Sweet Grace & Danger

I haven't posted for a few days. Why? Because I managed to trap or bruise a nerve in my left shoulder and it's ruined my sleep patterns, waking me up at all hours of the night and thus causing me to feel very tired and not a little grumpy. Last night I slept all night (well, until 5 a.m. which is good). My hand is continuing to heal well, still pretty painful if I attempt to use it, which I shouldn't but sometimes a chap just can't help it. I have no arthritic pain in what's left of that joint at all - so looking good then.

I have always loved rock music and guitar playing in particular. Recently a mate of mine brought to my attention the sad demise of Davy Graham - a folk artist with whom I was not really familiar, at least that's what I thought until I checked out his website and listened to some of his stuff at which point I discovered that he was familiar to me, I just didn't know it. Of course a lot of the people that were/are my musical heroes have had personal demons to battle in their lives and often this has brought about an early death. Yesterday one of the real greats left us. If you want to know why musicians battle those demons check this out:



Thanks John.

Current Pain Rating: 3

The Human Body is a Wonderful Thing

Here we are roughly three weeks post op the scar is fading fast and the hairs are growing back.




I still have to wear the splint most of the time, but I am allowed to remove it to 'air' the surgery site for up to two hours a day. Still getting some weird sensations and minor pain from inside the joint, presumably this is where scar tissue is forming. It's still pretty painful if (by mistake) I move it, but things are well on the mend.

Blinking shoulder is giving me trouble still, but what the hey, it seems to be improving slowly.

Next hurdle? The codeine habit. Oh joy!

Current Pain Rating: 1 for the thumb and 4 for the shoulder makes 5.

The Ladies of the Orchestra

Last night my pals from the band came round to visit. Fantastic guys, all of 'em and I love 'em to bits. Geoffrey gave me a big hairy kiss (no tongues) when he arrived - lovely, lovely man. I still have a slight tumescence. We had a good old chat and before long decamped to the local pub. I think we probably multiplied their takings for the evening 10-fold! Anyway, if you read this guys, thanks for coming to see me, the hangover wasn't too bad at all.

The hand is much the same today - it's not good to take the splint off, but otherwise healing just fine. My shoulder kept me up again last night but seems to be getting better, probably because of the mountain of ibuprofen that I have gotten through today.

Current Pain Rating: 3

Minor Disaster

My hand is healing well - not a great deal of pain at all as long as I keep the splint on. The orthotics operative at the hospital that made the splint told me that I could take it off for up to 2 hours a day if I want to. I don't want to. It feels SO weird if I do - oddly, just like someone has chopped out my thumb joint. And the slightest knock or twist is still very painful. I'm guessing that this is because there is scar tissue forming in the void where the trapezium used to be.

The problem today is that I seem to have trapped or bruised a nerve in my left shoulder. This is causing me quite a lot of pain even when the arm is static. Any regular folks out there who might wear a tennis shoe or an occasional python boot and have experienced this exquisite little inconvenience know just how painful it can be.

Consequently, I have been awake most of the night and currently feel quite zombiefied. Despite my best attempts not to disturb Mrs. Thrasher, I'm afraid I did and the poor thing has had to go to work feeling rather sleepy.

I'm hoping that this is the low spot of the whole experience, but there is physiotherapy to come yet.

Current Pain Rating: 3 for the hand and 7 for the shoulder makes 10.

Progress

Today I went and had my stitches out - like this:

Step 1: remove the outer layer of post operative dressings



Step 2: remove the inner layer of post operative dressing



and voila, the wound is exposed in all it's glory along with the (extremely neat) stitches - thanks Mr. Clarke



Step 3: remove stitches (repeat 7 times)



Step 4: add 1 small dressing and 1 large splint and don't move thumb for another 4 weeks.

I have to say that it was all completely painless apart from when the woman that made the splint squeezed my thumb a little too hard. Of course I just HAD to have a tentative wiggle of the joint in the car on the way home. By Golly I wish I hadn't - it is really quite tender.

Nice neat job though eh?

Current Pain Rating: 3

You Won't Feel a Thing..............

Today the stitches come out and I get some new kind of dressing/splint and possibly start physiotherapy too. Slightly nervous about stitches coming out, but looking forward to having this huge lump of bandages, steel and plaster removed. I'll let you know how it goes.

Current Pain Rating: 4

Chairman of the Bored

BORED!
I am bored, despite the tasks that Mrs Thrasher has set me, there are still vast swathes of the day that are empty. Granted there is the TV, but how many old romantic comedies or episodes of the Jeremy Kyle show can one man stomach. In the latter case, the answer is one half!

My hand seems to be doing OK - looking forward to having the stitches removed on Monday. Most of the pain now would appear to be post operative - I can definitely tell someone has been at me with an osteotome and I think that I may also have the biggest paper cut you ever did see (at least it feels that way).

Current Pain Rating: 4

It's All a Bit Boring Really

Not much to report at the moment I'm afraid. The hand seems a little better - the spasms seem to have calmed down a lot, but now I can really feel where they have sliced through the flesh. Uncomfortable, but not unbearable.

At least I have something to look forward to - a short break in Sweden with Cath. We will visit friends in Vasteras then have a night on a farm style B&B with a sleighride. The following day, it's off to the local wildlife park to tease the wolverines.

This type of wolverine










not this type - even I wouldn't be daft enough to pull faces at one of these!











Current Pain Rating: 6

Once More Into the Void.

At least one reader has expressed slight confusion at what has actually happened to my thumb joint.

Righto then, inside the wrist/thumb joint there are several bones, one of which is called the trapezium and looks like this:

In my poor old hand, this bone had become deformed due to the action of osteo-arthritis, a nasty little disease that attacks bone causing it to develop 'spurs' and also holes in the bone. There are several ways of dealing with this from the medical practitioners point of view, in the early stages supportive splints can bring relief from the pain. Later on in the progress of the disease injections of steroids into the synovial capsule of the joint can reduce swelling and give relief. I had around three years of these treatments (hypodermic right through the back of the hand anyone? I thought not!) Eventually the medic/patient may opt for surgery to remove the troublesome bone.

Again there are several possible methods of doing this, some of which involve replacing the trapezium with cartilage harvested from somewhere else in the body or even inserting metal pins to hold things together. In my case the consultant used a technique which removes the trapezium bone and leaves a void where it used to be. This void naturally fills with scar tissue and the joint (after much physiotherapy) returns to around 90 - 95 % of it's original strength and mobility. Plenty enough for those overdriven Chuck Berry licks then although I was warned that I would probably never be able to emulate the styles of Mr. Vai or Mr. Satriani. So you see, there are some VERY positive aspects to the whole thing.

So, to sum up here are before and after x-rays - not mine I hasten to add - the medical profession regard any data about, or surplus parts of ones body as their own - they wouldn't even give me the bone to make a necklace out of. In fairness, this was because they didn't actually take it out in one nice hit like in the video at the beginning of this blog, rather removing it in little bits with a chisel.









Now ya see it................ Now ya don't.

Got that? There will be a test next week.

Current Pain Rating: 6

Poppa Has Been on a Small Vacation Honey.................

Howdy folks,

Here we are back in the land of the living and feeling pretty good. I had the operation at about 2:00 on Tuesday afternoon and for some reason it took almost twice as long as they expected (big hands?) They gave me a nice side room off the ward all to myself.

Contrary to what they had told me, the anaesthetist decided that I would have a general as opposed to a local anaesthetic. His polite teutonic explanation of the reason for this was 'You are a strong man', which I took to mean that they didn't want me thrashing round the theatre if they accidentally touched a nerve in the site of the surgery. My concern was that I get out of the place ASAP and he said that I would still be able to go home the same day. OK bud, you got yourself a deal!

After the deed was done they wheeled me back to my room where Cathy and Jamie were waiting to take the obligatory photo. I felt pretty good but looking at the photo, I think I may have been just a tad bolloxed! What do you think?

After several successful rounds of vital signs observations, they let me out at around 8:15 in the evening, supplying me with a pack each of Voltarol, Tramadol and pure Codeine. By 9:15, believe me, I was in no pain whatsoever and was the owner of a splendidly fashioned sling support (made from a mic stand) and a very satisfied facial expression.

Sleeping the first night was a bit of a no-no, just too much pain despite throwing as many opiates as I dared down my neck. Yesterday too was pretty painful and I spent the day in a bit of a haze, not really doing much at all.

Last night after a day guzzling painkillers, I slept really well, only one incident at around midnight where I had some kind of spasm in the altered thumb. Now that did hurt, but as soon as it stopped I was able to get back to sleep and stay that way until 10 this morning.

Currently, I have a big splint and heavy bandaging and all is quite comfortable - so much so that I have not needed to take any pain relief at all today.

Looking good then.

Current Pain Rating: 4

Zero Minus Three Hours and Counting.....

What a lovely day for some hot bone saw activity. Feeling quite chipper and ready for the off. Not allowed to drink anything but water just in case I have to have a general anaesthetic (nuts to that).
Thanks to the many people that have called and/or left messages of good will and support. I'm sure everything will be just dandy.
Nobody recognises my nice engine then?
I may even post back later if I feel up to reporting.
Watch this space.

Current Pain Rating: 9

Playlist

For those of a musical bent, here is the playlist for the MP3 player during the surgery. Yes, I know I said it was going to be all Motorhead, but one must meddle with one's mind properly, not just bash it until it submits (well not always anyway).

Current Pain Rating: 5

Pustulence, Prime Movers and a Plantagenet

Well, today I woke up feeling just fine and dandy. A little pre-occupied with tomorrow's surgery, but pretty cool about it at the moment. That may well change when I get to the hospital.

Hospitals freak me out, I guess I'm not the only one, but I REALLY don't like them. It wouldn't be so bad if they could guarantee some modicum of cleanliness but they can't. I suppose it must be really difficult - whose idea was it to put all the sick people in the same place anyway? I guess I ought to be thankful really, they have saved my life twice in the last few years, but going in voluntarily is a whole different ball game. Still, it has to be done so onward and upward dear hearts, onward and upward.

Now then, I don't have a nice picture for you today, so, to make a change from nice pictures of nice nature subjects, here is a nice computer animation of one of my favourite nice engines. Oh for a big f**k off motorboat with a pair of these beauties in it.

First one to correctly identify this well known engine configuration wins a rubber nose.

Last night I got a phone call from a dear friend/distant relative who put it all into perspective for me by pointing out that King Edward the Second had it much worse when:

'On the night of 11 October while lying in on a bed [the king] was suddenly seized and, while a great mattress weighed him down and suffocated him, a plumber's iron, heated intensely hot, was introduced through a tube into his secret private parts so that it burned the inner portions beyond the intestines.'

Yep, he's right - a little hand surgery really isn't going to be too bad - especially with modern anaesthetics. Bring it on then.

Current Pain Rating: 6

Tree Hugger

You probably didn't know (and don't tell my band), but I am a big fan of trees. My pal Chris at work is the same - likes a good tree. Yesterday Cath and I went out for a 'nice and easy' winter walk around the village of Upottery. Turns out that Cath's reading of 'nice and easy' is not quite the same as mine, and had the weather not been so cold, we would have been ankle deep in mud for a good quarter of the walk. As it was, we were slipping off the tops of frozen muddy ruts forged by the local tractor enthusiasts. It made me a tad grumpy.

Anyway, the point is that we saw this wonderful tree. I have rendered the photo in black and white in a pitiful attempt at 'artiness' (actually it looks much better in black and white than it does in colour). If you look really carefully, you can see the face of Jesus in the branches. Did you realise that you can click on these wee images to see the bigger version?

Only two days now until the operation - good grief, what on earth is that going to be like? I must do my best to get them to administer a nice strong sedative intravenously. One thing you can say for the NHS is that they have some powerful good medicine in their secret cupboards. Getting them to administer it is a whole different ball game mind. This time I intend to lie to them until I am completely comfortable - i.e. stoned right off me tits.

I actually turned down an invitation to a party/jam session at one of the best local musicians gaffs last night - no way I can even think about playing guitar at the moment, so I would have been stood around hammering the red wine and inwardly thinking about how much better I could play than the others (it's just something musos do, we can't help it and are often wrong, but there it is!) Not a great idea.

Today, it is a lot warmer here and my hand seems a bit less painful so:

Current Pain Rating: 9

Cold,Cold,Cold.

I didn't post yesterday 'cos my hand was bothering me too much and I didn't have a pretty picture to use either. Today, I expected less pain, but the temperature here dropped to -7 last night and is still sub-zero. This seems to have made the old mitt much more painful - on the verge of tears really (yes, I know - what a wimp).

Anyway - the cold left lovely patterns of ice crystals on our sun-room windows.

The op is getting close now - Tuesday is the big day. Do you think I should shave my own wrist?

Current Pain Rating: 12

The Future

I have had a message from the future telling me that all will be well. That's good then.

Last night I attempted to fit my lovely old Les Paul in with Catherines steel band.

Not too easy - they all read music while they are playing and don't improvise at all. I don't read music and improvise most of the time. Strangely, not one of them could tell me what key any of their tunes were in.

Today I pay the price - I can barely move my left thumb.

Ouch!

Current Pain Rating: 10