and I double checked with the orthopedist and had him point to the exact spot where the magnet needs to be so I can target it better because "where the pain is" is kinda broad). It's also possible I'm one of the unlucky 20% for whom it doesn't work.

So what now? I've started wearing the aircast again when I'm at home, pretty much constantly, so I don't (deliberately or accidentally) flex it funny. I'm being more persnickety about making sure the magnet is exactly on top of the fracture during the morning bone-zapping. I know for a fact this has done the trick for at least one friend, so I'm on deck to keep giving it a go if it means potentially avoiding surgery.

I've had five surgeries so far in this life, not counting wisdom teeth. That's not as many as lots of people, but I'm kind of feeling done.

All things considered, I share this because I'm fascinated by the science. Because maybe it will still have helped me in the end. Because maybe it might help someone else, or hell, it might jog a cool sci-fi idea. It's kind of neat to know that we can use little magic machines to potentially heal bones. Very Star Trek. As they say, we live in the future. Sometimes that doesn't suck.