Skip to main content

My left hand disaster


Friday was a hard day.  It was the day I had been waiting for since my surgery... to get my cast off and find out what was done to my hand.  My arm was itchy from the cast and I couldn't wait to have relief.  When I got there, the medical assistant cut the cast off and removed my stitches and almost immediately I wanted the cast back on. My arm started to have spasms and the pain was horrible. I got really light headed and nauseous then ended up laying down on the bed.  I started to cry because my arm felt dead, I couldn't lift it and I had no feeling in my thumb.  The doctor came in, laughing, and I started asking questions...What was done? How long will the pain last? Will I get the feeling back in my thumb? The answer to every question was "I don't know." I burst into tears again and went to OT to get a new brace made.  I cried while I walked over there, mostly because of disappointment but also because of pain and the fact that I had to use my other arm to hold it up.  They made me a brace to support my wrist and a separate one for my fingers.  As soon as I left, the one on my fingers just slid off.  There was no way for it to stay on my hand.
It's been 4 days and I still cant take the brace off and hold my arm up on my own. The pain is unbearable and my fingers and wrist just curl up again. My next step is a second opinion to see if what was done was a mistake and more damage was done.  I am scared of what my hand will be like in the future but all I can do is hope and pray that someday it will be normal again. 

The Dystance4Dystonia 5k race/fun walk will be held in Nashua, NH at Mine Falls Park on May 2, 2020. Thank you for your support and I hope to see you all there.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dystonia awareness

Some days its hard to find the words to explain what dystonia feels like. It's invisible to most people, yet it shapes every hour of my day quietly, persistently and often painfully. I don't share this because I want sympathy, I share it because awareness matters and too many people still don't know what dystonia is, let alone how much it can affect someones life. Dystonia affects my hands, feet, back and neck. My hands ache as though they've been gripping something for hours, even when they're resting. My neck strains as if theres a weight hanging from it and no amount of stretching helps. My feet cramp and curl making sonething as simple as standing still feel like a test of endurance. I've grown stronger in ways I never expected. Ive learned patience, determination and resilience. Ive learned to celebrate small victories, like waking up with a little less stiffness or being abke to open a jar of spaghetti sauce. Im sharing this because I want people to under...

update on Dystonia and Family

I have been doing as well as could be expected.  I am back in Florida so it's nice to be with Ryan.  Although I am still upset about the whole thing, I am trying hard to smile and not let it show.  The spasms have returned and have gotten worse since the DBS was removed.  When I suck on a piece of candy or ice, my throat tightens up.  It's very scary but Im hoping it won't get any worse.  My neck also twitches sometimes and my foot spasms have come back.  My hand is curled in but if I think about it, I can straighten my wrist (not my fingers).  The most upsetting part is that I was just looking at pictures of myself the day after DBS and I had a huge smile on my face because I had made it through and then a couple weeks later there was a picture of my hand open.  I had never been so excited as I was that day.  I had so much in my head that I wanted to do now that I could use my hand and most of it involved Hailey.  Hailey helped me ...

Why be normal?

For the last 17 years my hand has slowly been getting destroyed. Its been closed, open, dislocated fingers, and eventually everything about it was deformed. My first hand treatment was casting my fingers open but with dystonia this usually doesnt work. It was one of the worst pains I ever experienced and I had to go back and have the cast cut off that night. I had my first hand surgery in 2019 to "fix" some of the damage that was done from my dystonia. Little did I know that would turn into many more surgeries trying to relieve my discomfort and my anxiety of having a deformed hand. I wanted it to look normal so bad. I was so embarrased by how my fingers looked that I always had my hand in a sweatshirt pocket so I could hide it from the world. I never mind sharing my story to spread awareness but how embarrasing is it to drop groceries everytime you try to shop, or struggle to pick your toddler up. Over the last couple years I started seeing a new hand doctor that my mother...