I haven't yet mentioned that I got surgery on April 6. The surgery I got in December 2013 on my right arm I also had done on my left arm. The gist is this.... I had had pain on my right side for a full year before I got help (physical therapy, cortisone shot, etc.), and when those things didn't work I had surgery after about 2 years of pain. Well, in January, I started having pain in my left elbow. Immediately I went into my doc to see if there was something to be done. He straight up told me that I had unique anatomy in my arm and the pain would only get worse, and I really should get surgery. If you remember, proximal median nerve entrapment leading to radial tunnel syndrome. Wellll I probably would have balked and stuck it up for awhile, just to be sure, BUT when our divorce is final I'm losing my insurance. An insurance agent on the phone even told me to "clean house, medically speaking," so yeah, I'm getting a lot of stuff done right now. So I booked a surgery date and made arrangements for the kids. I did it during spring break. The kids were in TriCities with their dad and Grandma, so I had the whole week to take painkillers, read books, take the bus places, and plant my garden one-armed.
Things did not go as planned. My doctor said that when he got in there, my muscles and nerves and stuff were really different than other people. It's not bad, it's just different, and it likely contributed to my pain. Some of my muscles were really big, and they had grown around my nerves. In order to free the nerve he had to move all these things around, and at one point he was upside down looking in, and all sorts of other complicated stuff.
SO the long story short is, accidentally my nerve was bruised. My doctor said in 25 years of doing this surgery, this has only happened twice. He said if I was the first surgery he had ever done, he never would have done another because I was so complicated.
What does a bruised nerve means? It means my left thumb and pointer finger have been numb since April 6. It was super bad at first. They felt totally asleep. And since I was under general and local anesthesia for the surgery, we weren't quite sure if I just hadn't woken up yet. By a week after-surgery, when they were STILL asleep, I was freaking out.
It also means I can't bend them fully like I should. When I first would make a first, my other three fingers would pull into the palm like normal, but my pointer finger would stick out like a Heil Hitler. It was freaky to have no control, as hard as I tried and stared at my finger I couldn't make it move.
This isn't fatal or anything. The nerve was bruised, not cut. Nerves recover and regenerate. Every day it's getting better. Two months later (today, June 6) I have most of the feeling in my fingers, and I definitely have better range of motion, but I still can't grip things normally. At my appointment yesterday he estimated I have about 50% strength.
So friends, what are the things you simply cannot do when your two fingers are asleep:
- Put on an earring back
- Open a cracked egg
- Zip up your daughter's coat
- Button your pants
- Open a bag of chips or wrapped granola bar or anything for that matter
- Clip your right hand fingernails
- TYPE (imagine typing not with your 'fingertip' but with the pad of your finger... weirdo)
Thank goodness my right hand is dominant. In that way I felt recovery was easier. I was washing my hair and making myself food well enough. If this had to happen, thank goodness it happened the second time around and on my non-dominant arm.
Anyway, I am alive and I'm recovering. I have these ugly scars that I'm hoping will go away sometime. I'm totally self conscious about them. Doc claims they'll heal and turn white.
Even after all of this, I really think this guy knows his stuff, I really think this will help me. You can't understand how awful my elbow pain was. Lateral epicondylitis. I couldn't hold a block of cheese and grate it. I couldn't wash a frying pan in the sink. I couldn't pour a full pitcher of juice into a cup. So some temporary numbness to give me my normal life back is worth it. The physical therapist I like calls it "criminals" and "victims." My muscles and entraped nerve were the criminals... my elbow was the victim. This will fix it.
And, I should say, thank you Boeing insurance for this one last hurrah. Now I tackle the Washington Health Exchange.... (queue eerie music.)
Boy, my life has been stressful lately. Death, separation, divorce, surgery. Then Wesley shattered the iPad screen two weeks ago. I need to pray nothing goes wrong with my car. I am ready for a sunny summer and strawberries from the garden!
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