Thursday, December 11, 2008

Will it be Bionic?

Back in 1991 while at work, I had the misfortune to fall and badly damage my right hand. The pain was so intense, I thought I was going to pass out. I went to the city doctor (on contract with my employer), who told me that I had just "sprained" my hand. He wrapped it and gave the okay for me to return to work. I did. I cried whenever I had to use my hand, the pain was unbearable. A week later, I told my boss that there was "something very wrong with my hand", she told me that I had to return to the city doctor, instead I went to the ER. It was there that I was told "Of course, you're in pain. You shattered all your carpal bones". For those of you who may not know, there's eight carpal bones in your hand.

I have had a total of six surgeries to try to "fix my hand". To this day, the daily pain is bad....bad....bad.

Back in 1995, during one of the surgeries, my hand surgeon did a partial fusion. He use bone removed from my hip. OUCH!! It was hoped that it would stabilize my hand and stop the pain. It took over a year for my hand to heal and work though the PT. During that time, I lost my job, due to not being able to perform 100% of the duties.


Me..after the 1995 surgery.

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With each surgery I keep thinking...this will be the one to "fix my hand" and it does not.

Over the years, I have had to wear many splints to support my weak hand and to help with the pain. Some of them....are darn right creepy looking! Huh!?! The ones stinky and dirty from horse work are tossed in the trash!

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S&M ANYONE??? HAHAHA!!

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The circulation in my hand is crap, which means my hand is always cold. So....I've had to be a bit creative when it comes to keeping my hand warm.

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I cut the fingertips off cheap work gloves, they keep my hand warm when working with my laptop. If I need more warmth, I use the wool fingertip less glove.

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I also wear "sleeves" under the hard splints to help keep my hand warm, and of course....the funky ones look kinda cool.


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This one I wear when sleeping. Yes...it's covered in beagle hair. HA!

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Tomorrow morning, I will go in for total fusion of my hand. They will be replacing my bones with cadaver bones, adding a plate, pins, and fixing the loose tendon/ligaments. This is major ....major work that will be done on my hand. I'm a little scared. I am hopeful that it will make my hand stronger and the pain...will finally be gone.

This is what my hand looks like now...hopefully it won't look too different after tomorrow.

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I'll be in the hospital for a few days, will be no mail/Internet until I feel well enough to get out of bed.

Ya know something, I'm always amazed at how well animals recover from surgery, and humans take longer. Why is that?

Anywho...when I feel up to it, I'm update you.


And now....for something totally different and off the wall. Here's a photo of me when I was a little girl. HAHA! Is that funny or what! That's my mom's hat that I'm wearing.
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Here's a cuter one! My hubby likes to tease me about that tongue sticking out, cuz I still do it when concentrating really hard!

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Okay....I'm out of here. Take care!

9 comments:

  1. Sending you all kinds of positive energy for your surgery and recovery. I hope that this finally fixes your problem. There is nothing worse than chronic pain... and it's not like you can just -not- use your hands!

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  2. I read about your hand surgery on Midwest Campers Cprner and thought I'd drop by to send some warm wishes. Hope the surgery went well and that you have a comfortable and speedy recovery!

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  3. Raven, I read about your hand surgery on your Midwest Campers Corner and thought I'd drop in to send you some warm wishes. I hope your surgery went well, and wish you a speedy and comfortable recovery.

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  4. Hope all goes well with surgery. I up and moved to NM one day and have been here 30 years, now with 2 Icey mares.
    Eleanor on the Rio Grande

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  5. I hope the surgery is, once and for all, a huge success. and I hope you got a good settlement from that employer.
    take care and keep us posted!
    Tina

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  6. Hi,

    Thank you for visiting my blog. I shall come back to yours for a proper look around soon.

    I just wanted to add a good luck for your surgery. You should have had it by now so i hope it went well and you recover quickly.

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  7. I take it that the surgery went well =) so is your friend in the mustang chalenge or does she have a mustang that they are using as a demo? we dont get our mustangs until jan for the challenge. thats y i ask =) are you going to midwest hf?

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  8. She got Two Socks this year, and I think she's going to WI...to demo him.

    Here's a link
    http://www.bestfriends.org/twosocks/

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WOW! Thanks, you made my day! Doggie & Pony kisses sent! Please come back....real soon.