(Yes, if you click the pic, it'll enlarge - usually, depending on your computer.)The Write Hand
The hand with the tenosynovitis recovered nicely. The stitches came out, and only after that did one tiny piece of MRSA show up, which I promptly killed off with good 'ol Silvadene.
The surgeon and infectious disease docs were astonished at how well and how quickly the incision healed, such minimal scarring and infection despite deep surgery and 11 stitches. They still don't know I completely contradicted orders, and slathered it with Silvadene twice a day.
See, the thing is, I've been working with this body's mishaps for a lot longer than anyone else, including the docs. If studies show *dry* is the current thinking on wound healing, still, one size does not fit all.
It healed so well, the surgeon said I didn't even need physical therapy. Then, one week later, the exact same long hard lump of tenosynovitis showed up - right next door to where he'd removed the first one.
After all that beautiful surgery...I was embarrassed. It seemed such an insult to his work.
The pic with a *y* shaped hand is my left hand, making a correct Y in ASL (American Sign Language for the Deaf). The next pic is me trying to say Y with my right hand, with tenosynovitis now eating a little secondary tendon that goes to one's pinkie.
The surgery took more than twice as long as scheduled, as the doc had to tediously pick off diseased inflammatory tissue from both the tendon, and the nerve that serves the top outside half of that hand. It wasn't paralyzed, but I have little sensation in much of the hand now. A creepy feeling.
Surgery is so risky for me to begin with, and I don't want any more nerve damage in there, and the tenosynovitis might just keep on growing back anyway...so, he sent me to the fab Ft. Lauderdale Hand Clinic for physical therapy.
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