October 1, 2003

The further trials of the hand of the devil

Today at 2:00pm PDT I was at my hand orthopedic drs office. It was mostly a quick exam but I got to ask a few questions.

First the results of the exam. My hand is recovering nicely. I have quite a bit of scar tissue inside but inside a year it should all have healed away. My elbo is basically back to normal... It has about the same range of motion as the other. My wrist is the only source of concern. It is getting a bit better but not as much as the hand or elbo. It only improved about 5 degrees of mobility in 1 1/2 weeks.

My questions were thus: Is my pinky OK? Yes, but it was badly sprained. I was given new exercises to target my pinky and get it back OK. Can I hurt my hand doing my fist clenching exercises? No, but I can't apply outside forces, those might hurt it. When can I stop wearing the splint? In a month or so. However, if I'm not doing anything that might lead to falling or other arm damaging activities I can skip the splint to allow my wrist to get better.

When will I be OK? (to ride motorcycles, play on the monkey bars with kids) A few monthes. My arm won't feel normal for 6 monthes but I wil be safe to go about my life in a few, when I have full range of motion and no pain.

Posted by pqbon at October 1, 2003 3:55 PM | TrackBack