Friday, August 8, 2008

Goal 57 -- Get Right Hand Back into Shape


Poor little hand.

I saw the new surgeon this morning. ScottieDog (husband) went with me for moral support and also because he doesn't trust me to stand up for myself. (humph)

I like the doctor a lot, and we scheduled the operation for September the 23rd. A month and a half of pain-free two-handedness is ahead of me, so I have to really whack away at some of these goals. I'm trying to save the easy ones, liking drinking pomegranate juice, for when I'm laid up.

I should explain that the bone of my pinkie will be sawed through and the finger turned around the right way and pins put in. (Yes, I know it doesn't look crooked in the photo, but it wasn't crooked then, only broken. It got turned around wrong in the first surgery. Which is why I now have a new surgeon.) I will be in a cast for four weeks. If you've never had your dominant hand restrained for any length of time, you have no idea how claustrophobic it is. You can't do ANYTHING.

"Back into shape" is going to be kind of a moving target, because the hand won't ever be the same as before the accident. What I'm hoping for is reasonable flexibility so that I can play octave chords on the piano again. I will consider that "in shape."

5 comments:

Nitmos said...

Ouch, well, ouch. That doesn't sound fun at all. Good luck.

Alice said...

Yeah... so I want to know what happened to your hand. I broke my 5th metacarpal (boxer's fracture) in April, and I had to have surgery with a plate and pins. And now, lo and behold, my pinky is CROOKED!!! It overlaps with my ring finger...

Plus, you're a soprano? Me too! Though I really wanted to turn out a mezzo...

Melissa said...

Gosh, I'm so sorry. Sounds a lot like what happened to me. My ring and pinkie fingers were both broken--I fell really hard on the sidewalk--and now my pinkie is facing out, and when I bend it it bends across and into my palm so I can't make a fist. Surprisingly, to me anyway, this prevents a number of relatively humdrum hand activities. Hopefully the next surgery will straighten it out.

Does your pinky overlap on the top or the bottom of your ring finger?
Can you bend it?

Alice said...

I should send you a pic of said overlap. And yes, there are some things I can't really do anymore. A very simple one is picking up a heavy plate... pinky gives out...

P.O.M. said...

Ouchie wa-wa.
I have read in many places that pineapple juice and pineapple helps you heal after surgery too.