Thumbs Up... Kinda

Myke's 'blob.

Thumbs Up... Kinda Wed, Nov 18. 2009

I did get new arm candy:
"VACOhand"
(... I have two arms K, you're still my other candy ;-)

So I've lost the use of my thumb, and all but my finger-tips, which pretty much renders my hand entirely useless, but the upside is that the pain & edema is significantly reduced. I feel (emotionally) human again. The past couple weeks were really rough, mostly because of the near-constant agony... but if near-complete immobility makes everything else better - I'll take it. Curiously, when I take it off my hand is almost normal, but within 30 minutes it's puffy, after an hour it's pretty huge; my inference is that using my thumb was a big irritant.

Apparently I can get this thing wet too, like swimming... but I think I'm going to hold off on that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of wearing a pound of plastic, foam & velcro, and it still hurts, it's just that things aren't that bad this week. And that's a huge improvement over the past 3 months.
I swear I'm going to need an oven-mitt for wearing outside during the winter... And sadly there's nowhere for blue LEDs!

10 Days till the MRI.

(Probably 6mo+ for the MRI on my knees, but that's a chronic problem, not acute, so I can wait.) (What? You didn't know my knees suck too?)
Posted by Mike Geiger in Busted Wrist Comments: (5) Trackbacks: (0)

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#1 - Silas said:
2009-11-19 10:46 - (Reply)

Oh, I knew your knees sucked. The exoskeletons made that pretty clear.

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#2 - Graeme said:
2009-11-19 13:09 - (Reply)

Hey Myke, take progress as progress.

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#3 - Sarahblam 2009-11-26 18:41 - (Reply)

Is it me or is the cast growing? o_O;

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#3.1 - Mike Geiger 2009-11-27 00:41 - (Reply)

It did grow, yes. Rather significantly.

Upside: works by vacuum-forming rather than balloon-pressure; much less pain, better circulation.

Downside: Less pain but due to thumb immobilization, and more metacarpal immobilization.

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#4 - elementsofmylife 2009-12-08 17:55 - (Reply)

Hello fellow element owner. Your injury sounds like a doozy. I can't quite relate but I feel for you having to wear such crazy hand candy.

At this point a custom made brace or splint from an OT probably doesn't make much sense but when you're further into recovery mode I highly recommend it. A simple custom rest brace (and the exercises) my OT provided were worth their weight in gold. I went from 2 years of pain and swelling (after a fracture!) to pain free and riding my bike in a few months. Sadly the brace is in use again though as I await news on whether my scaphoid is broken or not.

In any case, I wish you the best in your recovery.

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