*disclaimer* I am typing with only one hand, and it is not the dominate one. Any typos, lack of capitalization, or improper punctuation you may find offensive in this post you will have to build a bridge and get over it. As-is, this post will probably take like an hour to type.
thanks
A while back
I mentioned my ganglion cyst. Over about the last 15months or so, it has broken itself and immediately regrown itself twice. I will spare you the details of what that feels like, but suffice it to say that you just have to go directly to sleep to avoid vomiting. I did lots of internet research to decide on a course of action. Here were my choices....
- Leave it and hope it goes away on its own (did that and it didnt)
- Aspirate it; jam a needle in it and suck the gunk out (high rate of return)
- Hit it with a heavy book such as a Bible or a phone book (risk of secondary injury, and mine grew back after breaking)
- Have it surgically removed
So, I had decided to leave it because it was only occasionally painful and rarely impeded my mobility. It was just really really gross. However, after a year of it not resolving itself, I was lamenting to a friend who is a nurse that it had broken and regrown itself AGAIN, and she suggested having it looked at. They may need to go in and just clean all the structure out, yada yada yada. Okay fine. Went to my pcm to get referred to a specialist, got referred and waited about 6 weeks for an appt. Did more research. Surgery seemed really minor, outpatient - no big deal. I was so wrong! I had surgery on Monday, the 2nd ofFebruary. I was scheduled to sing a song at PWOC on Tuesday, "no big deal" i thought, "I'll just make sure i have someone to drive me to and from since i'll be on narcotics." I'll stock up some groceries, cancel photography sessions I have that week (just to be on the safe side) Doc said he would supply me with a brace and to keep my hand elevated. Lawdy mercy! Hubby took me home from surgey on monday morning and had to stay with me for 24 hours. Tuesday morning he helped me bathe and dress, and a friend arrived to carry me to PWOC. my hand was so swollen. My song lasted maybe 5 minutes and I nearly fell down. I had a serious lack of body control, a little from nerves, but mostly i yhink from narcotics! I kept my arm in the sling that they fitted me. Just that little activity made my sausages, er, fingers swell up even more and squash all together. (really uncomfortable and gross) Which turned me into a giant freakshow of a distraction during class when i was trying all manner of subtle attempts to get and KEEP my arm above my heart. I got home from PWOC and it took the rest of the day and all night of complete elevation to undo the extra swelling i had caused. Uh-oh. Complete and total underestimation of this 'minor procedure' After days of not being able to even wash my own hair, I had it cut off. And not being able to drive myself to my hair appt turned into a major ordeal so i stopped taking the narcotics. This is why i havent posted - i havent really been doing anything worth making the left-handed effort to write about. No picture taking, no driving, no cooking, no cleaning, no guitar, no crafting. lrft-handed facebooking. So today it has been one week. I have 6 stiches in my right wrist and i don't see the doctor until FRIDAY. i don't mean this to sound complainy - i am just really annoyed with myself for being so completely blase about what was entailed in the surgery and recovery from it. By the way, I finished this post at 11:20
7 comments:
awww hope you are all better soon!
I hate taking meds because of how they make me feel so I usually just take them for 2 or 3 days aftewards and then stop taking them and deal with the pain. I had a cyst on my wrist for a long time but it eventually went away. BIG HUGS! The pain will all be gone soon! I promise!
Ewwieickypooey! This is so totally not what I want to hear pre-foot-surgery. LOL.
Praying you return to normal soon. :)
Miso sorry.
Feel better soon!
Wow, what an ordeal! I had a ganglion cyst removed from the palm of my hand several years ago and it was basically like what you thought yours would be...not a big deal at all.
Have you called the doctor to make sure that there's not something unusual going on?
Hope you feel better very soon!!
Och!! Lame is right!! Prayers for superduper fast healing! (That's Jesus talk, you know.)
I'll pray you're feeling better soon! All that swelling sounds a bit extreme...have you had that checked out?
Okay, this is kind of graphic (not to mention unasked for advice) but I just couldn't NOT pass this on.
I don't know if you have ever read the Bryson City books by Dr. Walt Larimore (available in Christian bookstores), but his book Bryson City Tales (p.104-106) has an account of a very effective treatment for getting rid of cysts once and for all.
It involves a doctor's visit to lance and drain the cyst and then have them put in a couple of crystals of iodine into the center of it, then keeping the site clean and sterile for a week, and at the end of the week, having the doctor pop out a giant blackhead type thing (all the oils and junk inside the cyst apparently form around the crystals of iodine), then cleaning the site and putting some neosporin and a bandage on, and it's gone for good.
Dr. Larimore learned this early on in his practice from an old-timer mountain doctor that had been in practice for decades. (I dog-eared the page after reading it, because my sister had one that continued to come back on the back of her foot where her shoes kind of dug in.) Fortunately, after wearing flip-flops for about a year, my sister's never came back to 'try' this method on, but it's certainly worth a try if the thing keeps coming back.
okay, I was about to leave a comment because, apparently the one I left originally disappeared or I never left it cause I am lame, and then I saw Becky's comment and I am now just sitting here in simultaneous awe and disgust.
this was going to be a comment about how i'm praying for your wrist, and to say, there was no way you could have known this was going to be major, hello-outpatient surgery isn't often like this...
but now I can only say that melikes Becky.
oh, and that reminds me that miso sorry from gretchen?
hysterical. might be near time for a that's what she said #2
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