I had my appointment with the hand surgeon Monday. It was really interesting. The surgeon explained how I have tenosynovitis in my left middle finger. It is slowly destroying the tendons I have in there. There are two main ones, the deep tendon and the superficial tendons. The deep tendon is what you use to bring your fingers down together when making a fist. The superficial tendon is used when you only bend one finger at a time, such as when you play the piano.
The surgeon is not sure how destroyed they are. The deep tendon is more important for me, so if it is more than 50 percent destroyed, he will be using the superficial tendon to repair it, which means I will lose the use of my superficial tendon. Being how I am not a piano player, I am hoping I won’t miss that too much. But hopefully the tendons will all be intact enough that it won’t be a problem.
I am scheduled to have the surgery Tuesday of the coming week. It will be an hour long surgery, and they are using full anesthesia for it. So i am going to be knocked out, which is probably a good thing. They will go in and remove the inflamed tissue in the finger and repair any tendons that need repairing. Then they will stitch me back up and send me home.
I will have a soft cast on for six days, and the stitches will be removed after 12 days. I may need some physical therapy, but I am hoping nothing too major, but who knows since I haven’t had use of the finger for several years now. The muscles and tendons might be a bit out of shape.
I am not too nervous about the surgery. More annoyed. I was told after deciding to pursue fixing my finger that if i don’t fix it, the tendons will only get more destroyed by the tenosynovitis over time, which makes me think that if I had been told by my rheumatologist, I would have dealt with this years ago and not have the tendons as worn down as they are now. Instead, my rheumatologist claimed it was a torn tendon and that there was nothing that could be done then that couldn’t be done years down the road.
I think what I learned from this whole experience is that one should ALWAYS seek a second opinion. You really need to see an expert when dealing with health problems. Don’t take a neurologists opinion that your heart problem is just due to too much sodium in your diet. See a heart professional! We all need to take our health into our own hands and realize that we can’t expect one doctor to know everything. It is important to research your problems and come to every appointment armed with the information you need to make a wise decision. I know if i had looked more into my hand problem years ago, I would not be facing a chance that I’ll lose one of my tendons today. I guess we all live and learn, but I just hope I don’t pay too steep a price.
Until next time,
S.P.
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