As people who’ve read my previous journal entries know, I have recently had surgery on my left middle finger. The surgery went very well, with a minor infection scare. In the end, the scar healed nicely. I started going to physical therapy right after the surgery and have been amazed by my results. While it was extremely painful at first, I am extremely pleased by the results. My hand has improved its mobility incredibly. It is already better than it was before! I can now grasp pens and bars with my middle finger better than I could have ever dreamed!
I have become a huge fan of physical therapy, but I think a big part of my recovery has been due to what I’ve been doing while outside of therapy. I have made sure to keep constantly moving my finger. Whether at a football game, driving my car, watching TV, running at the gym, reading, etc. I always am doing exercised, and I did so from the very beginning.
I was told by my hand surgeon and physical therapists that it is important to keep the joint moving in the first few weeks after the surgery because that is when all the scar tissue forms. if the joint isn’t moving, scar tissue can grow in such a way as to prevent the joint from ever moving and ANOTHER surgery would have to be performed to remove the scar tissue, and then you’d be back at ground zero. Doesn’t sound like too appealing, does it? So I figured doing the exercises required by my doctors would be a better alternative to more surgery. And they hurt a lot at first to do, but slowly they got easier. Then of course the physical therapists would come up with more difficult exercises!
Right now I have almost gained back my full range of motion. Only the last little but that would allow me to make it into a complete fist isn’t back. There is also still a little swelling and pain in the finger, especially after really pushing myself with exercises. But I know that if i keep working on it, I can get that last bit back.
I am just so pleased at what I’ve accomplished so far. And can’t wait till I can start lifting weight with the hand and have my full mobility back. It’s been five years!!!!! I can’t believe I lived without it for so long.
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.
So I just wanted to write to tell you all about a new health site I’ve been writing for. It is called Trusera. It’s not just about RA, though. There are great blogs about every health subject you could imagine. Also it’s a great place to meet people. I suggest you go check it out. Let me know what you think!
For those of you trying to meet people and interact with others with RA, Trusera is a good place to do that.
Until next time,
S.P.
