Frakenfinger Unveiled

The last 10 days were pretty long ones and I had been counting the days down to Tuesday, the day the stitches would be removed. As I sat there waiting in the doctor's office, I wondered how the ole finger would look and feel afterwards. It was as I thought - a most wonderful feeling. The stitches were pretty tight and had been pulling the skin so removing them was almost liberating, if you will, and was such a great feeling. I'm glad my finger can now get back to normal. I have it wrapped with some thin vet wrap, just to help keep the swelling down a bit and to protect it, at least for a few more days. Dr. Joseph suggested that I "baby" it for the next few days. Now, how in the heck do you "baby" a finger that you need to use?

Anyway, as Dr. Joseph bid me farewell after the office visit, I told him that I had termed my finger "Frankenfinger", thanks to my friend Heather who called it that herself. It's got so many scars on it so that it truly is a Frankenfinger. Unfortunately, Dr. Joseph didn't see the humor in my comment. Those darn specialists are so dry, aren't they? But they do excel at their specialty, thank goodness!

Anyway, here is an excerpt from the Operative Report that the good Doctor gave me before I left his office.

"Patient taken to the operating room and given 1 gm Ancef IV. General anesthesia was induced without complications. Standard prep and drape. Extremity was exsanguinated. Tourniquet was inflated to 250 mmHg.

Using 3.5-loupe magnification, previously marked mass about the lateral aspect of the left ring finger was identified and approached through a 3-cm longitudinal incision incorporating the previous incision. A very ill-defined vascular lesion was identified. This was excised. A large part of the lesion was underneath the middle phalanx. This was unroofed. The mass was excised. The area was agressively curetted down to bleeding bone. All involved tissue was removed. Dense scar tissue was removed. Some excess skin and scar tissue was removed converting the incision to more of an elliptical incision. The defect underneath the middle phalanx was again curetted, irrigated, electrocauterized and packed with a small amount of Gelfoam soaked in 0.5% plain Marcaine. The area all around the dissection was electrocauterized with the hopes of further preventing recurrence of the vascular tumor.

The skin incision was then meticulously closed with interrupted 5-0 nylon. Proximal block with 0.5% plain Marcaine was performed. A sterile compressive dressing and dorsal split were applied. Tourniquet was released.

The patient tolerated the procedure well and was transferred to the recovery room in stable condition."

I don't know or understand alot of the medical jargon, but I do believe it sounds like my finger received an overhaul. And who's finger doesn't need one of those?

Interesting thing about the Marcaine, (I looked it up) which is a local anesthetic. It is often used in dental procedures and obstetrics. One of the doseages I received (0.5%) is commonly used for epidurals. And my finger received two of those! This might explain why it was numb for three days solid. The doctor told Kim (who was in the waiting room waiting to take me home) that he "shot it full of Novocaine" (same thing) and he wasn't kidding.

All in all, I'm so glad it is over. I hope the "thing" that grows inside doesn't reappear anytime soon as I don't want to go through that again, at least not for quite some time!

Frankstein's Bride?

Well, for those who didn't know, I had minor outpatient surgery on my finger last Friday, under general anesthesia nonetheless. It was to remove a cyst from my left ring finger. It is a recurring problem as this is the third time I've had this surgery to remove cysts (one doctor even termed it a "forming thrombus") and then there was one additional procedure in the office to remove a piece of gauze the second surgeon accidentally left in my finger during that surgery. Errgh!! So, four times the poor finger has been cut on. The last is probably the most prominent incision, thus far. I can only imagine how the scar will look but at least the cyst is gone for now and won't cause me anymore pain when I use that hand to grab or lift anything.

The photo above is with the bandages put on post-op. The last thing the nurse said to me was "this will make you sleepy" and the next thing was "how are you feeling?". It was quite strange - I don't recall the last procedure (10 years ago) going quite so smoothly. For one, I could hear the surgeon explaining to a colleague that the tendon in my finger looked like the tendon in a chicken wing. I kid you not. I think the anesthesia then was the "twilight state". Obviously, not the most desirable if the doctor and staff are going to be comparing your tendons to those of a chicken! I much prefer general anesthesia to spare me from the operating room banter!

The picture above is after I removed the bandages. It's Day 5 and they said I could take them off today. I couldn't wait to get home from work to do it! My finger was feeling quite claustrophobic, to say the least. It has now been set free - free at last! The incision is about an inch and a half long and has seven stitches that I can see. Those come out on Tuesday. Yeppie!! And the finger is a bit swollen still and is VERY sore, especially underneath it. It's still a bit numb underneath up toward the tip. I anticipate that will go away with time!

Obviously I can type which is good. I think I would go bonkers if I couldn't do email or any computer work during this healing period. I don't think there will be any rehab or anything like that. I can move the finger just fine and I imagine once it is healed completely, I'll be able to start working on bending it!

In the interim, I hope Frankenstein doesn't want to take me as his bride! (I guess it could be alot worse and I should be thankful I still have my finger, huh?)