I drove Carol to the Surgeon’s office this morning.  It was a week and a day since her operation where the trapezium bone was removed and permanently removes the pain of bone on bone that she had in her left thumb for years.  We thought it was to be a check up but the doctor felt it was time to remove the stitches and scheduled her for the pin holding his handiwork together to be removed in four weeks.  Serious rehabilitation will take place after that.

All this means that she will not be able to wet that pin (no hot pool at the Hospital) and our routine will revolve around cleaning the pin as it sticks from her hand and changing the dressings, holding her hand above her heart level and wearing a protective splint. Showering to keep that pin dry has become an interesting cooperative effort.  Did you know there is a plastic sleeve that covers wounded arms like Carol’s?

Healing is a variegated thing.  Our childhood bodies heal fast.  As we grow older it becomes more complicated and old age brings with it not only longer healing but bodies that are fragile and prone to bruising and, in Carol’s case, skin tears.  It was not noticed following her operation last week that someone had grabbed her arm to move her about and tore her skin.  They put a bandage on it and no one said anything or recorded the event until the rehab technician the next day saw it and wondered why that bandage was there.  It was taken off and we found that it was minimally repaired.  We have since found the old materials from a former rather large skin tear and now use them to protect the wound.

Carol and I thought that taking out the stitches would be a snipping of the knot and pulling each out with a tweezers.  As I noted above, the older we get the more our bodies change.  This became a painful experience for Carol and the Nurse was brand new and I don’t think she had done this before.  Even so, she used a scalpel to do the cutting and had to dig for the edges of the stitch in several places.  I saw how much she was hurting for the position was painful and there was no compassion from the Nurse.  I went over and held Carol’s other hand and none too soon it was over.

Right now the long road to rehabilitation has been shortened but the pain goes on.  We have a little ritual of asking what level the pain is from 1-10 where ten is highest.  Today, with the removal of the stitches Carol reported that the pain was again, like right after the operation, a 12.  All in all, we are doing O.K.  Each day she gets stronger and we hope to celebrate Passover on both Saturday and Sunday.

So, our wishes go out to all for a Happy Passover.