Last Bit About Hand

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

For some reason, I have always had interesting hospital stories. When I was a kid and lived in Conyers, I had to go to the hospital after I built a bike ramp and then had alittle accident. At the hospital, my dad and I had to wait on the doctor because he was apparently eating a salad. In college, after hitting my head on the exit sign, we had to wait for Gumby’s to deliver our food before we could leave. Today, not only did my Peace Corps doctor have to wait an hour for my doctor to show up, but I nearly had to wait till after August 10, for the rods to come out.

My orthopedic doctor here is a character. He is leaving tomorrow on a month long vacation to France and he still hadn’t packed. I don’t think he wanted to take the rods out because he wanted to get home. My Peace Corps doctor and myself pleaded with him. The rods in the hand have proven to be pretty painful and have limited some of my activities at times. Finally, he broke, and we were heading to the operating room.

Just before entering the operating room, I had to put on a gown over my clothes and booties on my feet. I entered the operating room, accompanied by my Peace Corps doctor, around 11:50. I laid down on the surgical table. My doctor entered with his scrubs on. He cleaned my hand and then jabbed it about 4 or 5 times with local anesthesia. After the anesthesia had time to do its magic, he made a couple incisions in the hand.

During the next portion of the procedure, I learned something new. I believe that the rods were inside my bone, not on the outside as I thought. The first one came out with a simple yank. While I couldn’t see any of it being done, I could feel it alittle, not painful though. The second rod wasn’t as easy and took a few hard yanks. After the first one proved to be unsuccessful, I think my Peace Corps doctor was concerned for me. The only thing I was concerned about was getting a hold of the two rods that were in my finger. Finally, after the second or third hard yank/pull/jerk, the rod came out.

By 12:10, I was stitched and bandaged up, ready to go. I have been told that I have to exercise and stretch my finger so it gets back to normal. Right now, it is not normal. If you have seen Bob Dole’s hand, that is how I feel. Also, I learned that I broke it in a bad spot, so the little sprain that I thought it was, was much worse.

By the way, I did manage to get my hands on the two rods, and they are a lot bigger than I was anticipating.