No Pain - No Gain

Now that my arm is lying flat once again the doctor proceeds with the local freezing procedure and for once I wished I were in the dentist's chair...YEEEEOUCH!!!!! He didn't freeze a little at a time like my lovely dentist does...oh no...he just rams that needle in up to it's hilt and pours in the fire!!!!!

Well.. that's what it felt like...man was that a rough ride. He did it twice - each time from a different angle - and when the hurtin' was all over the nurse peered down at me, smiled and said, "Well, now the worst is over."

And it was... from then on I didn't feel a thing at the surgery site - my fingers and thumb weren't frozen at all. They left the surgery room and I laid there waiting for all the freezing to take effect and wondered if [as sometimes happens in the dentist chair] I'd be asking for more because I could feel the pain.

When he returned to me, the doctor was wearing binocular-type eye pieces and I commented that he looked like a jeweller. He said that he would be looking at something precious and we both had a laugh.

He sat on the lower side of my arm, a resident general surgeon sat opposite him and a resident plastic surgeon looked on forming what I call an operating triangle. My doctor described each step, what he saw and why he was doing what he was doing. The resident general surgeon assisted and made very few comments. I felt like an outsider listening in on a conversation although the doctor did make the offer to me to watch if I desired. I declined the offer. I have such a vivid imagination that if I did see the procedure, I'd remember it and perhaps psychologically influence the post-op main level...no thanks.


I could feel tugging and pulling but, thankfully, no pain at all. Approximately 30 minutes later I left the surgery room with my hand bandaged in a soft layer of cotton, wrapped further in a tensor bandage with the clips taped down and with instructions to keep the hand above my heart level for 5 days to minimize the pain. I wasn't given any medication but was told to take Tylenol extra strength alternately with Advil.

We parted as if we'd just had a nice chat and I walked down the hallway to see Bernard coming toward me. We walked to the van and I noticed I was shaking a little so I suggested we go to Tim Horton's for a hot chocolate. It did the trick and we continued on with our day.

For the next 5 days I kept my arm up and found that the pain was never terrible as long as I took my painkillers on a regular basis. Looking back I would have taken them steadily for 5 days instead of the 2-3 days I did.

Ok...now to see it it did any good...