Tag Archives: Finger

A little of this, a little of that

Yoyoyoyoyo!

I haven’t been writing here much lately, so I thought it was time for some catching up.

Let’s have a look at the last posts, shall we?

My sliced finger is slowly getting better. I am still numb in about a third of the finger, and I still can’t bend it all the way. But on both counts it is better that two months ago, when the cast was removed. What has happened is that the scar tissue has grown attached to the tendon, so it physically can’t move to make the finger bend all the way. Stretching can help, and I’m still doing my finger training every third hour or so – but to be honest I haven’t been keeping it up as much as I should.

Regarding Laundry. I’m still very happy with the washing machine, and I still feel it was worth the cost. In fact, my brother told me the other day that he just bought one just like it – and he seems to be happy with it as well. Hoover HNT 6614, folks.

Analog week went fine. I finished reading two books and started a third. Come to think of it, I haven’t picked up the third book since. Maybe I should do this every month? Should you?

What else?

I’ve been working a lot lately. There was a lot to prepare for the Mobile World Congress, where  the company I work for participated. I wasn’t going myself, but I prepared material for the exhibition. I have applied for a week’s vacation in two weeks (starting the week when I have my birthday), but haven’t gotten any reply from my boss yet. And now he is on vacation himself. I was planning on either going on a short last-minute trip or just stay at home and do absolutely nothing.

I’ve also fallen for one of the latest games from Bioware; Dragon Age – Origins. Highly recommended if you like Fantasy RPGs. I’m playing it through now for the second time, this time with some addons, and it still is a pretty darned sweet game!
Bioware has a history of awesome games, and have previously made some of my favorite games:

  • Baldur’s Gate
  • Baldur’s Gate II
  • Neverwinter Nights
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  • Jade Empire

Speaking of games, I’m also looking forward to DeathSpank, from Ron Gilbert (the brain behind the Monkey Island games). Check out the videos!

Plans?

In 10 days, I’ll be going on a 23 hour cruise to the Åbo, Finland, with Silja Galaxy together with Marianne, Sanna, Daniel, Adam, Linnéa and perhaps two more friends. Marianne mentioned it was the Swedish equivalent to Las Vegas, and I’m not finding it hard to agree. People come there to enjoy themselves for a weekend, spending money in an environment that is made for this. And what happens at the Finland Ferry, stays at the Finland Ferry. 😉

Outside right now it is deep winter. In some places in Sweden, it is the coldest winter for 50 years. The local traffic is so bad that most of the subway grid is shut down, and people are recommended to stay at home if possible. So I have been working from home the last few days, also taking care of M, who is ill at the moment.

I do wish the snow and cold would go away soon, so I can start practice driving motorcycle. I’m planning to take my driver’s license this spring, either in Stockholm or down around Ulricehamn/Borås, where my parents live. If possible, I will take a few week’s vacation and do an intensive course. Does anybody know of any good schools for this?

Now: Pancakes and movie!

Cast away

Stiches removed
Stiches removed

This monday I got to remove my cast and stiches. It felt really odd but it’s sooo good to be able to scratch (and wash) again.

Unfortunately, I can now hardly move my finger.  There was a 20-25° angle missing when trying to bend the finger backward/straight out, so it got a little crocked (sidewise as well). But the worst part is that I can’t close the finger either. The tendon that was mostly damaged leads to the top joint in the finger and when I try to move it it feels like there is something in the way. Same thing with the middle joint, but I have slightly better movement there. I now have to wear a special plastic rail around the clock to prevent the finger from stiffening in a crocked position, and it also protects the finger from impact. The rail will be adjusted regularly to adjust the angle and shape of the rail.

This also means that I will have to do a lot of  physiotherapy and special hand exercises every third hour for at least a couple of months, probably more.

Sensitivity-wise, it’s very odd. Below the scar it feels pretty much normal, but above it is no fun. If sliding a finger nail or something from the base of the finger upwards, I get a tiny jolt every time it crosses the scar, kind of when you hit the nerve in your elbow. In the area above that, half the finger feels like it’s sleeping. In that kind of way that when you’re trying to walk when your foot is asleep, and it almost burns when you touch the floor with it.

I have no idea if this is going to disappear or if it will always stay like this. I tried typing on the keyboard with the rail off, but its too unpleasant for that. I assume the same thing will happen if playing the piano or guitar, and that is a little disconcerting.

The ring finger is at least better for this kind of damage that the thumb, index finger or little finger.

Surgery went fine

This morning I went to a hospital in Nacka to have surgery on my sliced finger. I only had to wait for about 10 minutes before I was called in to the dressing room to change to hospital clothes. Then waiting on a bed for about 1.5 hours before going into the actual operating room. I brought my mp3/media player so that I could watch an episode of Burn Notice while waiting, which was a good thing. After 30 minutes they gave me a couple of pills (2 Alvedon and 1 Voltaren) to ease any coming pain.

Once in the operating room they shot a strong sedative in my arm and I started to get a little groggy. They then took a bigger shot filled with some white goo and injected it a little at a time. I remember lying there for about 20 minutes, not really that drowsy, but then I woke up so apparently I crashed as scheduled.

I remember glimpes; They were to move me from the operating table back to my bed, and I asked if I should stand up (they said “No, no, no, we’ll take care of this”). I apparently asked the doctor or nurse the same question three times in a row, each time forgetting the answer (Now I don’t remember the question). I was then in the wake up room.

If you are ever in a wake up room and want to “sober up” quickly, play some Converge in your favorite headphones. That’ll work. After one song I decided to let it take it’s time and switched to Kings of Convenience instead.

The doctor came and talked to me after I was a little less groggy and told me that it was actually a bit worse than they thought. Aside from the severed nerve bundle, one of the tendons was cut halfway through. It is therefore important that i do not lift anything heavy or overextend the finger for a few months.

After another hour or so they needed the bed so I had to get up, and shortly thereafter my brother came and picked me up (thanks again).

The middle and ring finger are still all numb from the anesthesia, and it feels like they are sleeping, that almost burning sensation. I also have a cast covering all but my thumb and index finger, almost all the way to the elbow. Since the cast extends further than the fingers, it makes it extremely hard to type using my right hand, and all text in this post is written by my left hand only (so far taking 50 minutes).

To give you an example, I will now type “hello, my name is frank johansson”, using the index finger on my right hand only in a normal angle and position:

ih5e6ålål+ó, my8 nawepml5e i0sr fyr6eanklpk oj+oihawknrsesre+ónk

See what I mean?

I will have the cast for about two weeks, and will then get a removable brace as the stitches are removed.

Most of the missing tactility will hopefully be restored within a year but it will never go back fully to what it was, according to the doctor. As long as it is good enough to type on a keyboard, play the piano or the guitar and actually feel that I am pressing a key or plucking a string, I will be satisfied.

Hello!

Surgery needed

As suspected, my finger needs surgery. Tomorrow morning I will go to a hospital in Nacka where they will open up the finger again and try to stitch together the severed nerve bundles. The doctor I talked to yesterday thought that I would have to have a plaster with braces for about three weeks, which would suck. But I’ll know more about that after the surgery tomorrow.

On another note, the tetanus shot has made my left arm and shoulder all sore, even now four days later. Is that normal?

Sliced finger

Yesterday my brother and his fiancee were over at our place for dinner with wine. Afterwards we were going out and thought that we should take the empty bottles with us since we were passing the recycling cabin anyway. While there my brother threw a bottle hard into the glass bin to make it crash. Unfortunately, part of the bottle ricocheted back up and came straight for me. Instinctive I put up my hand to protect my body from the whirring glass, and it hit my right ring finger.

And there were blood – lots of it. In fact, I even had an arch of blood across my face, going all the way into my right ear. The floor in the recycling cabin had blood splattered on an area about two meters wide.

We rushed back into the apartment, pressing the finger together, putting three compresses and a makeshift tourniquet made of tape while M called for a taxi.

After arriving at the emergency room at the hospital, I only had to wait for about 5 minutes before getting my hand looked at. After removing the bloody compresses and cleaning the wound with salt water they cut off the blood flow with a rubber tube and a peang. Prodding the finger with what looked like toothpicks, the conclusion was that I had lost feeling in about half my finger. After two anesthesia shots in the finger (that really hurt), I soon didn’t feel anything at all.

Despite the nerve damage they had to close the finger to stop the bleeding, so they started to sew. It was a really odd sensation to see them doing it and not feel any pain. After 10 stitches they released the peang to let the blood through the finger, but immediately had to put another two stitches due to leakage.

The people who closed up my finger were really nice, and we even had a few laughs together.

After getting my stitches it was time to  x-ray the finger to look for skeletal damage (since the cut was so deep). For some reason this was considered a really high prio case, I got to go before people who had been waiting for several hours. Anyway, the x-ray turned out fine and the glass hadn’t damaged the bone.

A quick bandage and a tetanus shot later and I was on my way home again. Total time in the hospital was just above three hours, which was probably a new record for me.

Today the finger hurts quite a bit, and I will soon go the pharmacy to get the pain killers and antibiotics that I got prescriptions for.

Tomorrow I will have to go to another hospital, where a specialist in hand surgery will assess the damage and possibly open the finger up again to try to repair the damaged nerve(s).

Now, time for some (quite gory) pictures: