The Waiting Game....

Well.

So. Saw the Hand Surgeon yesterday. The drive in was actually quite pleasant. I was rather shocked! Normally, the drive from Okotoks into Calgary is quite busy, but I got from the Okotoks Overpass onto the #2 Highway to the parkade underneath the Rockyview Hospital in 24 minutes. And I didn't even speed!!!  And I found a parking spot (yay!!!) . 

I walked into the hospital, and found the Cast Clinic (man, it's a labyrinth in there!), and waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Finally, 25 minutes AFTER when I was supposed to have my appointment, they called me back.

The surgeon came over, and said hello, and asked what was going on. 

I said, "My physio therapist wanted me to give you this (gave him a note), and wanted you to just check out all the scar tissue."

So, he took my gimpy pinky, and blocked the bottom of it and said "Now, bend please."

(a second passed while I obediently bent my pinky)

"No seriously... Can you bend your pinky please?"

To which I said "I AM!!! This IS my bend!"

He looked at me and said "Oh.   (long pause) Is this ALL the bend you've ever had?"

I replied that yes... This is all I've ever been able to move it.

He "hmmm"ed, and poked my finger, and felt part of it.

Then, he told me this.

"Sometimes, tendons are kind of like cars stuck in a snow drift. You rock them, and rock them, and sometimes they get enough momentum to get out themselves. Right? Well, your tendon could do that, and the scar tissue would just rip off while you are doing your everyday normal exercises. Or, if that doesn't happen, we have to open your finger back up, and strip off the scar tissue again, and then you are sort of back at square 1 again, having to go to physio for the next 4 months."

Ummm.... bleah? Either way sounds gross to me!

But, we are to keep on doing what we are doing. We have to be super aggressive with my finger (I am SO not looking forward to that!) and we will re-assess it in early January.

But, on a positive side, that means that I am relatively good to go for Christmas! I don't have to be afraid to cook up a proverbial storm (which is good, seeing as I'm hosting Christmas Day and I think my SIL is coming with her two boys to stay for a week!).

So that's my update. :(

C.

I am the Master Of Procrastination.

I have a "hot date" with the Hand Surgeon tomorrow morning. Ohhhh, in about 10 hours or so.

A sane individual would be in bed, sleeping right about now.

But have I ever CLAIMED to be sane???? NOOOO!

So what am I doing instead?

Writing on my blog. 

Surfing the Net. (our dog, Katy, has some weird pustules on her back. I squeezed them, and pus came out, and of course, my imagination started to run away with me... "What if it's cancer? Oh no! What would we do? Would we put Katy down? What would I do with all her dog paraphernalia? Oh my gosh... The kids would be so sad!")

Getting ready to put a Band-Aid on my knee (I tripped over the vacuum hose, and skinned my knee. I am some sort of genius, I tell you..) And I banged my pinky when I fell.... Good thing I'm seeing the hand surgeon tomorrow! (I am such a DOOR KNOB!)

And I am doing my "passive stretching" which is a really fancy-schmancy term for "bending the crap out of my pinky using some sort of a stretchy - velcro strappy contraption, and leaving it there for at least 15 minutes". I normally put it on when I'm driving in the car, because I'm sitting still for at least 15 in there. And then I can claim that I'm multi-tasking! :D

Oh, and look..... my stretch is almost done. Yayyyyyy..... * waves a pennant half-heartedly...*

Oh, and the Calgary Stamps won the Grey Cup. So you know what THAT means! Hubby was quite cheerful at dinner tonight! Yay!

G'night!

I'll update when I get back from the surgeon's hand clinic!

C.

I did it.

I caved to my kids incessant demands and put up the Christmas tree.

Granted, it took Hubby and I like 15 minutes to figure out how the f*ck to hook up all the little lighties so the WHOLE christmas tree was lit up, rather than just the middle section. *roll eyes*

Yep, so after searching and SEARCHING both online and in my ornament box, we STILL couldn't find the bloody instructions, so we actually figured it out, and TA DAHHHH! We figured it out!

I later found the instructions at the verrrrry bottom of the "breakable" ornament box. (Really helpful of me to have packed it that way last year!)

We also went to "Light Up The Night" in our town the other night. It was "ehhh". We froze our toesies off while waiting for the tree to be lit up, and refroze them later on while we were waiting to get onto a wagon ride. The kids had fun, but by the time we got home, it was after 9 pm. (Bed time is 7:30!)

But, for better or worse, the tree is up.  

What An Electrifying Time!

So either my physio team is getting desperate, or we are just resorting to weird ass treatments.

Today, they hooked me up to a "Muscle Stimulator" machine today. Basically, it's a nicer term for what it REALLY is.... An electrifying machine. Seriously. I kid you not.

They stuck some electrodes onto my arm, and tried to pinpoint where my tendons are (by trial and error, of course!), and then turned up the voltage! Aaaaaahhhh!

My hand did all SORTS of weird things that I had no control over! It started out feeling like pins & needles, and then escalated to my fingers curling and moving of their own volition. Really hilarious.

But it was by FAR the most exhausting thing I've done in recent memory! When we left Physio, we walked out to the car, and I was actually TREMBLING from exhaustion. (I don't remember the last time I felt that way!) So I went to Co-Op and bought something to eat, in hopes that I would stop shaking and stuff.

I did, but it's taken about 3 hours to sort of "get my bearings" again. (3 hours, 2 danishes, an egg salad sandwich and a cuppa tea, to be precise!)

I have a feeling it's going to be another early night! I could go to bed now, and sleep thru the whole night!

Hubby is going out with 2 of his buddies to go see the new Bond flick (so jealous!), so it's just me & the kids tonight.

Later!

If I Make It Thru November....

I hate November. I really do.

Normally, it's Hubby that has a hard time with November. (Just full of bad anniversaries and stuff) This year - it's me. I'm having a hard time in November.

I don't know if it's just the pain from my hand, or the constant frustration of not progressing at all with it (Casual Diane is sending me back to the Hand Surgeon as she can't tell if the tendon is intact at all or not), or it's just some sort of spiritual "funk" that I'm in..... 

I haven't done any Christmas shopping (save for 1 gift), I haven't done my Christmas cards, I haven't started my baking..... None of it. (Hubby was actually surprised.... he started talking about how "we" need to do the shopping and get it done. :(  )

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program...

Farewell, Quackers.

My new splint. It's so tiny!!
Look! Practically itty bitty!!!
Oooooh..... More sexy mesh. Somehow I get the feeling that Casual Diane is trying to reduce the swelling (it works like those pantyhose that helps to control varicose veins - compression!)

My new night time splint!!! What she is trying to do HERE is trying to straighten out my gosh darned pinky!! Argh!

Well.

Bad news at Rehab today.

My OT, who I call "Casual Diane" to differentiate her from "Formal Diane" and "Institutional Diane" (apparently, they like to hire Dianes there! LOL) told me that she is NOT pleased with my progress so far. Or shall I say, my lack of progress. :(

My pinky actually regressed in mobility this past week. All due to my nemesis - scar tissue. My pinky is "thick" (so they say) with scar tissue, and they are amazed at how MUCH scar tissue I've laid down. My OT is now thinking that I've created so much scar tissue that there is tendon, scar tissue, and then the other side of the tendon. Which is extraordinarily bad news. That means that another surgery to release scar tissue along the tendon sheath is all but guaranteed for me.

*sigh*

Casual Diane was telling me about another patient of hers with the exact same injury as mine. He is 6 weeks into his rehab, and he has full mobility, full range of motion. 

It's so hard not to be so insanely jealous at times.

But then I sat next to a guy who has almost the same injury as mine (minus the butter knife), and he is on tendon reattachment #2. The surgeon had to recreate tendon sheaths, as well as put in a silicone spacer so they can later do a tendon transplant. He had some muscle spasms as well - right AFTER his was originally sewn up, and it ripped and they couldn't catch it for 6 whole weeks.

So, compared to him, I am golden.

Sad, but true.

I had no idea how COMMON tendon injuries were!!!

Oh, before I get too far - Casual Diane told me to throw out Quackers. I was sad, and managed to hide him in my purse before she could grab him. So now, I have new splints! Yay! It's like shopping, except not as pretty. :D  I think I need to get ahold of my sister's heat gun to affix some sparkly stickers to it. *grin*

So that's all that's fit to print! I am instructed now to use my hand, and bend, bend BEND my pinky as much as I can! *groan!*

C.

Just a quick update before I start my Crazy Day....

Well... I am off to Physio again today. Hopefully we will discover why my middle knuckle is so stiff and achy (almost like I have arthritis or something goofy like that in that particular knuckle). I am not looking forward to the actual WORK of physio though. If someone would have told me in the summer that simply trying to move my pinky would make me break a sweat. I would have laughed. So incredibly hard. 

Yeah.....

Joke's on me. :)

But I have a day full of errands to run

- pick up Natty at 11:15 from Kindy

- make it to the Chiro for an 11:40 appointment

-head to Ikea to hopefully get replacement bolts and dowels for Liam's Big Boy Bed

- eat lunch (if I don't put it on the list,  I won't eat.) (Which I've been told isn't healthy for me)

- head to Shawnessy where I....

- take back my Library books to the Library

- Physio is at 2 until 3

 - the kids "Fun Bag" is packed with the nintendo DS's and some granola bars so HOPEFULLY they will be good while I "work it!"

-rush home to the 'Toks for Birdie when she gets home from school at 3:30

and then I still have to go to the 'Toks Library, the water store, and No Frills to pick up some bread.

No wonder I'm already tired! :D

Have a great day, and to all my American readers - GO OUT AND VOTE!

Later!

C.