Day 70 – A Bit Confused?

I left on a Sunday to Toronto to see my Doctor on Monday morning. As a note, my last appointment with the physiotherapist was on the Wednesday. So by the time I saw the doctor on Monday, five days had passed since I’d had my last physiotherapy session. I sat down with Doctor Steven McCabe and his staff including some other surgeons and students and we reviewed my progress. Unfortunately the news was not good or as good as I would like it to be. My fingers are still swollen and my movement was limited in the wrist. I asked the doctor if this was normal and he responded that it was not and that the swelling in the fingers had definitely slowed down my healing process. I explained to him about the aching in my fingers and also about how it felt like nerves were firing inside my fingers at night while I slept. He asked me if I was wearing the brace at night while I slept and I responded no because the physiotherapist told me not to. He said that I should be wearing it at night and that it will help with the aching and the nerve firing as well as keeping my hand up whenever possible to help with the swelling. I asked him how long this would take to heal and he really didn’t have an answer other than to keep doing my exercises and not to give up and that they think it will get better. I questioned his choice of word “think”and he said that they cannot say 100% that I will improve but they think I will if I continue doing these exercises. He pointed out the improvements I’ve made since my last visit and he said he would like to see me in two months. He encouraged me not to give up and to continue religiously with these exercises.

Funny enough, I drove home after his visit and when I went to bed I decided I would use the brace as he suggested and I also went back to sleeping on my back with my hand up on one pillow [above my heart]. To my surprise, I woke up and was able to move my fingers up and down without doing any of my early morning stretching exercises. This was a huge improvement. Normally every morning I would wake up and my fingers would be curled and stiff I would not be able to move my fingers up or down without stretching them for 5 to 10 minutes in the morning. But this morning I woke up and was able to stretch my fingers myself, and they felt great! For the rest of the day my fingers felt much better and I was able to do many more things that I could not do last week. For example, I had the strength to use a Peppermill at dinner for the first time.

On Wednesday I had an appointment with the physiotherapist. I started to think about what was different today than the last few weeks. Obviously there is the fact that I was not wearing my brace at night and I was not keeping my hand up in the air whenever possible to drain my fingers. However, there’s also the fact that the physiotherapist was manipulating my wrist and I was doing far more exercises to or three times a week. So when I spoke to the physiotherapist and explained how great I felt he too was a bit confused at first because there is always a consequence to exercising, and swelling is one of them. However I asked them to measure my pull strength and it went from 4 kg to 14 kg in seven days. I guess we were both a bit confused at this point in time as to what should be the next course of action. The physiotherapist was leaving for a 2 1/2 weeks vacation to Europe and we agreed that I would continue with my exercises during this time and see how I feel in three weeks when he returns. Now keep in mind that this physiotherapist is not a certified hand therapist but he does do a lot of work with hands in my small town.

I find that every day I wake up now with my fingers able to move except for a full fist closure like making a fist. But it only takes a few seconds to squeeze my fingers shut and I then have full range of motion with my fingers. Now throughout the day they do vary in stiffness depending on what I’m doing, the temperature, humidity etc., however they are not aching and sore like they were before.

So here’s what I am doing now and I am not certain that this may not be the right approach but I do know it is the feel-good approach for now. I am performing my finger exercises regularly throughout the day as well as my wrist exercises. I do find that putting an ice pack on my wrist while I lay down before I go to sleep relieves some of the slight swelling or information that I get by working it throughout the day. I no longer take painkillers during the day at all but I still take my prescribed painkillers just before bed but no others in the middle of the night.

Today I started to take a new pill called Protandim that my partner in Phoenix sent me. I am looking to find a certified hand physiotherapist in Ottawa or Montréal so that I may have one visit with him and get their opinion on what I should be doing. I am also considering crossing the border to Massena and paying the $300 for a MRI of my wrist so that I have a full picture and can give this to my surgeon since the more information we have the better decisions we can make.

Presently I find that I’m able to drive my new Fiat Abarth that is a five-speed standard without any problems, I have much more ability to use my fingers and my wrist does not hurt or ache during the day. As I said before I do get stiff once in a while and I’m not certain if it’s something I ate, the temperature or something else. Yesterday for example I installed LED lights on my wife’s Vespa and was able to use a screwdriver with my right hand [yay!]. I do believe that this hand will heal in time and that I will regain the use of my fingers. However I am beginning to feel that my wrist will bend inwards by approximately 30 to 40° and bending outwards will be little to no degrees. Presently I have between 0 to 10° outwards depending on how you measure it. My physiotherapist measures it at ten while my surgeon measures it at zero. If I had 40° inwards and 10° outwards I believe I would be happy with that providing there would be no more pain, aching or other annoying things.

I also paid for my x-rays while I was at the Toronto Western hospital and will be adding them to the explanation page, however below is a picture of the before and after for those who are interested. It’s interesting to see how this shortens my hand. It’s very strange when I hold my hands up in front of me to see that one hand is about an inch or two shorter than my other…