A Journey in Pictures

I realized that I suddenly stopped blogging about my hand.  Probably because I got tired of telling the story...and because you all know how I'm doing since I've seen you all throughout the injury and healing process.  For whatever reason, I felt I needed to do a final blog about it.  Consider it a 'bloggy' catharsis of sorts.

Things started off like this:

This was a few days after my accident.  Look at that swelling!  my fingers looked like Vienna Sausages.

Here's a comparison to my left hand.  BIG difference.  And it was soooo extraordinarily painful.  The pain kept me up for four days...no sleep.  My fingers and most of my palm were completely numb, but I could still feel PAIN!  Once I was able to sleep for a few hours at a time, the tingling was so annoying...almost unbearable.  That and the pain would wake me up every few hours, and only a pain killer would help me get back to sleep.  The first night I slept a full night was actually 3 weeks later in Tampa when I was at the Music Educators Conference.  (Remember that, Michelle?) That was also when I stopped taking the prescription pain killers.

Look at the difference just two weeks of therapy made!  Movement helped break up the pool of blood that was deep in the tissues of my palm and helped my body absorb all of the fluid that was just sitting there.  (Isn't it incredible how our bodies heal themselves?)  Let me tell you how painful therapy was those first few weeks!!!!  The first day my therapist bent my fingrers backwards and forced me to make a fist.  My tendons and ligaments hadn't moved in 3 weeks and it made me howl when he stretched them out.  We moved slowly at first, and I practiced at home by picking up little pieces of paper and empty plastic water bottles.  I was a good little patient and tortured myself at home with the exercies just like my therapist said.  My husband said I was a trooper.  Before surgery I was pushing buttons on my keyboard and trying to push the mouse button, too.  That required monumental force.  The first time I picked up my cell phone it felt so heavy!  Luckily, there was no injury to my fingers--they were just really, really, really stiff.  This photo was taken the morning of my surgery just before going in.  I ended up wearing a splint until the first week of April. 

Here is my incision after surgery.  My palm was soooo swollen.  I had yellow and green bruising down my wrist.  My doctor told me that was normal, and my body was now healing from TWO injuries--my accident and his surgery.  When the anesthisia wore off, it felt like my skin was ripping.  But luckily that lasted for only a few days.  The progress I made after surgery was great.  Therapy still focused on the flexibility of my fingers.  Moving my wrist wasn't allowed until a few weeks after surgery, and then it was only 'active range of motion.' 

Here's what I looked like when the stitches came out a week after surgery.  Three months after the injury (the time carpal fractures take to heal), my therapist said he got the OK from my doctor to "go gang busters" on my wrist.  That involved stretching my wrist backwards and forwards to increase my range of motion.  That hurt.  A lot.  It made me squirm and sweat.  But I never cried...in public.  One of the doctors said I was pretty good...he's seen grown men sit there and cry.  I digress...I'd also have to hold weights in my hand and flex my wrist up and down.  I started using hand grips and silly putty to strengthen my grip.  That went on until early May.  Then I graduated from therapy and saw my doctor for the last time in mid-May.  He gave me a clean bill of health.  I am able to flex and extend my wrist over 50 degrees (40 degrees is considered functional).  However, I can flex/extend my left hand over 70 degrees.  I want that back...but the doctor said once you fracture a bone, it's never really the same.  He also told me I'm a 'robust healer' and my body heals quickly.  I formed scar tissue very quickly after surgery, and he said if I ever have surgery again I need to move very soon after to prevent the scarring from getting too hard. 

Here I am today.  Can you see the scar?

It looks pretty good!  I was lucky to have a great surgeon.  I have to continue strengthening my grip (I only have 15 pounds of grip stength, which is very wussy) and increasing my wrist's flexion/extension.  The swelling may take up to a full year to go away.  My thearpist recommended that I buy a hand gripper to help with all of that.  

So I bought a grip ball.  Can't you see my muscles rippling?  Grrrrrrr....

 

...and I bought a hand grip.  Wow!  Check that guy out!  Who knew using a hand grip would make you look like that?

Anyway, I'm really glad to do all the little things I couldn't do for a few months.  What was most important to me was to play flute again.  It wasn't until April that my fingers could really move well enough to play again.  I just jumped right back into it.  Just like riding a bike...you may be wobbly at first but you never really forget.  I can type, and write (SOOOO glad I don't have chicken scratch hand writing anymore), and pick up utensils and eat like a regular person, and hold a baton and conduct properly, and pick up my hair, and snap on my own bra, and tie my shoes, and brush my teeth...and all those other little things you don't even think about when you're OK.  AND...I can feel!  My feeling started coming back little by little as my poor crushed nerve healed.  

I like having my hand back! Thanks, everyone for your support and prayers!