Recovering from Ulnar Surgery
Posted by Mom at 3:57pm in Ulnar Transposition Surgery / Cubital TunnelI am back with a big scar and a cast on! The surgery was Thursday at 8 a.m. The actual surgery took over two hours. While in pre-op, the anesthesiologist gave me a nerve block to assist with post-op pain relief.
My husband had me home by noon, and my pain level was never above a 4 that day. For those of you who are blessed to have never had surgery or been to a hospital, I am referring to the method health care practitioners use to determine pain severity. Here is one: Pain Scale
My favorite is the Wong-Baker pain scale for Pediatric patients. We first saw this in the local ER when our daughter needed stitches.
FACES From Hockenberry MJ, Wilson D, Winkelstein ML: Wong’s Essentials of Pediatric Nursing, ed. 7, St. Louis, 2005, p. 1259.
So you see….a 4 on this scale is not so bad. I was still able to crack stupid jokes with the kids.
Unfortunately, I did experience extreme nausea and vomiting from the anesthesia. Thankfully, compazine and time helped that side effect go away.
I saw the doctor yesterday morning, and he took off my cast. I am shocked that the cast only stayed put for one day. The doctor said it was because he was putting me to work with arm exercises. JOY! Seriously, this is good because if I follow them as directed and recover well, I will not have to go to physical therapy.
Surprisingly, I am feeling good for having an 8-inch incision on the back of my arm. My surgeon did not use staples or stitches on the outside. Instead, he does tiny stitches on the inside so that the two flaps of skin meet and the scar that is left behind is very thin.
I am able to open and close my fingers, and move my arm slightly. The Vicodin is managing my pain very well. The nerve block finally wore of this morning, and for the first time in 2 years, I do not feel ANY numbness in my pinky or ring fingers. That alone makes all the pain worth it! With my husband’s help, I was able to take a shower this morning. We took off the ace bandage and put my arm into a plastic bag to help keep it dry.
Oh, I installed voice-recognition software last week so I do not have to type much. The initial training of the software was a pain, but it works rather well. Ok….off to rest.
