Showing posts with label ganglion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ganglion. Show all posts

Monday, February 9, 2009

Lame!

*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

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