Minor Surgery - Trigger Finger

How was my surgery? ~~~ I thought you'd never ask!

Why I survived it, like I thought I wouldn't. My blood pressure shot up to 200 at some point during the surgery, if that is any indication. I survived that too, and the glory goes to, what my niece would call, MY GOD, though I've been trying almost unsuccessfully to tell her that MY God is everyone's God ... but that's a story for another day.

I was a bundle of nerves on the morning of the surgery, having slept fitfully the night before. Rising in the wee hours of the morning, the fretful day began. I was at the hospital two hours ahead of schedule and gnawing on my nerves thence.

The moment, like all moments, began without pomp or ceremony. I was first taken to a room to measure my blood pressure (156/98) and then taken to a little operating theater (OT), asked to wear sanitized slippers, an operating gown and a shower cap. In the middle of the OT was a raised bed. A large stainless steel tray sat on a table on my right.

Oh, dear God, I thought. That tray is to collect all that blood which is going to gush out from my cut. All at once, I felt the sudden nudges on my bladder and asked to be excused. 

When I returned to the little OT I noticed two doctors and several nurses gathered around the raised bed, all wondering what became of their patient. The attending doctor (Dr C) was a young lean man in his thirties. He was relaxed as he explained the procedure to me. I could not help watching the other doctor with some curiosity. He was wearing goggles. Dr Goggles stood by a wash basin as he looked at me with interest.

"We are going to wrap this around your arm but if it feels a little tight, please tell us so we can release the pressure", said Dr C.

"Is this something like a tourniquet?" I asked.

"Yes, This is a tourniquet." replied the good doctor.

"Are you in the medical line? I ask because not many people know what a tourniquet is" said Dr Goggles as he smiled behind his goggles. (Smile, or no smile, he looked frightful!)

"No." I smiled back at him. (Remember ... this is going to be the man with the knives.)

I turned my head away from the center of action and sensing my trepidation, the good nurse directed my head back to the original position and placed a small towel over my eyes.

"I'm going to insert the needle now to numb your palm and it may hurt a little when the needle enters your skin but the pain will go away. Are you ready?"  The voice beside me said.

"OK" I whispered unhappily. My heartbeat increased by a notch or two.

"There! It's done. You don't feel any pain now, right?" A pause. Then, "Do you feel any pain here?"

"Oww!" I moaned as I felt a prick at the base of my thumb.

"What about here?"

"Where?"

"Here!"

"Huh?"

"That's good. That means you don't feel any pain. We'll begin." The voice became silent.

My heartbeat was fast at this point and feeling tensed, I forced myself to relax, to breathe and to meditate on the word of God. (The Lord's Prayer, Psalm 23 and 99, are the three in my complete arsenal for moments like this.)

Unbeknownst to me, a vision appeared in the midst of my meditation. (If this qualified as one.) I saw a man with goggles hanging on ropes over the lawn in his backyard. If you have watched HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS you would have known that the man with the goggles was searching for his children who had shrank into miniatures and are presumed to be running around under his lawn. While thus engaged, I suddenly felt the pulling and tugging in my palm.

Oh no! They can't find my tendons and they're pulling out my blood vessels! ~~~ STOP!! This is absurd! The thought raced through my mind.

"Argh! You're pulling something out of my palm?" I protested.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm tugging at your tendon to correct its position." said the Voice.

I felt a surge of blood rushing into my head which flushed and culminated in an achy head-dy-ache! My heart was pounding itself to a pulp. Calm down, I pleaded with my innards.

"It is done, madam. We are finished. I'm finishing off with the suture. It'll be over in a while." said the Voice.

"Thank you so, so much," I replied with some emotion.

"You are most welcomed, madam." replied the Voice.

I removed the towel over my eyes to see Dr Goggles bending over my palm, wrapping a length of bandage around it. The nurses took my blood pressure which at this point measured 200!

Next came a long array of do's and don'ts, instructions and paper work. I heard all of them and understood none of them, for I was in the mother of all Dazes.

My palm had to be held across my chest for 24 hours to reduce the swelling.. I was given a course of antibiotics, anti-inflammatory pills and painkillers.

I walked out of the hospital on me own two legs, with a slightly bruised ego and a dazed sense of thanksgiving. A slight drizzle cooled the hot afternoon air as cars and people raced to dodge their maker. A stout man walked across from me, saw the bandage on my palm and flashed me a smile, which I returned. In pain and sickness, there are no pride or prejudices.

Life is good!

Note: This post is written with two fingers and just two.

Hormone Therapy - Update

Back when it first began, my oncologist prescribed Tamoxifen by way of hormonal treatment to tame my Beast. (At least, that was what I was made to understand.)

"How long would I have to take this pill?" I asked the young oncologist.

"umm... until ... the end." She answered uncomfortably.

Wow, that's encouraging, I thought as I derailed the unhappy thought.

My liver did not agree with this arrangement so what ensued was Elevated Liver Enzyme, a condition which showed up in a subsequent blood test. What this meant in Gastroenterology, was that my liver was injured. Thus began a series of tests and drug elimination which resulted in a final prognosis that the culprit was none other than Tamoxifen.

So they struck off Tamoxifen while I gave myself a pat on the back. One less medication, I thought gleefully. My joy was short lived.

Arimidex (an expensive drug) joined my medication regiment.

I watched my liver enzymes closely.

"They're looking good, but we will continue to monitor them for a while" said the doctor at the Gastroenterology clinic.

The two major side effects of Arimidex was arthritis and a compromise in bone density. A bone mass scan revealed that my bone was "on the soft side" so calcium carbonate was prescribed.

Of a little more concern to me, meanwhile, were my fingers. I could not bend them in a grip and it hurts when my fingers accidentally brushes against some other object. After about a year of tolerating this inconvenience, my oncologist finally replaced Arimidex with Letrozole.

The pain in my fingers lessen but it was still impossible to bend them in a grip. My oncologist was alarmed when I told her how I was dropping kitchen knives and scissors. I was sent to the Orthopedic Clinic for treatment. After a brief examination, the doctor at the Orthopedic Clinic ruled out arthritis, scheduled me for physiotherapy and a minor surgery to fix my trigger finger.

At the Hand Rehabilitation Center, I was given a hand Dynamometer. This device measured my grasp strength which was about 6 by the way, for both hands.

I loved the physiotherapy sessions. The therapist massaged the area on my palm below the fingers with baby oil for close to three quarter of an hour, the last quarter of which was spent pushing a lump of theraputty with the back of the fingers. The wax treatment was canceled as the heat triggered in said treatment bodes ill for cancer patients.

The minor surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, and I'm a tad anxious.