On the morning of the surgery I was allowed to eat and drink as normal as the procedure was to be carried out whilst I was awake under local anaesthetic. I arrived with my husband at 12.30pm on ward along with approximately 26 other people all waiting for minor surgery. One by one we were taken for blood pressure check, sign the consent forms, meet with a surgeon and to be marked with a big black arrow showing where the operation was going to take place. Given an ID bracelet so we couldn't escape then sent back into the large room to wait in turn.
Unfortunately I was the very last one to theatre and my surgeon explained I was going to be less complicated so therefore he had left me till last. He ended up eating these words in the end!. I was allowed to keep my own clothes on and they put a theatre gown over my own clothes and walked me to theatre after checking my ID bracelet was who it sed I was.
Once in theatre I was asked to lay down on the Operating bed given a nice comfy cushion to lay on and my consultant spoke to me whilst another guy covered me in warm yellow iodine from top to bottom of my right arm. A tournequet was tightened to the top of my arm to stop blood flowing and pins and needles set into my hand for a short time. I felt the 1st of the local aneasthetics go in and after that my right hand felt numb and triple the size. The team set to work in decompressing the nerve to my carpal tunnel though I turned out to be an awkward customer and the nerve kept turning to the left each time they tried for it. Two surgeons and 40 minutes later and the op was over, 9 stitches applied to the palm of my hand, heavily bandaged and then after 60 minutes led out of theatre on foot to my waiting husband and by then dad had arrived to take me home. Worth noting everyone else who had same procedure walked back to the ward after 30 minutes so I was a little later than average.
The bandage remained in place for a week and was given an appointment for the hand therapy unit. At this appointment they removed the bandage and covered the stitches over with a low adherent dressing. They gave me 2 spares in case the one they put on fell off and found over the course of the week it cost me a firtune buying a dozen spares as they lasted half a day because of the positioning of the wound.
Two weeks after the operation I had the stitches removed and was given light physio to work on getting my hand and wrist moving again. Taking out the stitches I felt nothing, the hardest part was the recovery, my hand was reluctant to move backwards and the scar was tender and sore for a while till the moisturising cream started to soften the area.
Conclusion to this operation is i'm glad I had it done, surgeon said if it had been left I would eventually lose all use of the thumb and 2 fingers. Due to the number of years I suffered with the problem I had already lost some muscle use and nerves and these won't return. The operation was simply to stop any further problems.
After all the phsyio which lasted 3 months approx I was sent back to see the surgeon as I was experiencing numbness and severe pins and needles into my little and ring finger again in the right hand and still in the left thunb and 2 fingers.
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