Hand Surgery

I had surgery on my hand yesterday!  Quite an interesting experience and all is well.  Many friends have asked for details so I thought I'd type the whole story here and refer anyone who asks.  For obvious reasons I am not typing quickly!  In a nutshell, it was minor and I am fine.  The following will contain no pictures or gory details but just the story of what happened.  It might get a little long, but read what you want.  It is therapeutic to write about significant events so this is my diary today -- write it all down and move on!

And another disclaimer: I have no medical training and I'm explaining  my layperson's understanding.  If anything I write is wrong or doesn't make sense the fault is mine not the doctors'.  I suspect that most or all of the "surprises" I got along the way were due to my misunderstandings. 

A little over a year ago I noticed a little hard hard lump on my left hand near the base of my thumb.  It was near a spot where I had been a klutz and banged my hand a while before.  I showed it to my doctor and he referred me Dr. A, an orthopedic surgeon.  It just happens that I already knew Dr. A. because she is part of the same team of surgeons as the doctor who did David's major elbow surgery last year and she handled several of his post-op visits.  So nice to have a familiar friendly face. She told me that sometimes the body gets confused by internal bleeding and thinks it needs to grow new bone to support this "new body part".  There was a long unpronounceable name for this but I didn't retain it.  She said as long as it didn't grow I could just leave it.  Removing it would basically be trading a small lump for a scar and also that it would involve a small risk of nerve damage.  So I said no thanks!  She did warn me that sometimes these things do grow -- the body getting carried away with building this nifty new bone -- and if that happened we should talk again.

A few months ago I started thinking the thing might have grown a little and then I had a few friends ask me "what's' the matter with your hand?" so I knew I needed to have it seen again.  Work was nuts and I didn't make the appointment as quickly as I should have but I eventually met with Dr. A again.  She said yes, it needs to come off and she'd set it up.  Like most non-critical  surgery in Ontario there would be a wait and she predicted late June or July.  She said I'd probably have my hand in a splint for "a few days".  She told me they'd use a nerve block and sedate me and that made me a bit nervous but she assured me I would be kept calm and comfortable.

On Tuesday when I still hadn't been given a surgery date I called and the admin person I talked to gave me a little lecture on the need for patience -- shortage of OR time, this is non-critical, etc.  I did tell her about my job, which is 90% keyboard but just Sept-May so healing in the summer would really be nice.  Still I resigned myself to waiting quite a while and maybe having to either take some leave or get some typing help during the fall term.

Then two hours later I got a call from the hospital saying "we just had a cancellation for Thursday; would that work for you?" and I said YES!!!!!

So that's the back story.  Yesterday was Thursday and it involved several surprises, some of them quite unpleasant emotionally, but in the end all is well.

On Thursday David and I got to the hospital for my 12:30 call time and I had my intake interview.  And then the first surprise: they told me Dr. B, not Dr. A, would be doing my surgery.  I still don't know the reason for that, but it probably had to do with this being a last-minute cancellation.  Still, not a problem at all.  Dr. B is the head of  Dr. A's surgical group and he did a wonderful job of David's elbow repair last year.  I had met him at some of David's post-op check-ups.  Plus he is both a practicing doctor and a researcher and has collaborated with several members of my department who do research into biomedical computing.  There are a huge number of ways computers are involved in surgery in this day and age.  After David's accident several of these profs independently dropped by my office and asked who would be doing his surgery and assured me that he was in very good hands.  So no problems with that change of plans.

Another fun thing is that when we met Dr B he remembered David and asked after the elbow.  David gave him the usual answer, which is that it's working well except he can't quite touch his shoulder.  He did the usual accompanying gesture of bending his arm up and for the very first time one finger actually bumped his shoulder and he was able to do that again and hold it.  A very nice surprise!

After some waiting I got called in for a conversation with the anaesthesiologist.  Actually most of the talk was with a resident, with the attending listening in.  They were very friendly and fun.  The resident said "I do most of the work, but he's the one they pay".  And then he started referring to general anaesthesia and when I questioned him about that there was some conferring and they told me I could have it either way and I said "I want to be asleep!". They said that was probably fine but they'd check it with the surgeon -- who did confirm it later, so that was another pleasant surprise.

Then I met with Dr. B and that wasn't so pleasant after the pleasantries about David's elbow were over.  Dr. B is quite nice, but some of what he had to say was not.  He looked at my hand and said "hmmm, what is this???"  Not what you want to hear.  I passed on what Dr. A had told me and he said "I'm not so sure" and he'd have to see what he found when he got inside and started talking about a biopsy, at which point it took some effort not to panic.  I also told him I am a pianist and he explained very nicely about the way things connect up in the hand. My layperson's summary is that the nerves probably wouldn't be hard to avoid BUT the lump was right under the tendon that connects the thumb to the arm muscles that control it.  He said he would do his best to avoid it but he couldn't make any guarantees.  At that point I really had to think about my breathing.  Losing the use of my thumb would have meant not only no piano but a lot of difficulty with typing, knitting, and almost everything I enjoy or need to do.  And then he said that this might have to be the first of two surgeries with this first one being "a fancy biopsy".  I was not a happy camper, to put it mildly!

Fortunately everything moved very quickly after that -- basic medical questions and check-up, confirming I was good to go for general anaesthesia without staying overnight, getting into the humiliating gown, etc, and finally the anaesthesiology tag team joined me again and walked me over to the OR.  Their kidding around did a lot to help my nerves and I appreciated it a lot.  My favorite part was when they started putting in the IV and I turned my head away.  They said "are you OK?".  "I said "yeah, I just don't like watching that".  The doctor who was putting the needle in said "I know what you mean; I'm not watching either" and we all three giggled and I fell asleep with a smile on my face and the difficult part of the day was all over with.

Later I drifted back up to consciousness and slowly figured out I had had the procedure and must be in the recovery room.  Before I even opened my eyes I cautiously wiggled each finger and I could feel them and control them.  Big "thank-you" prayer and I opened my eyes.  A nurse came over and told me that the doctor said he got the whole lump out and said it looked benign.  Another big thank-you!  They're still doing a biopsy to make sure but I am much less worried.  I don't think they say something that positive unless they're pretty sure.

So it was an exciting day but it looks like all is well.  Nothing much more to tell except the wonderful fact that as of 1pm on Friday (the day after the surgery) I have absolutely no pain.  They gave me some narcotics to take home and told me to try tylenol first and I haven't even needed that.  Yays!  I am feeling good enough that I have already talked David into taking me to Michael's tonight to look for a knitting loom or some other kind of craft to do with one hand.  I miss my knitting!!!  I figure if my knitting addiction is the top thing on my mind I must be doing very well :-)