My Motorcycle Injuries

I wrote in my last blog entry (see here) that I was thinking of going to an orthopedic hand specialist some time in the future with an eye toward having some type of procedure done at the beginning of next summer. I wrote that I wasn't really certain as to whether or not I would actually pull the trigger on that game plan. Well, I've pretty much emptied the cartridge. I actually made an appointment with a local and reputable surgeon for this coming Monday. I filled out all of the online paperwork today and paid the deductible required for the visit. In a sense I can't believe that I've done this, but in another sense I find myself hoping that this guy can actually work his medical voodoo and make things better for me with a hand/wrist that has been a source of irritation for almost eight years now. It's just that I really hate going to doctors, and filling out all of the info on his questionnaire today was irritating enough without even stepping into his office.  I...

My body continues to play tricks with me. For about a week and a half my hand was feeling some fairly intense sensations from all of the nerve damage. It varied from “pins and needles” type of stuff to some pretty uncomfortable pain. If that weren’t enough, I seem to be developing a trigger finger (stenosing tenosynovitis) with my index finger. Yeah, fun. I started to feel it about a month ago, but it’s gotten worse within the last two weeks. My original orthopedic surgeon had told me long ago that he did some work with a tendon (or tendons, I can’t remember which) during the original surgery in the hospital. Now it seems that something has gone wrong with a tendon in that same area of my hand. It doesn’t really hurt right now, but I know that it will get to a point where it's a hindrance to me. I know this because I had a trigger finger on the same hand's middle finger when I was younger and I wound up needing corrective surgery to get it fixed. At present time it isn’t worth ...

I have an irony to share. It involves a leg that was broken from the hip down to the shin. It also involves an arm that was broken near the wrist with a compound fracture. I always thought that the leg would eclipse anything else wrong with me in relation to my motorcycle accident injuries. It took so much work for me to walk normally over time, and the pain has been so pronounced over time that I always assumed that the leg injuries would be the biggest hindrance to my daily living. The leg truly is a hindrance, but my hand has been getting worse with time. I’ve had some fairly serious nerve damage done at the wrist, and the combination of pain and numbness to my hand is at times consuming. There was also some tendon damage and it affects primarily the index finger. I have full use of the hand, but when I wake up in the morning it doesn’t open and close easily. Things loosen up within a short amount of time, but then the pain (strong discomfort?) begins to settle in. I have less stren...