Entries by Mike Geiger

About four days after the surgery last week, I realized two things:

1. Not being able to take off the cast at the end of the day is getting really old, and didn't feel good.
2. The drugs are reminding me why I stopped drinking; I don't like what they do to my mind & body, but I need 'em to cut the pain

Thus, I was looking forward to my follow-up appointment today; I'd caught the train down on Sunday, and thanks to a nice promotion - in Via 1 First Class

After a quick ride across the Dundas street car, I arrived half an hour early for my appointment and was shown into an exam room almost immediately.
An ortho-tech came removed my cast, removed the wound dressing and showed me to the sink and said I should clean up.

That didn't go very well - the first time I tried to bend my wrist, my whole body convulsed in pain. Same for trying to make a fist. It hurt. After a few more jolts like that, I smartened up, pulled a chair over the to sink and Mahomet went to the mountain via many soaked paper towels. I was in agony. It took a while to get most of the red antiseptic off and clear up any odoriferous zones. As I regained my composure and tried to relax the spasming mass that is otherwise known as my left arm, the ortho-tech came back and trimmed the ends of the sutures and explained that rest will eventually dissolve away.

Moments later, Dr. v.S arrived, he seemed content with the state of wound and applied some Steri-Strips. Only a week post-op and one of the three incisions for the arthroscope is almost invisible, the other two just look like deep papercuts, the larger incision doesn't look like it'll leave much of a scar either.

Then I got the recap we've all been waiting for:

the scapholunate ligament had a moderate/significant tear (but not a complete tear)

he cleaned it up and tightened up, hence the larger incision in addition to the arthroscopic slits

there was evidence of previous injury

"also other signs of wear and tear"

but "everything worked out beautifully"

That sounded pretty good to me, but when he also said I am susceptible to wrist-injury (Period.), I asked how likely it was that I might suffer a similar plight with my right hand, he said he hopes it never happens, but it's a much higher than average possibility.

Oh - and that horrible wrist-popping thing he did to me? It's a Watson's or Lichtman's "catch up clunk" test. He did it to my right hand and it didn't feel weird at all - a good sign, normally it's not an uncomfortable sequence. See this page for a battery of tests.

Next step: "FAT free for 5 weeks" Eh? Fingers-And-Thumb Free short-arm cast for until early-March. It's better than a thumb-spica that locks you into a thumbs-up pose, but I may have whined about the cast inhibiting wearing a proper coat or ski jacket... and that Ottawa is really cold. That got him on a mini-rant about how Ottawa is always cold... then, with no further prompting from me, the plan went from:
Plan A: 5 weeks FAT-free cast to
Plan B: 2-3 weeks FAT-free cast to
Plan C: 5 weeks in a splint, 23.5 hours a day (yay! normal showers!)

Unfortunately, when the Occupational Therapist (OT) tried to fit me for the stupidly-designed pull-over splint, I was in just too much pain and I couldn't get my hand through it... and when I finally could get it all the way on by the 4th agonizing try, I couldn't tolerate it being adjusted tightly enough to her satisfaction.

So back to Plans A and/or B, and I'm in a cast for a period of 3-to-5 weeks.

Feeling blue.

I ponied up for a fiber-glass cast, which means I can just fit it through the ravaged sleeve of my old ski-jacket, so I'm not going to freeze quite as much now. Still can't really wear a glove or mitt over my finger tips however.

During the brief time that Plan C was in motion, I mentioned driving... sadly, it was very strongly discouraged. I'm legal to drive, but he's is very concerned about torquing the wrist and that it would be in my best interest to stay grounded until he says so. And that applies even to driving an automatic.

But you know what they say; no pain - no narcotics.
wait a sec...

_{(I shall write about this on my 'blog!)}

First off, thanks to Beez'z suggestion, it's time to change the Twitter hashtag from #BustedWrist to #RepairedWrist, after all, we have the technology - we can rebuild him.

No Big Deal

0900: Arrive at Pre-Operative Care Unit. Nervous.

Not This Hand!

0932: Change into gown & housecoat. Anxious.

TWH Spa Stylin'

0951: seen by intake nurse, she takes pertinent info like weight, temperature, allergies, etc... Nervous wreck

Welch Allyn Connex® Vital Signs Monitor - it has a very dusty USB port... and makes me think of fruit juice!

1013: Lead to my lounge chair, chat with some other people waiting for their procedures. Keeping it together, mostly.

1021: anesthesiologist comes to discuss the procedure:

will sedate me somewhat for nerve block procedure

will knock me out for the main operation (yay!)

okay, ready? Let's go.

! (Panic!)

Leads me down the hall, past all the other ORs - where I peek in every window

Get to a pre-op procedure room where they have me lie down on a bed, attach monitors, start sterilizing my neck & shoulder while trying to start an IV, which she couldn't for a while. Finally she does and pushes "two" of midazolam which immediately ends all of my anxiety. Calm.

The anesthesiologist then began ultrasounding my neck and showing the medstudent how to locate the nerve bundle. I couldn't figure out the 2D display... They shot the nerve bundle up.
Sensation in the fingers faded almost immediately, but not completely. It took a good ten minutes for things to really go away. In that time they left me alone... So I started watching my vital signs on the monitor... And screwing with them - until I tripped an apnea alarm when I held my breath too long... I stopped experimenting after that. Then they came and checked on my because I was wiggling my feet in time with my heart beat. So they poked me with a pin. It still kinda hurt.

Dr v.S came in to say hi, asked me how my wrist was doing, I complained about how when he popped my wrist it really interfered with my ability to play guitar... He did it a few times to me but at that point I couldn't really feel much of it. His medstudent didn't seem to enjoy it when he did it to her though!

Minutes later they hoisted me onto another stretcher and wheeled me into the OR.

Can't feel a thing!

Next thing I knew they were putting a sling on me and Dr v.S was asking me where I live and when did I want to come back... He said the procedure went well. My arm was warm and in a cast, my brain was foggy but slowly coming online.

1305: I was wheeled up to recovery, where a nurse named Svetlana tended to me. I groggily explained that she shares her name with a brand of vacuum tube. I don't know why I felt the need to tell her that. I assume was the drugs.

1430: Dad comes and picks me up, gets me some really good drugs. I take some.

Hi!

1500: Back at hotel, laze around doing not much and watching TV

Vampire bites for nerve block

That's it.

I go back next week... I don't really know anything else!

"Does it pain?"

Holy crap only two days...!

It's crazy to think that after two and a half years, that it's just a scant 5 days away from (hopefully) the beginning of the end of my Busted Wrist saga...
Perhaps a fitting exclamation point completion to first month of 2012, here's a braindump.

MacPwn Dies - forever

It's put in many years of hard work, and while I need to replace it - it'd be stupid to do it now as Apple hasn't updated the hardware in almost 2 years! I expect they're waiting for Intel's Ivy Bridge chips to be ready. And to those of you saying I don't need a MacPro - sorry but no: accessorizing an iMac or Mini with adapters & converters & enclosures to the point that it could serve as a MacPro puts me pretty much on-budget for a MacPro... and wastes the LCDs I've got (DVI, not Tbolt!)

My Neighbourhood is Better Than Yours
Last week the 613 was finally embraced by winter's icy hold and dumped a pile of snow upon us. I dressed up and set out to clear as much snow as I could while my hand would let me - but it wasn't even 5 minutes before my neighbours to the south began yelling at me, "Mike! Stop! Don't hurt yourself! We'll have the snow blower going in a few minutes." I plowed on anyway, I need to get some upper-body exercise... Then the neighbour to the north ended up clearing the foot of my driveway - and then the city sent a front-end loaded down my street and it too all the snow away.

Snow Goes

Culinary Consumer Success!
And slightly further away, (and even moreso now), another neighbour - Hintonburger, has unofficially added my egg-free sammich to their menu, how awesome is that?!

Hildaburger w/Lettuce, Extra Pickles, Mustard

A New Friend
Siri and I are learning how to get along. The iPhone 4S is very nice update to my iPhone 3GS (Black, 32GB, it's for sale)

I'm sorry too, Siri.

And Old Friends
Lots of people are offering to make food and come dote on my while I recover - which is super beau youse! Even before the big slice, I was invited out and became the godfather of this fine dinner host.

Kitty!

Not Taking Photos
I put UnderExposure on hiatus just before I moved, and since then, I've done very little shooting. However, I've been quite actively engaging other photographers - yesterday I met with Paul Couvrette as result of some forum turmoil, and tomorrow night I've arranged a Flickr-Ottawa meet-up where we'll commence round II of our 'Crazy Collaborative Film Project' with my grandfather's Olympus OM1 camera and a roll of Ektachrome 100 slide film.
Incidentally - I've become quite adept at repairing a dislocated catch-spring on the Zuiko 135mm lens I've got for that camera, need to figure out a better permanent fix though.

A fun lens, also on my 5D MkII

New tube in the Tonelab

Even I think it's weird to be excited about a 'new' vacuum tube that's older than I am.

Because I love you all,



No eggs doesn't mean no bacon!

... Don't worry, it's not what you think. My right hand is fine. And pedantically-speaking, it's a loveseat, not a couch.
However, it has broken my heart; after a weekend of relentless shopping, I bought the loveseat pictured here on the left. It has the perfect level of cushy firmness, it's a great size and the colour really works with my room.

The Chelsea Chocolate Set

Unfortunately, while I was smart enough to measure if it would fit up the stairs of my house, I wasn't forward-thinking enough to check if it would fit through the door of my bedroom: It doesn't

I've already got two couches in my living room, I certainly didn't want a loveseat down there either. I have a huge bedroom and a perfect place for it... sadly it seems the only way it'll come in is if the door & casing are removed! (Granted, there've been discussions about replacing the door...)

Anyone want to buy a brand new loveseat? I'm so sad about it

Big day today... I arrived at the hospital in Toronto at 11AM this morning, registered and headed up to the Hand Clinic - where they promptly told me to go away until my appointment at 1PM! Anyway, I managed to derail that notion since I knew they wanted some X-Rays and figured I'd have to chill in radiology for a while anyway (... and I did.)

Incidentally, while we were doing the paperwork, I saw the letter Dr. L had sent, saying he'd "exhausted all possible treatments" and "(due to my) young age and extreme persistence for treatment" that Dr. vS should scope it. I won't hide my disdain for Dr. L, but I think that assertion was rather... overstated? Belligerent? Although saying anything to get on the wait list is fine by me at this point.

The wait in radiology's was an hour, then I was back up to the clinic, where I was seen by a resident immediately. He didn't say much except to express how baffling it was for me to have sustained such an injury at low speed (ie: not while skiing or motocross) - "you must be very strong" ... sure. He drew a few lines on the films, checked my grip strength, palpated and manipulated both my hands.

Dr. vS waltzed in, polite, confident, quick. Did some more manipulation and palpation while the resident droned on... the only thing I caught was "oh yeah, there's the DC" (??) and ulnar-side pain. And he did something really weird to pop my whole wrist that I'd never felt before and hope to never again. He highlighted the grip numbers and the wide difference.

Then he delivered the findings, and I quote:
"Well of the 3 kinds of scapholunate damage you can have, you've got the least bad. It's still really bad, but it's the easiest to fix." (best news ever?) (Merry Christmas?)

He then postulated if we had an MR we'd probably see volar damage to the scapholunate ligament... so I gave him the most recent MRI report (which reads "Evidence of injury to the volar and membranous components...") and I let him have his little victory lap

At that point he was set on performing an arthroscopy and plication repair of the ligament.

Just like that. ("Unfortunately you're going to have to do a lot of commuting.")


Other commentary:
- "80% chance of making it 80% better"
- "and if we don't make it any better, at least you'll finally have a diagnosis - for whatever that's worth." "and you've been waiting long enough"
- 6 weeks (!) in a cast then 6 more weeks (!!) in a splint

And just like that, the man of the hour was gone.

For the next half hour, the resident and I tediously went through all the paperwork and surgical checklists... but every now and then another resident would come in to look at my films, and then manipulate my hand... I asked why so many people were doing this and it turns out that word spreads fast in the ward when there's an interesting (who knew!) case on deck and they all wanted to see. Amusing, flattering and degrading all at the same time

The resident's tongue finally loosened, he said while it's a very rare injury, they deal with it all the time there and Dr. vS's success rate is VERY good and I have nothing to worry about.

Surgery is so soon! (January 23rd!)
My father will be retired by then so he can chauffeur me back to Ottawa the day after while I'm all coked up on whatever they give me. Or at least, that's my plan as of now...

It is hard to believe I'm going to be completely without my left hand (again) for almost 3 months, but as one of my friends said "Hey, at least there's a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel now." So true.

My business partner was less supportive: "huh, so I guess you weren't faking it."

Jerk.

Anyway - if I'm going to TRY skiing this winter, we'd better get some snow, and I'd better hit the slopes hard all before I lose what little function I have...

• Sweeten The Pig: To make a current offering even better
  
• Spacebid: To outbid oneself at auction
  
• Madness: $300
  
• QWOP: How to walk with a keyboard
  
• Herp a Derp - subsequently, Derping a Herp
  
• Paul can sing

For The Chillren

- Woke Up (I was cleaning till 2AM last night!)
- Rolled a whole bunch of clocks back & checked smoke detectors
- Brunch with the 'Rents (it's their 40th wedding anniversary!) at Sconewitch
- Bought paint
- Helped them paint some of my new house
- Had a friend help me move one of my couches in (... and we both have broken hands. It was comically pathetic.)
- Had my electrical work on my parent's kitchen reno inspected - and complimented
- Take-Out dinner from Hintonburger & Loblaws cake (it was the best present/thank you I could give 'em!)
- Met a bunch of my new neighbours; I'm in a cool 'hood with some cool peeps. (I'm so damn urban.)
- Wrist MRI at 1AM tonight

Tomorrow my new bed gets delivered
(This is probably the thing I am most excited about right now: Sleeping on it.)

I've had one person come check out the place, but while I'm waiting to see if that happens, you should know I'm still looking for a housemate.

The space:
- In Hintonburg
- Fully detached house with a yard suitable for lounging and using a BBQ
- Lease starts November 1st
- quiet street
- 2 bedroom (you get one, I get one)
- 2 parking spots (I need one, you can have one, or we can find someone else to rent it to)
- within walking distance to Bayview O-Train station
- within biking distance of downtown
- stone's throw from the Ottawa river
- forced-air Natural gas heat
- high-speed Internet included
- mostly furnished
- laundry on site (considering making a photography darkroom out of the space too!)
- freshly renovated kitchen

Me:
- 30 (and a third!) year old male
- Non-smoker, non-drinker, non-drug user
- Keep weird hours (think Pacific time.)
- travel a few days a month
- Will be maintaining an office (off the kitchen) where I will work and may need to entertain clients & business partners
- get & make a lot of phone calls
- have only a goldfish for a pet
- don't mind having a 4-legged friend around, but can't be responsible for my own - won't be responsible for yours
- play electric guitar and a lot of music - but I do own headphones
- do a lot of photography (Smile!)
- half-decent cook
- work on the computer a lot
- know how to respect your space, time and sleep
- am acting as the super/property manager
- occasionally have a friend or two over, but my door is not revolving, nor am I a party animal

You:
- need somewhere to rest your weary head
- have budgeted $600-$700/mo for rent
- don't smoke. period.
- are reliable and can clean up your own messes
- keep the doors locked
- need furniture or have it
- don't have raunchy all-night parties all the time
- could be male/female, black/white/green, vegan/vegatarian/Kangatarian, I don't care. You respect my choices, I'll respect yours.
- can handle the fact that the living room may have a Lego play area...