Monday, July 28, 2003
Wait . . . wait . . . wait . . .
I'll start by accentuating the positive.
I went to the doc today, and they took off the great big cast (YIPEE! It feels so nice to move my wrist!!!) Underneith the cast was a couple bandages and gauze stuff and several layers of "more stuff". After much searching they found ME!. It looks awful! Besides the surgical germ killing gook that stains skin yellow (and dries it out) there is a yucky, bloody, awful looking scar. It is bigger than the scar from the original cut and it just looks horrible (Eeww!) Medical people have a different sense of aesthetics however, and they said it looked great (strange strange people!)
After they took it all off, I poked myself, and it was still numb (insert sadest sad face here). The doc said this wasn't an overnight process (or even a 10 night process) The nerve will start to heal at about a millimeter a day, so it's gonna take several months before we know if it worked. (I've got at least 40 millimeters worth of damage going up and 20 going sideways). In the meantime, the muscles need to be worked (and the skin stretched - ouch!) The instructions are to use it as much as I can, and call his office if something seems really wrong. I go back in early October so he can re-evaluate.
So - this waiting game continues (the whole thing has been one big waiting game - - wait a week to see if it's actual damage or just swelling, wait a week for surgery, wait a week for it to heal, wait MONTHS for it to finish healing!!) Ugh. . . But - everything that can be done has been done - it'll either work or it won't and life is just going to have to go on either way . . . I will quit babbling about this (for at least two months) and return you to your regularly scheduled life!
I'll start by accentuating the positive.
I went to the doc today, and they took off the great big cast (YIPEE! It feels so nice to move my wrist!!!) Underneith the cast was a couple bandages and gauze stuff and several layers of "more stuff". After much searching they found ME!. It looks awful! Besides the surgical germ killing gook that stains skin yellow (and dries it out) there is a yucky, bloody, awful looking scar. It is bigger than the scar from the original cut and it just looks horrible (Eeww!) Medical people have a different sense of aesthetics however, and they said it looked great (strange strange people!)
After they took it all off, I poked myself, and it was still numb (insert sadest sad face here). The doc said this wasn't an overnight process (or even a 10 night process) The nerve will start to heal at about a millimeter a day, so it's gonna take several months before we know if it worked. (I've got at least 40 millimeters worth of damage going up and 20 going sideways). In the meantime, the muscles need to be worked (and the skin stretched - ouch!) The instructions are to use it as much as I can, and call his office if something seems really wrong. I go back in early October so he can re-evaluate.
So - this waiting game continues (the whole thing has been one big waiting game - - wait a week to see if it's actual damage or just swelling, wait a week for surgery, wait a week for it to heal, wait MONTHS for it to finish healing!!) Ugh. . . But - everything that can be done has been done - it'll either work or it won't and life is just going to have to go on either way . . . I will quit babbling about this (for at least two months) and return you to your regularly scheduled life!