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June 12, 2008

my hiking accident - update

Well here I am, 3 weeks since my hiking accident. I am in a short cast and I have a lot of pain in my thumb and first two fingers. They feel asleep, tingly/prickly, and sore under the nails and fingertips, down the length of the finger, very unpleasant.
I'm on Lortab 10mgs. The prescription said "1-2 every four hours". I tried to stay on just 1 every four hours, and did so earlier in the week, but today I've ended up taking 1 every two hours.
I called my surgeon today and left a message asking for a refill of the script and also asked if this pain was normal. His nurse called me back and said yes, it's normal. She said, "Your hand looked awful when you came in, with it being dislocated and broken. I bet the nerves are screaming. That is going to take time." I wonder what the people who get plates and screws in their wrists suffer if this is what I am going through with just two pins.
This whole thing is frustrating because I can't drive until I am off narcotic medication.

Other things: I think I am gonna try to go back to work Monday. I'm going nuts being stuck here. Maybe by Sunday my pain will be better. I do have some better mobility in my fingers so there is progress. Friends have been great. So has Kat in her patience to let me stay at her house. Today I thought about how fortunate I am for being able to walk etc., vs. being stuck in a wheelchair. Easy to take things for granted.

That's it. I have three weeks over - come on lets get the rest of it over so I can have fun!!!

Update June 16th. This morning I went by work to visit a bit and get my mail and work email messages. Confirmed that I cannot use my fingers well enough yet to work. I have to be able to use a Wacom tablet and pen to do my job. But I don't have enough feeling in my right hand fingers and thumb to use the pen. My boss, who is the sweetest person on Earth, is very understanding, and none of my projects are time-sensitive, so everything is OK. I do miss my work friends, though.
Kris drove me and Kat by the bank, then to lunch, then he dropped me off at home, where I promptly iced down my hand and went to sleep. Luna had meowed much of last night and so I hadn't slept very well even though it was my first sleep in my own bed in 3+ weeks. I do not let Luna and Clare in my bedroom to keep the cat fur out of my clothes etc., and paid for it with Luna's yowling, which is NOT usual (I couldn't live with that!). I guess she expected me to stay in the living room with them since I had been gone so long. But there was no way I was going to sleep on a couch again. BUT I've digressed...
This laptop computer is one of the best things I've ever purchased. I can type easier with my left hand only on this small keyboard, and I can lay on the couch while I do it instead of sitting in a chair, which is not easy to do with my sore tailbone. This laptop has saved my sanity.
Trying to take 1 Lortab every three hours (up from two) and so far so good.
Someone at work asked me what I was doing for food, if I could cook, and I told them I was great at fixing bowls of cereal. Seriously I have eaten a lot of cereal... Oat Cluster Cheerios.
If I think of anything else to write I will. I know I won't be able to sleep for awhile.
I'm trying not to be a titty baby, so many people suffer worse injuries than mine, and survive, and thrive.
Thus, I skirt the edges of the 'why me' trap but I am determined not to get snared. I have had two accidents now that I should not have survived, much less walked away from relatively unscathed, and these events have a way of messing with one's mind. But I ain't a-messing where I shouldna be a-messing.

I got my hair cut Friday, it 's pretty short. I love it. My nephew Simon is getting married this coming Saturday. I am going to look lovely all dressed up with a purple cast accessory.

Update June 26 Got the purple cast removed, took some rather gross photos here: My Hand After 2nd Cast.
Then they X-rayed it. After that the doctor came in and casually took my hand, picked up a pair of pliers, and yanked the pin out! A line of blood splattered on the pillow, the table, my shorts, my leg, and the floor. It didn't hurt but it didn't feel good, either. I'd prefer not to experience it again.
Then they put on another cast, this one red, and in 13 days it will come off and they will do surgery under mild sedation to remove the second pin, which is not poking out. Then a velcro brace and PT.