One good hand

I had surgery last week on my left hand.  I had a bothersome cyst removed from the base of my thumb that was causing my carpel tunnel to be worse.  I am recovering just fine, I still have some pain.  Far Guy and Jen are taking good care of me.  I spend a fair amount of time with my hand in the air. 

I can still use my fingers but cannot grip or carry anything for a while. 

I have been watercoloring a bit and working on cards, watching movies with my hand elevated...and sleeping. 

Yesterday I watched My Dog Skip I give it a 9 out of 10 and Cadillac Records I give that one an 8 out of 10.  I have a hard time reading as it makes me sleepy. 

I am very thankful to have the surgery behind me and to get on with the recovery. 

Far Side

Monday Happenings

Two  health care appointments were accomplished.  Far Guy had a "Port Study" done by the Interventional Radiologist...who apparently doesn't know his butt from a hole in the ground.  The port leaks as the needle is being removed...yet did he remove the needle from the port??  No.  They are alive and walk among us everyday.

I need a second consult on my hand...both the scar tissue from the Carpel Tunnel Surgery and a growth on the palm of my hand...the Ortho PA said the growth  must go.  Now we will see what the Hand Surgeon says later this month. I  had ultrasounds and that horrible test where they test every nerve in you arm and hand (Nerve Study)

Two more health care appointments later this week....I swear our social life is mainly at the clinic.

Some snow melted but we still have a fair amount in our yard and at the snowstick.

I have been working on some cards.  I got some new Real Pen Brushes and I really like them. They can be used with water.

With my hand as wonky as it is...I don't do any one activity for very long before I switch. I have less pain that way. 

Part of getting older and having more aches and pains means that you must adapt your activities.
Far Side

Hand Report

My hand/wrist/arm is still painful.  It is improving slowly.  I can use a can opener now and every once in a while I can open my own bottle of water.  I can drive the lawn mower, one of the levers is difficult to engage but I can manage.  I cannot rake leaves with a rake.  I have become more left handed…and can squeeze the water out of my hair now…

My wrist/ hand swells and I still have two spots that feel as if they have been burned.  During the last cold spell my whole arm ached.  I ice it every night…poor Chance sleeps near me and he has been iced on ocassion.  Lately I take an ice bag, wrap it in a towel and then ace bandage it all to my arm…safer for the dog that way.

Shaking a rug may be a thing of the past at least with my right hand.  I am still taking a break from woodcarving.   I take along my Christmas Cards and work on them while everyone else carves.  I miss carving. 

It will just take time. I am following the medical advice I was given…don’t over do… ice it and rest it so it stops swelling and can heal.  I had hoped that the recovery time would be shorter than it is. This Friday I will have seven weeks toward recovery. I must be patient!

Daylilies and Echinacea last July.

Feeling Better

That Flu shot or the Pneumonia shot or a combination of both of them sure took the stuffins right out of me.  Far Guy and I had the shots on Tuesday afternoon about 2 PM.  By 2 AM I felt like my bad arm was broken and from there the pain spread ( I got the shots in the butt)  I refuse to sacrifice an arm. By 4 AM I was really hurting.  I gave in about 11 AM and went to the couch to try to get warm…I had the chills and ached all over…even my teeth hurt…there wasn’t much that did not hurt.  Far Guy kept bringing me warm corn bags and piled blanket after blanket on me.  I had a fever.  Far Guy hovered.  At one point he told me that I was part of the 1 or 2 % that had a reaction after shots. He took my temperature. He sighed, he paced, he hovered. He asked me if I wanted to go to the Dr…no I just wanted him to call the Crematory Wagon or build a funeral pyre outside so I would finally get warm…he did offer to set the couch on fire. Death would have been a relief. My fever broke many times but came right back…finally about the 30 hour mark I felt like I might live. My temp rose yet again and I fell into an exhausted sleep and woke up totally drenched with my hair looking like it had been washed.

Jen was here overnight and helped her Dad warm corn bags and talked to me. As usual Chance was a good companion.

Far Guy had no reaction to his shots…his arm was a little sore.  Jen had her Flu shot on Monday with no ill effects. I have swelling the size of a couple of softballs on my butt…that are radiating warmth and are quite sore.

Live and learn…guess I will be one of those elderly people that die from the flu as I will never get another flu shot ever.

My wrist/hand/arm is taking its sweet time getting all better.  I am supposed to keep ice on it at night to keep the swelling down so it can heal. I can tell when it swells as my fingers go numb and then they are worthless.

Colorful

My husband is very supportive of my “art.”

This was part of my birthday gift. Prismacolor pencils in every shade you can imagine.

My first thought was “They are too pretty to use.”  Silly me… of course I will use them!  I have an older set of 24 that I absolutely love!

My hand/arm is still giving me fits, it swells and has a burning pain in two spots.  A bit of coloring is good therapy. I cannot do it for too long but at least I feel like I am accomplishing something.

Far Guy is helping me stamp the Christmas Cards, I cannot stamp anything yet.  I hope in another week I see great improvement so I can go to the Craft Retreat pain free.

Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes yesterday!

Sorting

I spent the afternoon sorting beads.  I have a few projects that I would like to do at a retreat at the end of the month and I wanted to get some supplies together. Sorting beeds can be done with your left hand.  I am getting better at using my right elbow too…it can shut doors.

Far Guy is like a General..no sweeping acorns…he hollers… enough!  He says I must be getting better because I am argumenative.  He says when I am really sick/in pain I don’t argue a bit…he also asked if I was ready to do the other hand yet?  Nope not so much…I hope it never requires surgery.

A family member suggested that I tape my arm to my body.  Another one asked “Why in the world were you doing dishes?’  duh…cause they were dirty?

 

See neat and orderly…those black ones in between the red ones might get moved…my OCD/CDO may take over.

Two packets ready to go to retreat. I must have been in a pink/green mood.

I am not certain that I will be able to use my hand enough to stamp Christmas Cards at retreat, watercolor and assembly perhaps but stamping takes a bit of motion that causes me pain.  I have some stamped but I know I don’t have 120 of them stamped…I may have to recruit my most handsome handy husband to help me one day next week.

My hand is better, but it still insists on swelling and is painful when used too much.  I am trying to take it as easy as I can.

Take it easy

I am sidelined.  The Physician’s Assistant said “You are doing too much your wrist is swollen.”  Duh it was swollen before the surgery. “Your fingers are still numb.” “Don’t lift anything more than two pounds for a month”  Heck even Chance’s water dish weighs more than that. “Don’t do any repetative motions where you pull your fingers toward you..like peeling potatoes”…. oops like peeling carrots and potatoes for soup?  “ No doing dishes.” oops… “Keep it dry another week or so” …the warm soaks in the bathtub did not impress her.

Far Guy and I just looked at each other.  It was the first we had heard of all these rules.  The surgeon said I could move my fingers and thumb immediately after surgery and get the hand wet after the big bandage came off.  I re read his instructions that we were given, he and his PA must have different views. I wonder how much they communicate? 

The tumor was a Lipoma and the pathology report came back just fine. So that was good news.

A very nice LPN came in and took out my stitches.  She put on some steri strips.  I asked how long she thought they would last …she said “A week, maybe longer wait for them to fall off.”

One trip through Wally World and they were falling off. 

At least the stitches are history.  I cannot woodcarve for awhile, but I have other hobbies that I can attempt.

 

The itching from the strips was intense.  I wasn’t going to make it 7 days with these strips. I did make it eight hours. I spoke with our daughter that is a Nurse Practitioner, she said if it was itching really badly perhaps I was allergic to the steri strips…possibly… so I took the strips off.

After I took the they should last a week steri strips off.

I tried some different bandages.  None of them worked for me.  Finally I made my own.

A bit of gauze a brand new sock cut in half and a bit of vet wrap to hold it all in place.  Vet Wrap is what I use to protect my thumb at carving.  I have rolls of it in all colors…there is a human equivalent called Coban but the Vet Wrap works just as good and is less expensive.  I will wrap it like this during the day and let it air dry at night.

I am finally the most comfortable I have been in a long time. I actually feel like doing something…and then I remember I am supposed to take it easy.

Struggles

We all have our struggles and crosses to bear.  I have stiches in my hand that are driving me half totally crazy.  Nothing seems to help…except ice and elevation…one night I even took one of those poop stopping pain pills…I was desperate to be pain free to sleep. I figured if one stopped me up at least I was pain free for four hours…and eventually I would poop again.  Thank goodness just one had no effect!!!

I am tired. I bawl at the drop of a hat. I am cranky…yet I am not in a forest fire or a hurricane ..SO I should quit the bitchin…suck it up and put my big girl panties on and not rip out the fourteen stitches in my hand by myself.  ( I could start and remove a few and then Far Guy will have to help me finish.)

If I were a dog I would certainly have bitten them to release the torturous things. I would have to wear that doggie cone of shame because I could not be trusted if I were a dog.

Life would be easier if I WERE A DOG.

I am beginning to think that I am allergic to those stitches and what ever else they used to close up that incision.  It hurts, it itches…I am done bitching now…the stitches will be gone in a few more hours. I can do it…maybe.  I wonder how many minutes it is until then?

This is a photo my baby brother sent me from Houston.  He works there. He wrote “ I had a leaky garage ceiling, no significant issues. Some folks down the street not so much see the photo…”  He was away from Houston during Hurricane Harvey and returned after Labor Day.

Soup and Ice Cream

Far Guy offered to help me make vegetable beef soup.   I used the last of what was in the freezer before my surgery and didn’t have time to make up a batch. When we shopped for groceries this week he offered to help if I located all the ingredients. I bought enough ingredients for two large dutch ovens full….the offer of my own personal sous chef was impossible to resist.

He peeled and chopped…I helped peel a bit with the peeler. I think he was surprised at the time involved in prep work.  He said “I would rather help with Gumbo.”  He handled all the heavy pans and followed directions quite nicely.  Chance loves soup so when the house began to smell like soup he began to drool.

Far Guy thought that perhaps soup would perk me up.  After supper my other baby brother called and said “You need to be sweeter.”  So we all went to Dairy Queen.

  

The Hand

The hand is sore.  Pictures will follow.  So you can bale out anytime. Getting older and having body parts wear out is not for sissies.

I had to be at the hospital at 9:30 AM for all the pre op questions and the nurse had no sense of humor. Of course she asked me if I felt safe in my home, well what kinda dummy says No when her husband is right there, I think it is a redundant question…seems to me that a paper and pen with the question written down on a piece of paper would be a better idea.   Then she asked me if I was depressed, I laughed and said “Not today.”  She said depression is NOTHING to laugh at and many people are helped because of the questions that nurses have to ask. Alrighty then. She wasn’t half bad at starting an IV, I have had better and worse.  I had to have an hour drip of antibiotics before going to surgery about 11:45 AM.

There was a young man named Casey just outside the OR reading something highlighted in a book.  I said “Hi I am Connie and I bet you are reading about my surgery?”  He replied “Are you the carpal tunnel scheduled?”  He is a Senior at the high school in Nevis and is shadowing Dr Smith for the summer.  John was waiting for me in the OR….he was the anesthetist.

I had some kind of anesthesia in the Operating Room to make me sleepy and not remember a thing and then they put a tourniquet on my arm. The whole surgery took about 20 minutes yet I lost a couple of hours…go figure.  Supposively the Doctor talked to me after the surgery…I don’t recall a thing that he said…good thing he talked to Far Guy.  I had a tumor near the tunnel that the nerve goes through…they are rarely cancerous. The Dr felt that I should have a good result long term since I had two problems in that area of my hand.

Casey’s Mom was the OR Recovery Nurse.  I heard a familiar voice…it was Paul (Far Guy’s Cousin) he helps push carts and deliver people here and there. The Recovery Nurse and I had a nice chat….and since I was talking so much she took me back to where Far Guy was waiting.  It was about 1:45 PM.

I got to eat some toast and have some juice and take pain pills and get dressed and head home.  We picked up a prescription and we got home about 3:30 PM.

My arm was all wrapped up in packing and gauze and an ace bandage.  I could move my fingers and my thumb.  Ice packs became my friend as they took away much of the pain.  I don’t remember much that happened on Friday or Saturday or even Sunday, I slept a lot.  I watched the weather channel and some marathon reality show and a bunch of Harry Potter Movies…I know I talked to a few people on the phone…who I am not sure. I wrote a couple of blogs and I hope they made sense.  Far Guy helped me bathe everyday and get a fresh nightgown on and brought me lemonade and made sure that I ate every so often and wrote down every pill I took and what time I took it. He brought me bags of ice and retrieved the one that leaked all over and woke me up in an icy bath.  Chance laid right next to the couch and slept when I slept. I know Far Guy cooked…chicken and noodles one night, a steak and a baked potato, a soft shell taco… no one starved to death.

Wednesday was the day I could remove the awkward big bandages. Off it came as soon as I woke up on Wednesday!  Oh I hated to look…if it looked as bad as it felt…wowza. It is a pain in the butt hand.  Some movements are very painful and I just cannot do them.  Taking the top off a water bottle, cutting an apple, cutting up a steak….it took me a few tries to butter toast left handed.  I ate left handed…and still am as it is just easier.  Pulling drawers out hurts…I can push with the hand but not pull…I cannot write decently…I have a hard time with fine motor skills…even holding a piece of mail in between my fingers and thumb. I cannot put my own bra on and Far Guy says he is better at taking them off than putting them on.  My fingers are still numb and I still have some swelling and ice is still my best friend to help control the pain.  I can only take so much and I am off to the couch for elevation and ice.

One day at a time.  Here is the aftermath. One week post surgery.

Noah and I tried to count the stitches we think there are fourteen.  Noah said “It will heal nicely.”  I hope so.

Far Guy says that my hand and arm are very angry with me…I have to agree.  The pain that I had before surgery in my elbow and shoulder is gone and hopefully the pain in my hand will be gone sometime soon.  I get my stitches out next Monday.  I can leave it undressed, but sometimes it likes a little more support so I put a dressing on it and an ace bandage.

Slower

I took it even slower and easier yesterday… well except for one thing that was not easy at all.

A sideways hard as a rock boulder of a turd…and I have been taking stool softner.  I felt quite accomplished after that achievement that only took 1/2 hour maybe a bit longer and just a few tears streaming down my face.

I have transitioned to over the counter pain relief…Tylenol and Aleve.  That PM Aleve makes me sleep at least 14 hours….and then after that I still took a nap.

Today we will attempt to wash my hair or cut it all off. I will wear a bra to my Doctor’s appointment.

24 more hours until I can remove the large bandage.

Far Guy and Chance are troopers, but I think they would like me to be “all better” real soon.

Slow

I am taking it slow and easy.  If I try to do something I shouldn’t then I have more pain.  Most of my time is spent in oblivion with my arm elevated and iced while I lay on the couch.

I got dressed yesterday, putting on bra is quite painful so I may just forget that for awhile.

My parents visited yesterday and brought an apple crisp that my Mother had made.

We took Chance for a short ride over to the neighbors to help celebrate a birthday. We didn’t stay long as my hand/arm was swelling.

One day at a time.

Handy

I am not so handy these days.

The surgery went well.  A small tumor was removed along with the carpal tunnel release procedure.

x marks the hand to be repaired

Far Guy and Chance are taking good care of me.  The pain is considerable but I will survive.

I must wear the large bandage for five days, it is bulky. 

The General Surgeon saw me one day and scheduled the surgery for two days later.  So I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to accomplish around the house… but such is life. 

I am glad to begin the healing process.  One of the Nurses was a little cranky and had no sense of humor at all other than that we were treated kindly.  The surgeon is a kind gentleman who placed both of Far Guy’s ports.

The arm

I have an arm. It may hurt like the devil but it is a complete arm.  I have appointments with two different surgeons but not for two or three weeks.

I wrap my entire brace and arm in a fluffy blanket so it stays toasty warm at night and avoids any facial injuries by said brace flopping about in the nightime. I concocted a daytime brace with an elastic stocking and vet wrap…it helps with the pain.

Far Guy is my right arm.  He can scrub floors, scrubbing used to be my thing to do ..now it is his.

Thank goodness I am somewhat ambidextrous. I am not good at writing with either hand right now.  I will need more practice.  I can type (hunt and peck)! I can play cards totally left handed but someone else has to shuffle cards for me (those years dealing Black Jack have come in handy who woulda thunk it?)  I can wash dishes with one hand. I can pet the dog, I can dust…and I can cook as long as the pots and pans are not too heavy and have to be moved... my grip is non existent.

Carpal Tunnel sucks but I am trying to make the best of it.  I will be glad to get this common aging problem behind me.

My dreams are equally awesome and somewhat strange really weird, it must be from all the Ecotrin and Ibuprofin that I have been consuming.

This is the last I will mention it, I will let you know all about the surgery when it is over and done with.

Blanket Flowers or Gaillardia

Friday Five

It was a long day yesterday.  Chance had his bloodwork, everything is fine except he has some inflamation that shows up. (probably from arthritis…go figure.)  His Tick Panel was negative.  They changed his medication.  He got me up at 5:30 AM because he had to poop….not quite the squirts but almost….thank goodness he was vocal enough to awaken me.  He was under the weather most of the morning but perked up in the late afternoon and even wanted to play ball.

Far Guy had a Eye Doctor appointment he needs new glasses for reading and night driving.  His eyes are pretty good for an old guy.  What cataracts he has are small and the cute little teenage Doctor said he will probably never have to have cataract surgery. He has been struggling with a stye…well it is not a stye it is a chalazion…and now he must clean his eyelashes twice a day with special “stuff.”   The VA is supposed to take care of his glasses but since the VA Doctor wrote the order incorrectly he gets no benefit…which really pissed him off. 

I am waiting for a referal for my hand/arm.  I even wore the brace when I had a nap.  If I take enough Aleve I can survive.

It was my turn to cook supper, so we had Naan Bread Pizza.  Far Guy likes lots of mushrooms and peppers on his, I like mine plain with just meat and cheese.

After supper we went for a drive.  We saw nine deer.

Twins with their mama vegging out in the bean field

Arm

I have been having some troubles with my arm, carpel tunnel problems.  I have been to physical therapy and was fitted for a night time brace.  It worked fine for many months and I was pain free.  Now the pain is back and not allowing me to sleep for very long at a time.  Brace or no brace it is still painful.   We thought perhaps I was wood carving too much, but after three days off it is no better…my fingers go numb and the pain goes all the way to my shoulder.  So I am off to physical therapy once again.  Bummer…the brace is a pain in the butt.  I have knocked myself in the head many times with it. ( It is hard plastic and is formed to the shape of my hand and arm so I cannot bend my wrist at all.)  I can also remove the brace in the middle of the night without waking up…it might be time to schedule the surgery.  Far Guy gives me a daily brace report..it was on. it was off. you were sleeping with your arm in the air again. where was your brace? (Chance had it one night…it was on his back)

I have many projects that I am working on…I am painting some of the Christmas Ornaments, I have 12 more to carve from scratch and about 6 that just need to be sanded.  Three more afternoons and I could be done with the carving.

I have two new hobbies/projects that require two good arms.  I have ordered supplies for one and the other I have most everything. But that is hobby “stuff”…

I have “stuff” that I have been working on outside that needs to be done before the snow flies.  I just don’t have time to baby an arm.