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Typing one handed or: How I Learned To Be Careful On A Snowy Evening - Page 3

post #31 of 86
1/30/10 at 6:32pm
Thing is, there should be some sort of a spray on the skin to numb it a bit first.
My first fracture, well, the arm bent up like a Z. Docs sprayed the skin surface and stuck a syringe right into the bone (I believe). That was many years ago, technology should have got quite a bit better today. Hand surgeries should not be hard to perform and anesthetics should be very effective. Only when the docs believe that the operation is very small that they don't really use anesthetics. The bad part is after the surgery, when the painkillers wear off. Prepare yourself for the "after" part. Believe me.
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post #32 of 86
1/30/10 at 8:09pm
Bugger. Well hopefully your surgery goes fine. Glass should have made a clean cut .
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post #33 of 86
1/30/10 at 9:02pm
Thread Starter 
Well the cut was pretty clean and precise, it was all that blood that caused a problem.

I'm not looking forward to going back to work. I haven't told my boss yet but I'm taking the day off after surgery and going back on Wednesday. Ideally I'd take the whole week off but when I talked to my boss yesterday she was concerned about me, but at the same time I got the feeling that they wanted me back as soon as possible. I use my hands constantly so I'll have to remember to baby my right hand. It'll be hard to use a DMM with one hand, but I'll get used to it quickly. My one-handed typing speed has more than doubled!
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post #34 of 86
1/30/10 at 9:08pm
Turn on your WA22 and enjoy. You don't need those two fingers to turn it on, do you? So, be happy...... bro
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post #35 of 86
1/30/10 at 9:18pm
Take care of yourself.... Nobody is going to remember an extra day or two of rest after surgery in the grand scheme of things. If she's a good boss she will understand.
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post #36 of 86
1/30/10 at 9:24pm
Well what's the point of going back to work if you can't work.
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post #37 of 86
1/30/10 at 9:38pm
Thread Starter 
Well I can work, I'll just be very slow. But you are right; I should take off as much time as I need. I really won't know until after surgery but my guess is I'll need at least two days. The thing is, I never signed up for short-term disability and I probably only have enough PTO for 5 days, but I can do without pay if it even comes to that.
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post #38 of 86
1/30/10 at 10:16pm
Are you sure you'll be able to handle work on painkillers, though? The few times I've had heavy-duty meds, I was not entirely there mentally. If you get some serious narcotics, be sure to let your boss know what they are. If the office has a policy against drugs and alcohol, you might be able to use that to argue your case for time off.
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post #39 of 86
1/31/10 at 4:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAudioDude View Post
I think that half of the bottle broke when I fell, then my hand landed on the half that was still standing up, and the bottle made these deep cuts. The force of my hand probably shattered the rest of the bottle, which would make me lucky since if that didn't happen I'd have no fingers right now. At least no glass or gravel got stuck inside my fingers!
Oh, that happened to me once, I was trying to recycle some glass bottles.
I was carrying the bag of bottles in front of me and I didn't see the uneven sidewalk. Then I tripped and fell on the bottles. I ended up getting a piece of glass in my arm, which the doctor had to pull out and then give me stiches.

I guess it happens to best of us.
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post #40 of 86
2/1/10 at 11:56pm
Thread Starter 
I had the surgery today and it went well. I had local anesthesia w/ three injections; one to the top base of my finger, and two on either side between fingers... yes, I had a huge needle injected into the fleshy part between fingers. It was pretty painful but not too bad.

I was tempted to look but I used my better judgement instead. I asked how deep the cut really was and the surgeon said I scraped the bone.

He used nylon to rejoin the tendon, although there was a small issue. Apparently I cut off a piece of my tendon, so there wasn't quite enough left to perfectly rejoin it. He did a few tricks and managed to repair the tendon.

Anyways, I can't use this hand for pretty much anything for the next ten days, which is when I have to go back to have the stitches removed. I ended up taking this whole week off of work and my boss is perfectly fine with it.

I got 40 tablets of vicodin, but they don't seem to be as effective as I had hoped. The pain is barely below excruciating, but tolerable. It's not throbbing or anything; just a constant horrible pain, like my finger is in a vise. I took two shortly after surgery and it mellowed me out but only brought the pain down a little bit. I took two pills two hours ago and the pain is already back to being fairly severe. I think the bandage/splint may be too tight, so I may drop by the surgeon's office tomorrow morning if the pain has not decreased.

I don't need physical therapy so at least that's good.
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post #41 of 86
2/2/10 at 12:19am
That is bad news. How did you strike the ground that your finger split open like that? I have fallen countless times on ice (Canadian) and never had anything bad happen. The only time I broke (not completely severed) a tendon was the only time I played American Football - caught the ball on the edge of my finger and the finger went the other way. Ended up breaking the bones too, but never, ever had such a bad fall on the ice.

I wish you quick recovery.
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post #42 of 86
2/2/10 at 12:22am
Thread Starter 
Well, my finger landed on a beer bottle that happened to shatter when I fell. Such bad luck but I have a bottle of 40 (well, 36 now) vicodins, so maybe it's not THAT bad.
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post #43 of 86
2/2/10 at 1:27am
Sorry to hear about the pain, but am very glad to hear the surgeon managed to patch up your hand OK. And no PT is a good thing!
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post #44 of 86
2/2/10 at 5:55am
I say you pay someone to get your beers for you now.
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post #45 of 86
2/2/10 at 7:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Erik View Post
Are you sure you'll be able to handle work on painkillers, though? The few times I've had heavy-duty meds, I was not entirely there mentally. If you get some serious narcotics, be sure to let your boss know what they are. If the office has a policy against drugs and alcohol, you might be able to use that to argue your case for time off.
Funny thing is my work allows workers to come back to work as soon as their ready. The thing is we work on commission, so sure you're being paid your hourly subsidy, but you're missing out on that much more. I haven't heard of any issues of folks telling the company they're alright to go back to work even if they're on an opioid.
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