Here’s to Hands!

Frankly, I never imagined what seemed like a simple yet hard fall while mopping the floor at the end of June would end up being a 3-month ordeal!   Retrospectively, I should have known that going barefoot while mopping makes for slippery wet floors and is a no-no.

I call myself careful to watch out for uneven pavement, and slippery fall leaves; taking special care when walking on cobblestones. Yet, apparently, my vigilance for indoor falls failed.

I could have broken bones, wrecked up my back, hit my head and who knows what else?  On instinct, I instantly braced the fall with my left outstretched hand…  Thank goodness it wasn’t my dominant right, and the wooden parquet floor gave me some bounce!

Had it been tile, it could have been worse.   My poor hand took half of the impact and left me worried I might have a fracture. After a night of pain and swelling, I headed to the nearest hand clinic.

I ended up having my wrist in a cast for a suspected carpal fracture.  When a scanner confirmed that there wasn’t any fracture,   the cast came off.  Well, with a splint for a week, that’s the end of that, I thought.

Wrong!  A few days later I started to have intense numbness, alternating with burning, tingling sensations of my thumb, index, and middle fingers.

I generally do a lot of knife prep, preparing for dinner each night.  I had to stop using my pepper grinder, due to pain and weakness in my wrist, and do less chopping and slicing.  Typing was difficult, hitting lots of wrong keys.  No more using my left hand to carry heavy objects or bags.

Initially, I didn’t attach much significance to these symptoms.  Maybe it was the aftermath of my bad sprain?  After a month, when the symptoms remained and intensified, I knew I was in trouble, nerve-wise.

Did the fall somehow cause some impingement of my hand nerves?  From where?  Since the median, ulnar and radial nerves all exit from the cervical area of my neck, was it there, my shoulder, elbow or wrist?  There are a lot of joints along the route!

The only way, I could get rid of symptoms was to walk around dangling my hand down.  I enjoy walking for multiple reasons unless my unoperated hip is acting up, but in the middle of the night, no.

The numbing, tingling, burning sensation seemed to be worse, especially at night.  About any position of my hand resulted in numbing. By late July, I was awaking with severe pain generally around 3 to 4 am.   Strange, even though I usually wore my splint during the night.

The generalist ordered some physical therapy.  Unfortunately, despite my physical therapist being a good one, there was absolutely no improvement in symptoms.  By then I knew it was time to see a hand surgeon.

French doctors are good, for the most part, but many take August off.  The female hand surgeon I chose, happened to be in that case, so I took her first appointment back in September.

Watching the spectacular accomplishments of Paralympians, who all achieve the incredible and much-admired ability to overcome their own limitations of limbs, sight, etc in performing mind-boggling sports challenges, made me grateful that I had two hands, one only hopefully temporarily impaired.

Dr Pages quickly indicated that it was probably carpal tunnel compression, aka carpal tunnel syndrome, causing all these symptoms and referred me to a neurologist for an electromyography, EMG.

I generally associated carpal tunnel syndrome with overworked secretaries constantly typing throughout the day.  Mine was caused by smashing up my tunnel ligament which contracted even further, pressing on my median nerve in this tiny little space.

I had heard patients complaining of having a EMG, so was bracing for a tough time, pain wise.    Dr. Yaiche, was so gentle and caring that the dreaded pain of this notoriously uncomfortable exam was just mild discomfort, even when he had to complete it with a needle-threaded electrode through my thumb.

The EMG results confirmed it.  Severe compression of the median nerve by the tunnel ligament, with beginning diminished motor innervation.   He recommended surgery as soon as possible.

With tickets for a flight to Crete on September 18, he said I could wait another 3 weeks for surgery.  I was aware that the longer nerve compression goes on, the more chance you have of having permanent damage.

I love Greece and Crete was all worth going even with my bum hand and sometimes aching left hip.  I walked a lot, swam in the warm sea, and avoided when I could using much of my poor hand.

Only few days after landing back in Paris, I was ready to place my hand in the skillful hands of Dr. Pages.  I don’t look forward to any surgery, as all are stressful, but strangely with this one, I felt different.  I was ready, even eager, to get rid of the numbness, weakness and especially night pain.

The worst part was the necessary needle pricking by the anesthesiologist to numb out totally my wrist, yet keep my fingers moveable.  After being secured on the operating table, Dr Pages asked what kind of music I would like.  I thought that was a nice touch!

Whatever she liked, I replied, knowing that surgeons enjoy operating with their favourite music.  With soft jazz filling the room, which I like too, the blue surgical curtain went up.

Contrary to a lot of patients,  I prefer to be conscious during surgery, like I was with my hip replacement in December.    General anaesthesia can carry formidable possible dangers and leave you groggy and sickly.

I always found my surgical rotations very interesting, so my continuing curiosity leads me to ask questions, which I know some surgeons might not like.

This time, I decided to keep quiet; relax and listen to the music.  I had looked at a video of the surgical procedure online, so just from the pressure of the instruments I could tell approximately what was happening.

As soon as I felt that the carpal tunnel ligament was being severed, I experienced a rush of warmth to my fingers, like a sudden release of energy had returned to my fingertips.

It was over in about ten to 15 minutes, with Dr Pages squeezing my hand again to reassure me that all had gone well.  Such a huge bandage for such a little incision!  My dressing change two days later was done by a visiting nurse, a nice French touch that I greatly appreciated post-hip surgery.

This time, I decided to do the rest of the sterile dressing changes, myself.    Now, a week post-op, the incision has mended back together without any infection.   All that is left is to remove some sutures in a week, which I will leave up to the nurse.

No more numbness, tingling and burning!  No more waking up in pain!  It was easier to type this post, too. I am grateful to have my normalized hand back! Thank you, Dr. Pages, for your expert surgical skills and kind compassionate care!

P.S.  No more whacking the back of my knife with my palm to loosen the peel on garlic cloves, either!  Here’s to hand TLC!