Thursday, July 21, 2011

21/4/11

Its been exactly a week since my last update, still have a sore arm and non-working fingers so not been doing anything exciting. Today turned out to be big though.

Set off for Kettering General Hospital this morning to get my stitches out and see what can be done about the fingers. Because there has been no progress I was referred to Leicester Royal Infirmary, they wanted to see me today. This itself caused problems because my dad couldn't get the afternoon off work and my friend who had very kindly driven me to the hospital isn't confident with big roads or cities so didn't want to drive to Leicester, so we ended up having an adventure on the train!

I then spent the afternoon being prodded and poked by various doctors, none of whom seemed to have any idea why my fingers don't work. I was a bit worried when not only were they googling for help they were using wikipedia! More x-rays too! Here's my x-ray...yes I was allowed to take it home, and I know there appears to be a bush growing in my arm!



The verdict of the day was, despite being told previously that I didn't, that I have damaged a nerve so the signal isn't getting through to my fingers to move (slightly bizarre as I still have full sensation!). Made more impressive by the fact that to reach the nerve the brake lever that originally impaled me must have passed several muscles, tendons and nerves without causing any damage whatsoever (hence the confusion as to why I'm broken!).

Because I don't live in Leicester I'm expecting a phone call tomorrow detailing an appointment at my local hospital on Monday. Have been told not to eat anything in the morning as there is a good chance I will be having surgery in the afternoon to repair the nerve.

That said, there are a lot of questions I need answering before I decide if I actually want this operation. I need to know risks of further damage, how likely it is to succeed and the recovery time amongst other things, because after all, as annoying as having some non-working fingers is, its not necessarily worth the operation to fix them!

Will update as usual when I hear anything!

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