Day 21 – Sore skin
Day twenty-one continues with exercises five times a day. I notice an ever so slight improvement on the movement of my thumb and my finger grip. However, opening my fingers seems to be very difficult still and little improvement is noticed.
I removed the brace once each day to wash my hand. I still have pain in the brace that is skin related. I do not even think it’s from the stitches but from the edge of my wrists where the cast was too tight for two weeks. If you look at the pictures below you can see the little redlined marks on the corner of my wrists. This area is quite sore when the braces on since it squeezes in that area just like the cast. Today when I wash my hands I took a gauze pad and cut it to size. I placed it between the brace and that sore area to help cushion it a bit. It’s slightly better but still hurts.
My shoulder and my arms are now getting very sore since I have to keep my hand above my heart to help reduce the swelling. That means when I walk or sit or sleep my hand should be above my heart. When I am sitting my elbow rests against something to allow my hand to be vertically straight up. When I sleep, I hand is on top of two pillows. When I walk, I have to hold my hand in the air at the same height as my head. This is taking a great toll on my shoulders, elbow and right arm. I have scheduled a massage on Wednesday [in two days] to help work out some of the knots in my shoulder. The the massage therapist has a vertical massage chair whereby I can lean forward and keep my hand high while she massages my shoulder. I am now counting the minutes until Wednesday.
So today I continue with my exercises, I have some work to do on my computer and I will try to do some gardening with my left hand.
Proximal Row Carpectomy - PRC 