Tuesday, July 08, 2003
TO surgery-ize or not to surgery-ize; That is the question.
The hand specialist looked at my thumb today.
I did in fact cut a nerve - - and it will never be "normal" again. (Forever and ever the nerve will be severed resulting in some numb-ness in my thumb ---- but it is one of the "less important" nerves because it is on top of my hand, not the palm).
The good news, is that he took out my stitches (yipee!!) and function is not impaired (esp. now that I don't have stitches pulling or a bandage getting in my way every time I try to move! I can type with TWO hands again!!!)
They can do surgery, which could restore some feeling, and prevent a neroma - which is when a cut nerve kind of bundles together because they have no place to go, and starts shooting off lots of intense pain. (YIKES!!!) Neuromas happen, and it's impossible to predict if it will happen to me, but since it is the top of my hand - a place that gets bumped often, it is more likely to happen.
The doc told me to think about it- and call his office if I wanted to schedule it. I'm leaning towards doing it and will probably do that later today. I need to think. (don't ask me what I'm thinking about - - I don't know - I'm feeling wozzy again and had to lie down for him to take out the stitches. Up until last week I considered myself "not squemish" but lately, it appears I've developed a squemish "thing" (or maybe it's a dizzy blonde thing)
UPDATE: 28 hours later, and I still haven't scheduled it - - last night I bumped it (not hard) and it H U R T! If I'm gonna do it, sooner is better than later - just because summer is more convienient than fall - but . . . but procrastination isn't a bad thing is it??
The hand specialist looked at my thumb today.
I did in fact cut a nerve - - and it will never be "normal" again. (Forever and ever the nerve will be severed resulting in some numb-ness in my thumb ---- but it is one of the "less important" nerves because it is on top of my hand, not the palm).
The good news, is that he took out my stitches (yipee!!) and function is not impaired (esp. now that I don't have stitches pulling or a bandage getting in my way every time I try to move! I can type with TWO hands again!!!)
They can do surgery, which could restore some feeling, and prevent a neroma - which is when a cut nerve kind of bundles together because they have no place to go, and starts shooting off lots of intense pain. (YIKES!!!) Neuromas happen, and it's impossible to predict if it will happen to me, but since it is the top of my hand - a place that gets bumped often, it is more likely to happen.
The doc told me to think about it- and call his office if I wanted to schedule it. I'm leaning towards doing it and will probably do that later today. I need to think. (don't ask me what I'm thinking about - - I don't know - I'm feeling wozzy again and had to lie down for him to take out the stitches. Up until last week I considered myself "not squemish" but lately, it appears I've developed a squemish "thing" (or maybe it's a dizzy blonde thing)
UPDATE: 28 hours later, and I still haven't scheduled it - - last night I bumped it (not hard) and it H U R T! If I'm gonna do it, sooner is better than later - just because summer is more convienient than fall - but . . . but procrastination isn't a bad thing is it??