Well, my left hand has been operated on again. My little
finger was locking in the curled up position so the surgeons have cut into the
palm of my hand and cut the top of part of the tendon off to release it. I had
the operation on Nov 1st and was supposed to be off for two weeks
while my hand was in a bandage and out of action. As with all things hands and
Dom things have not gone smoothly of course. The stitches were removed after
two weeks, but the cut popped open shortly after I got home. The wound had not
sealed up at all. I went back to the doctors the next day and they put some
steri-strips across the wound to keep it together and encourage it to heal.
Another bandage was put on the hand and I still could not drive or do much with
my hand. A few days later I went back to have the hand checked and hopefully
the strips removed, but it had still not sealed up enough. So I was told to wait another 4 days and then
take the bandage and strips off to finish the healing. I duly took them off on
the Saturday, but still wasn’t happy with how my hand looked. So I went to
A&E on Saturday evening and a doctor there checked it and said it looked to
be healing, and it would do more harm than good to try and seal it anymore. I
just had to wait and it would get better eventually.
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I ended up being off work for nearly a month, although I was
working from home and trying to keep things under control. I don’t think my
company had a huge problem with me being off, and it wasn’t like I chose to be
really anyway. The surgery came about probably as a result of my injury earlier
in the year. It was a tough month mentally as I enjoyed being at home a lot,
and I think I bonded a lot with Meg and Joel. I took Meg to school and
collected her everyday. Joel started to walk a lot more and by the end of my
time at home we weren’t taking the buggy to school at all. I enjoyed playing
with him during the day and seeing him growing each day. I think I also started
to understand him more. While I’m at work I don’t get to see him too much so I
struggle to know what the norm is and I never know when what he’s doing is
normal or good or bad. It was lovely being home with Theresa and being able to
spend some quality time with her. One of the big things was no waking up at
0500 which I seem to do most of the time or having disturbed nights sleep. I
guess because I am waiting for the alarm to go off I never settle completely,
but when I know it is not going to go off I sleep better. Consequently I did
manage to recharge my batteries a bit. I think I could get used to a life of
being at home most of the time.
The negative of being injured is that there are lots of
things I couldn’t do. Since I couldn’t go in the roof there was stuff piling up
around the house which has frustrated me. My movements were very restricted so
I genuinely couldn’t do anything about clearing up. The other main drawback has
been being in fairly regular pain, especially if I knocked my hand or
accidentally tried to pick something up. The pain is not crippling, but it is a
background throb. It is very demoralising after a while and it has affected my
mood and outlook on things. Most of the time I’ve been fine, but on a couple of
occasions I have felt myself sliding into a bit of a rut.
As I write this on Dec 3rd my hand is still not
healed up. It is getting better, but I still don’t have full use of it. It is
still causing me pain and frustration more than anything. I have been back at
work for a week, but I still don’t know when it will be better enough for me to
get back to normal life. I have still not washed it as I daren’t. The skin on
the hand particularly is very dry and cracked, although not uncomfortable as
you might expect. I can nearly extend my fingers fully, although it does pull
on the wound uncomfortably. I don’t feel like it will be completely healed for
another couple of weeks, although I hope that’s just me being pessimistic. I am
driving, but this is quite tiring as I am shielding my bad hand as much as
possible. I am seeing a consultant tomorrow and I’m curious to see what he
suggests I do to get better.
I just want to get better and for there not be pain anymore.
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