Quote:
Originally Posted by cyclelops
EEESH, I am looking at having tendon transfer surgery, which is the surgery to fix arthritis at the thumb. Mine are horribly painful and are losing function fast.....the guy doing mine does hand reconstruction but your story is giving me a scare.....hmmm.
I don't imagine any one wants to admit they screwed up cutting the radial nerve, but, geez, how do you cut the radial nerve!?!
I wonder if it is the radial nerve thing or if you developed reflex sympathetic dystrophy from all this.
I suppose if I asked you if you would do it again you would say no, so, now I have to think this thru....I dunno, are things better left alone? If I don't do something, I will have useless hands and a lot of pain....if I do something, do I end up with a situation like yours? I have that broken wrist sensation now, and have had no surgery. I DID break that wrist 10 years ago, and now and then it feels totally rebroken, but it isnt.....to think that feeling could present all the time is not comforting.
Thank you for sharing this and I do so hope this can be resolved for you.  |
Hello Cyclelops
This past Dec 2009 my new hand Dr. redid the base thumb joint by using my tendon in a finger eight she replaced a silicone joint which I was allergic to and because I was having problems with the silicone joint she also had to do a carpal tunnel release. She then cleaned the nerve ends to my radial nerve which was not regrowing from the first attempt to fix the served nerve. So she trimmed back the nerve ends and placed a 4 inch tube just above my wrist. So far my new thumb joint and the carpal tunnel have been very successful. The radial nerve is not doing very well. My hand Dr. has sent me to other Drs. which they have all told me that I now have CRPSII and that I will have to live with this pain for the rest of my life. My new hand Dr.has been great she has been caring willing to try to help me in any way she can and she has gone above in what she could do for me. I now see a PM Dr. every 30 days to work with me on managing my pain.
The first Dr. that I went to for 2 years before I allowed him to do the joint surgery after looking back was someone that acted like he did not have time for you and only spent 5 minutes with you on any office visit except when I wanted to do the surgery then he made time for you but it was only 15 minutes to go over what he was going do do.
This is very important for anyone that is having any kind of surgery.
Before you are wheeled into the operating room your Dr. doing the surgery must come into the prep room to go over what he/she is going to do and mark where they are going to cut you open and mark how many places they are going to cut you open so both you and the Dr. are clear on where they are doing the surgery openings. Why because if you feel that they are only going to do several procedures through one opening instead of 2 or 3 openings you can ask why before instead later why didn't you do more opens.
The Dr. that did my surgery several years ago never came into the prep room to see me before the surgery because he did not have time for me he was to busy doing one surgery after another throughout that day. If he had only took 2 minutes of his time to go over what and how he was going to preform my surgery I would not be in the mess that I am for the rest of my life.
So Cyclelops and anyone else having surgery see your Dr. just before they preform your surgery by having a clear understanding as to what and how and make sure you feel right about everything or keep asking until you feel right a few more minutes to make sure all your questions are answered to your satisfaction. After all it is you that has to live with the outcome of the surgery for the rest of your life not your Dr. Your just a other patient.
Sorry for being so long winded
Dennis